USA - Texas. John Hummel was executed on June 30
June 30, 2021: John Hummel was executed Wednesday evening. Hummel, now 45, White, was sentenced to death by a Tarrant County jury in 2011 after the slayings of his pregnant wife Joy Hummel, 34, his 5-year-old daughter, Jodi Hummel, and his 57-year-old father-in-law, Clyde Bedford. Prosecutors say he killed his family because he wanted to run off with a woman he met at a convenience store. Hummel confessed to stabbing and beating his wife before beating the other two victims and setting fire to his house, records show. Weapons later found in a dumpster matched his and the victims’ DNA, investigators said. Shortly after 6 p.m., Hummel was escorted into the state's death chamber in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m., 13 minutes after he was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, according to prison reports. "I truly regret killing my family," Hummel said on the gurney in his final statement. "I am thankful for all the thoughts and prayers for my family over the last few days. I love each and every one you." Last week the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sought to stop his execution because prison officials failed to let reporters witness a May execution for the first time in the history of the state's modern death penalty. Reporters for the Associated Press and the Huntsville Item, who attend every execution, were left waiting to be escorted from prison administrative offices across the street when Quinton Jones was killed. The same reporters were able to witness Hummel's execution Wednesday, Joseph Brown of the Huntsville newspaper, The Item, confirmed. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has said excluding the onsite reporters was a mistake, and has assured that media will be allowed in the future to observe as the state wields its greatest power over life. The agency blamed new execution staff, a revised execution protocol and a lack of oversight, according to a TDCJ statement. Hummel becomes the 2nd person executed in Texas this year, the 572nd since Texas resumed executions in 1982, the 5th person executed in 2021 in the United States, the No. 1,534 since the United States reintroduced the sentence of died in 1976 and resumed executions in 1977.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/30/texas-execution-john-hummel/ https://abc13.com/john-hummel-execution-death-penalty-row/10846750/ (Source: abc13.com, texastribune.org, 30/06/2021)
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