USA - Texas. LeJames Norman, 40, Black, was executed on September 16

September 16, 2026 - Texas. LeJames Norman, 40, Black, was executed on September 16 at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Norman pleaded guilty to the 2005 fatal shootings of three people in Edna, Texas, during a botched drug robbery. He was then sentenced to death in the fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, while looking for cocaine inside their home in Texas. 

His co-defendant, Ker’Sean Ramey, was also sentenced to death for the killings and is scheduled for execution next week, on Sept. 23.

Norman was executed by lethal injection and pronounced deceased at 6:44 p.m., according to the Texas Department of Justice. He had no final statement before he was executed, a department spokesperson said.

In 2005, Norman and Ker’sean Olajuwa Ramey broke into a neighbor’s home in Edna intending to steal cocaine, according to court records. The two then got into an altercation with the occupants of the home and killed Celso Lopez, Tiffani Peacock and Sam Roberts. While Norman initially fled to Mexico after the killings, he was apprehended by Border Patrol when he re-entered the country and subsequently cooperated with police, including by testifying at Ramey’s trial.

Norman pleaded guilty in his trial in 2008 and was sentenced to death. In the years after, he filed several appeals through state and federal courts arguing that there were issues with how his trial was conducted. In his most recent petition, filed to the Supreme Court on Monday, Norman argued that prosecutors misrepresented facts between his and Ramey’s trial to make Norman seem more culpable for the killings.

The Supreme Court rejected the petition and a request for a stay of execution Wednesday afternoon.

Norman becomes the 5th execution in Texas this year and the 601st since Texas resumed executions in 1982. Norman is the 26th person to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,680th overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977.