Johnny Ray Conner, 32, became the 400th condemned inmate Texas...

Johnny Ray Conner, 32, became the 400th condemned inmate Texas has put to death since executions resumed in 1982.
The total is by far the highest among states with the death penalty.
Conner received a lethal injection just after 6 p.m. in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville.
Conner was sentenced to die for the 1998 shooting death of a store clerk: Kathyanna Nguyen, 49.
She was murdered during a robbery.
A customer also was shot, but survived, and helped identify Conner.
The execution came just days after the European Union asked Gov. Rick Perry to halt executions and declare a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.
In a statement released yesterday, the Portuguese EU presidency said the bloc viewed with "great regret" the upcoming executions and urged Texas Governor Rick Perry to halt them and consider a moratorium on the death penalty.
"We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights. We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhumane," Lisbon stated on behalf of the EU.
"There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice - which are inevitable in all legal systems – cannot be redressed."
Perry didn’t heed the request.
Perry’s spokesman Robert Black said: "230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens.
While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state, and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."
Shortly after the execution, René van der Linden, President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), and as such representing a 47-nation "death-penalty-free zone" in Europe, said: "This 400th execution is a macabre milestone in the state's history".
Texas Governor Rick Perry's reply to the EU appeal was unacceptable, he said. "The death penalty is not, as Governor Perry put it, 'a just and appropriate punishment'. Death is not justice and never will be."
"Despite the potential unpopularity of the measure, capital punishment must be totally removed in all countries which strive to uphold democracy, the rule of law and human rights", he added.
Mr van der Linden finally recalled that, as a country with observer status in the Council of Europe, the United States is violating the commitment of all observers to share the Council's basic values. Following his statement concerning Texas, van der Linden today also strongly condemned the execution of 3 death row inmates in Japan.
Texas resumed executing inmates—using lethal injection—on Dec. 7, 1982, when Charlie Brooks was executed.
Conner becomes the 21st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 101st condemned inmate to be put to death after being sentenced to death in Harris County.
Conner becomes the 161st condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became Governor of Texas in 2001. The figure represents the most executions carried out during the tenure of any single state governor in American history.
Conner becomes the 35th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1092nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Texas has 10 more executions scheduled in 2007.