Texas executes oldest inmate on death row
The oldest prisoner on death row in the US state of Texas has been executed although he claimed he was wrongly convicted of killing four men in 1983.
Lester Bower, 67, was executed on Wednesday after spending over three decades on death row trying to halt his capital punishment.
He was pronounced dead after being given a lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, according to a prison official.
Bower, a former chemical salesman with two children, became the oldest death row inmate put to death in Texas since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
"Much has been said about this case. Much has been written about this case. Not all of it has been the truth," Bower was quoted as saying in a last statement while strapped to the death chamber gurney. "But the time for discerning truth is over and it's time to move on."
Only one other executed prisoner in Texas served more time on death row than Bower.
He was found guilty of killing four men in 1983 in a deal for a $4,000 ultra-light airplane that went bad. Investigators said they found parts from the airplane at Bower's residence.
In an interview published this week in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Bower, who had no criminal record prior to his arrest, said he did not commit the crimes and was wrongly convicted.
Texas has executed 526 people since 1976, the most of any state.
The use of lethal injection to execute prisoners in the US has been condemned by international human rights organizations as a dark point in America’s poor human rights record.
AHT/AGB
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