USA - Texas. Reginald Perkins was executed

Reginald Perkins was executed for the Dec. 4, 2000, robbery and strangulation of his stepmother, Gertie Mae Perkins, 64, black. A Tarrant County jury had sentenced him on March 18, 2002 (see). A DNA database tied Perkins last year to the 1991 stranglings of Shirley Douglas, 44, and her aunt, Hattie Wilson, 79. Authorities say he was involved in 3 other murders. Perkins, 53, black, becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year and the 426th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Perkins becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1141st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.