A Texas baby killer has been executed by deadly injection after the horrific homicide of a younger lady.
It brings an finish to a horrible saga that started in 2001, when David Renteria of El Paso kidnapped, strangled, and burned a 5-year-old.
Renteria, 53, was condemned for the November 2001 killing of Alexandra Flores.
Prosecutors mentioned the lady was Christmas procuring along with her household at a Walmart retailer in El Paso on Nov. 18, 2001, when she was kidnapped by Renteria.
Her physique was discovered a day later in an alley about 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the shop.
Lower than three hours earlier than Renteria was set to obtain a deadly injection on the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, protection legal professionals had requested the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to cease his execution over claims the state’s provide of pentobarbital, the drug he could be injected with, has degraded.
Late Thursday, the excessive court docket rejected the final enchantment with out remark.
Protection legal professionals had unsuccessfully argued the medication now include contaminants that might trigger Renteria “terror” and “extreme ache,” in violation of the Eighth Modification’s ban on merciless and weird punishment. Current related claims made by different Texas inmates dealing with execution have been unsuccessful and, earlier Thursday, the the Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals had rejected a keep request on the difficulty.
Early within the day, the nation’s highest court docket additionally declined to cease the execution over a separate declare associated to Renteria’s assertions that he was not accountable for the lady’s dying.
Renteria lengthy claimed that members of a gang referred to as Barrio Azteca, together with somebody named “Flaco,” compelled him to kidnap the lady by making threats to his household — and that it was the gang members who killed her.
Authorities mentioned Renteria’s legal professionals didn’t increase this protection at his trial and that proof within the case exhibits he alone carried out the kidnapping and killing. Blood present in his van matched the slain lady’s DNA, in response to prosecutors, and his palm print was discovered on a plastic bag positioned over the lady’s head earlier than her physique was set on fireplace.
Prosecutors mentioned Renteria was a convicted intercourse offender on probation on the time.
The deadly injection was considered one of two scheduled Thursday within the U.S. In Alabama, Casey McWhorter was scheduled to be executed for his conviction within the deadly taking pictures of a person throughout a 1993 theft.