16 June 2010 :

David Lee Powell was executed. Powell, 59, white, was sentenced in October 1978 for killing 26-year-old police officer Ralph Ablanedo during a traffic stop on May 20, 1978. His sentence was later overturned twice, and sentenced to death again in 1991 and 1999. He was the longest-serving inmate executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out executions in 1982. Some 150 retired and active police officers from Austin travelled 135 miles east to Huntsville and waited outside the prison as the punishment was carried out. Powell becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 460th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Powell becomes the 28th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1216th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.