Texas executes Rogelio Cannady

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Condemned Texas prisoner Rogelio Cannady (left) has been executed for killing a cellmate while already serving two life sentences for a double murder.

The 37-year-old Cannady didn't deny fatally beating his 55-year-old cellmate with a belt and padlock in October 1993. But he insisted the attack at the McConnell Unit prison in South Texas was in self-defense from an unwanted sexual advance.

In the death chamber he smiled and nodded to his brother, a niece and 3 friends he selected to witness his death and told them repeatedly he loved them.

"I'm going to be OK," he said as they watched through a window. "Y'all take care of yourself ... May God have mercy on my soul."

As he waited for the drugs to take effect, he laughed and lifted his head from the gurney.

"I thought it was going to be harder than this," he said, grinning. "I'm going to sleep now. I can feel it. It's affecting me."

Then he began snoring.

8 minutes later, at 6:19 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

Cannady becomes the 10th condemned inmate put to death this year in Texas and the 456th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Cannady becomes the 218th condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became governor of Texas 2001.

Cannady becomes the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1207th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Cannady's execution came after last-day appeals failed in the federal courts. Cannady had argued his original conviction for killing two teenagers was tainted because of what he called a coerced confession.

Source: AP and Rick Halperin, May 19, 2010