Houston (AFP) – A Texas man was executed on Wednesday for the 1997 murder of a woman who was jogging in her Houston neighborhood, one of two executions scheduled this week in the United States. Arthur Lee Burton, 54, was put to death via lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, and pronounced dead at 6:47 pm Central time (2347 GMT), officials from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
Separately, the western state of Utah is scheduled to carry out an execution overnight, its first in 14 years. Taberon Honie, 48, is to be put to death shortly after midnight Mountain Time (0600 GMT Thursday) for the 1998 murder and sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend’s mother. Honie is to be executed by lethal injection at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City. Utah’s last execution was carried out by firing squad in 2010.
Burton, the death row inmate in Texas, was convicted of the July 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman, a mother of three who was attacked while out jogging. Adleman was strangled with her own shoelaces. Burton’s lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court to stay his execution, but the request was denied without comment. His attorneys had argued that Burton should be constitutionally exempt from being put to death because he is intellectually disabled.
“To all the people I have hurt and caused pain, I wish we didn’t have to be here at this moment, but I want you to know that I am sorry for putting y’all through this,” Burton said in his final statement.
Including Burton, Texas has carried out three executions since January and there have been 11 in the United States this year so far. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) have moratoriums in place.
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