USA - Texas. Robert Lee Thompson was executed

Thompson executed after Gov. Perry rejects panel's advice. Robert Lee Thompson was executed. Thompson, 34, black, had been sentenced to death for his part in the 1996 killing of Mansoor Rahim, a convenience store clerk. Thompson claimed he was not the shooter, but a Harris County jury sentenced him to death under the state’s so-called law of parties, which holds accomplices as responsible for a murder as the person who does the actual killing. The triggerman, Sammy Butler, was sentenced to life in prison after prosecutors failed to prove he intended to kill Rahim. Thompson’s case marked the 4th time the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that a death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Perry has voluntarily commuted only 1 death sentence in his tenure as governor. (see Robert Smith, March 11, 2004). "After reviewing all the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of (Rahim), I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime," Perry said in a written statement. Thompson becomes the 23rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 446th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Thompson becomes the 48th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1184th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.