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TEXAS (USA): JOHN GARDNER EXECUTED
January 19, 2020: John Gardner, 64, White, was executed in Texas on 15 January 2020.
Gardner received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the January 2005 slaying of Tammy Gardner. Prosecutors said the couple was getting divorced when Gardner broke into his wife’s home and shot her. She died two days later at a hospital.
Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Gardner, strapped to the death chamber gurney, turned his head and apologized several times to his wife’s son, daughter and mother, who watched through a window a few feet away. Shortly after the lethal dose of the pentobarbital began, Gardner took 3 deep breaths and then began snoring. Within seconds, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. CST, 16 minutes later.
Gardner becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 568th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Gardner becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,513th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. Last year, 22 inmates were executed in the U.S., with nine inmates being put to death in Texas, the most of any state. (Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, 15/01/2020)
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