in Huntsville, Ronald Ray Howard was executed for fatally shooting a state trooper

in Huntsville, Ronald Ray Howard was executed for fatally shooting a state trooper, a slaying his trial attorneys argued was prompted by Howard listening to anti-police rap music. Howard, 32, a black man, was executed for gunning down Officer Bill Davidson, 43, white, on April 11, 1992. At the time of the April 1992 shooting, Howard was 18-year-old, father of four, and was on probation for burglary.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Howard's death sentence in 1996 because a potential juror improperly was eliminated from the jury pool. At a second trial in Corpus Christi in 1999, Howard again was sentenced to die.
Howard becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 42nd in the USA.