June 11, 2008: Texas executed a rapist and murderer, the US state's first execution since a death penalty moratorium ended after the Supreme Court found the lethal injection constitutional.
Karl Chamberlain, 37, was pronounced dead at 6:30 pm, nine minutes after being injected with the deadly dose at the Huntsville prison.
The Supreme Court had agreed to examine the constitutionality of the lethal injection in September 2007, resulting in a seven-month moratorium on executions. Texas, however, conducted one execution the evening of the court's decision.
The top US court ruled in April that the procedure, the most commonly used to end the life of death row inmates, was constitutional, allowing the death penalty to resume.
Georgia was the first state to execute a prisoner following the ruling.
Chamberlain became the 406th inmate to be executed in Texas, which is by far the state that has conducted the most executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.
In August 1991, Chamberlain entered his neighbor Felicia Prechtl's apartment and forced her into a bedroom, where he taped the 29-year-old woman's hands and feet before raping her.
He then took her into the bathroom and shot her in the head with a .30 caliber rifle.
While he was questioned by police on the night of the murder, he was only arrested in July 1996. Chamberlain gave investigators a written confession and provided DNA samples that matched samples from the victim's body.
He was sentenced to death for the rape and murder in 1997. (
Source : Afp, 11/06/2008
Karl Chamberlain, 37, was pronounced dead at 6:30 pm, nine minutes after being injected with the deadly dose at the Huntsville prison.
The Supreme Court had agreed to examine the constitutionality of the lethal injection in September 2007, resulting in a seven-month moratorium on executions. Texas, however, conducted one execution the evening of the court's decision.
The top US court ruled in April that the procedure, the most commonly used to end the life of death row inmates, was constitutional, allowing the death penalty to resume.
Georgia was the first state to execute a prisoner following the ruling.
Chamberlain became the 406th inmate to be executed in Texas, which is by far the state that has conducted the most executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.
In August 1991, Chamberlain entered his neighbor Felicia Prechtl's apartment and forced her into a bedroom, where he taped the 29-year-old woman's hands and feet before raping her.
He then took her into the bathroom and shot her in the head with a .30 caliber rifle.
While he was questioned by police on the night of the murder, he was only arrested in July 1996. Chamberlain gave investigators a written confession and provided DNA samples that matched samples from the victim's body.
He was sentenced to death for the rape and murder in 1997. (
Source : Afp, 11/06/2008
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