George Hopper, a hitman convicted of killing a woman in a murder-for-hire scheme...

George Hopper, a hitman convicted of killing a woman in a murder-for-hire scheme, apologized for his crime as he lay strapped to a gurney awaiting the lethal injection, the fourth execution this year in Texas. Hopper, 49, was the 340th person executed since 1982 in Texas, the leading death penalty state. He was condemned for the murder of Rozanne Gailiunas on October 4, 1983, in a hit arranged by the jealous wife of a man Gailiunas was dating. Prosecutors said Hopper bound Gailiunas, 33, to a bed in her Dallas area home, then strangled her and shot her twice in the head. He received $1,500 for the hit, they said. In a final statement while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber, Hopper apologized for the crime.
"I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. The things I did changed so many lives. I can't take it back, it was an atrocity. I am sorry," he said.