TEXAS (USA): PABLO LUCIO VASQUEZ EXECUTED

Pablo Lucio Vasquez, 38, Hispanic, was executed.
He had been sentenced to death in Hidalgo County on March 30, 1999 in the April 19, 1998 murder of a 12 years old boy, David Cardenas, Hispanic, in order to rob him of a gold ring and a necklace. When asked if he had a final statement before his lethal injection, Vasquez looked at some of the victim's relatives and apologized. "This is the only way that I can be forgiven, you got your justice right here." Vasquez's attorneys had said in the past that he had an intellectual disability. In a filing last month, an attorney argued that Vasquez had shown that he was mentally ill, writing that Vasquez had told a detective about hearing voices urging him to kill the boy and "drink, drink" the boy's blood. Vasquez becomes the 6th inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 537th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Vasquez becomes the 11th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1433rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.