Texas executes killer despite clemency calls
WASHINGTON, DC: The state of Texas executed a death row inmate despite a call for clemency from a son of the man he killed.
Christopher Young was declared dead on Tuesday, the southern state’s Department of Criminal Justice said.
Mitesh Patel, the victim’s son, had campaigned in recent weeks to ask the Texas governor to spare the prisoner, a father of three.
Mitesh visited Young on Monday and described the meeting as emotionally moving for both of them.
The last words of the condemned man were addressed to the family of the victim: “I want to make sure the Patel family knows I love them like they love me”.
“Make sure the kids in the world know I’m being executed and those kids I’ve been mentoring keep this fight going,” he said.
In November 2004, while under the influence of alcohol and narcotics, Young shot the manager of a San Antonio supermarket.
He was also charged with sexual assault of a woman that same day.
Young, who was a member of a violent gang, said he had no intention of taking the life of the 50year-old businessman named Hasmukh Patel.
The scene was filmed by a surveillance camera.
One of Young’s daughters pleaded with the Texas authorities not to execute her father.
But the state’s pardon and parole board ruled out any leniency.
Christopher Young is the eighth sentenced to die since the beginning of the year.