Texas executes man for 2004 slaying of store owner

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas prisoner was executed Tuesday evening for the fatal shooting of a San Antonio convenience store owner after courts turned down appeals that the state parole board improperly rejected the inmate’s clemency request because he’s black.

Christopher Young, 34, never denied the slaying, which was recorded on a store surveillance camera, but insisted he was drunk and didn’t intend to kill 53-year-old Hasmukh “Hash” Patel during an attempted robbery after drinking nearly two dozen beers and then doing cocaine that Sunday morning, Nov. 21, 2004.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Young said he wanted to make sure his victim’s family knew he loved 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 added.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect, he twice used an obscenity to say he could taste it and that it was burning.

“I taste it in my throat,” he said.

As he slipped into unconsciousness, he said something unintelligible and began taking shallow breaths. He stopped moving within about 30 seconds and was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. CDT.

Twenty-five minutes had passed since he was first given the lethal drug.

Young’s attorneys sued the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles after the panel last week rejected a clemency plea where they argued Young was “no longer the young man he was when he arrived” on death row, that he was “truly remorseful” and that Patel’s son did not wish the execution to take place.

In their federal civil rights suit, Young’s lawyers argued a white Texas inmate, Thomas Whitaker, received a rare commutation earlier this year as his execution was imminent for the slaying of his mother and brother. Young is black and race improperly “appears to be the driving force in this case,” attorney David Dow said in the appeal that sought to delay the punishment.