Convicted killer Gary Johnson has been executed in Texas for fatally shooting a ranch foreman and another man during a ranch burglary almost 24 years ago.
The 59-year-old Johnson's lethal injection Tuesday evening came about 2 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the punishment.
Johnson was condemned for the April 1986 slayings of 28-year-old James Hazelton and Hazelton's 23-year-old brother-in-law, Peter Sparagana.
The 2 were killed while investigating a call from a neighbor who reported intruders had driven through a chained gate at a ranch outside Huntsville in southeastern Texas.
Johnson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 449th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Johnson becomes the 210th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. Johnson becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1192nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Sources: Associated Press, Rick Halperin, January 13, 2010
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