Convicted drug trafficker Juan Raul Garza was executed by US authorities today in the second federal execution in almost 40 years.
"I just want to say that I am sorry and I apologise for all the pain and grief that I have caused. I ask for your forgiveness and God bless," the 44-year-old said before he was given the lethal cocktail of chemicals that ended his life.
The Mexican-American drug dealer and convicted murderer was pronounced dead at 12.09 GMT, according to Mr Harley Lappin, the warden of the US penitentiary here.
No members of his family were on hand to witness his death; they plan to hold a private burial for him in Brownsville, Texas, at a later date, according to family members.
Although Garza's execution came just over a week after Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's, there was none of the media attention that marked that occasion.
Garza was sentenced to die in 1993 for murdering one man and ordering hits on two others linked to a Brownsville marijuana drug ring.
His lawyers tried to make the case that had he not been a Latino and not been prosecuted in Texas, he might have been able to save his life with a plea bargain agreement; the federal death penalty has been heavily criticised for being ethnically biased.
But yesterday, Garza's last hope, the US Supreme Court, rejected two separate appeals by his attorneys, and the White House announced that President George W Bush had denied Garza's request for clemency.
AFP