HUNTSVILLE
\nTwo executions in Texas and Oklahoma on Thursday pushed the US tally to 37 this year, putting the country on track to exceed 40 for a second consecutive year, a pace driven by Florida.
\nTexas put to death John Allen Rubio, 46, who was convicted of fatally stabbing and beheading three young children in 2003. Hours earlier, Oklahoma executed James Pavatt, 73, for the 2001 fatal shooting of his girlfriend\u2019s estranged husband.
\nThe death penalty has drawn renewed attention since the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee in September. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would commute hundreds of death sentences before leaving office in January, which experts say would be the largest mass clemency in American history.
\nRubio was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. after a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville.
\nThe killings of the baby girl and two toddlers so rocked the city of Brownsville, on the US border with Mexico that the apartment building was later demolished and the land turned into a park and community garden.
\nAfter a spiritual adviser prayed over him briefly, Rubio thanked friends and family for their \u201clove and understanding\u201d and said he was \u201cnot the same person I once was.\u201d
\nHe thanked prison staff for teaching him how to find God and expressed love for his common-law wife, Angela Camacho, who is serving life in prison for her role in the slayings.
\n\u201cI want to say I\u2019m sorry to my wife\u2019s family,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t change the past but I can tell you my life is going to be over. But that\u2019s not going to make you happy.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going to be with my kids in a little bit,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m ready to go to heaven to be with my lord and savior.\u201d
\nAs the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect, Rubio took three breaths and began what sounded like snoring. All movement ceased afterward, and a physician pronounced him dead 21 minutes after the injection began.
\nRubio and Camacho were accused of killing 3-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio and 2-month-old Mary Jane Rubio in the apartment they shared in Brownsville. Camacho drew a life sentence after pleading guilty.
\nAn appeals court overturned Rubio\u2019s first capital murder conviction, ruling Camacho\u2019s statements were improperly admitted as evidence in his trial. At his second trial, Rubio again pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but again was convicted and sentenced to death.
\nAccording to court records, Rubio wasn\u2019t the biological father of the two older children but treated them as his own.
\nAt various points, he claimed the children were possessed and that he was the \u201cchosen one\u201d intended to save the world.
\nDefense experts diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, a finding prosecution experts rejected. The defense experts also testified his childhood, marked by violence at home, \u201ctoxic\u201d parents, drug use and prostitution, damaged him developmentally.
\nPavatt received a lethal injection at an Oklahoma prison. Asked if he had any last words, he shook his head no. As a chaplain read from the Bible, Pavatt appeared to mouth some words that couldn\u2019t be heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HUNTSVILLE Two executions in Texas and Oklahoma on Thursday pushed the US tally to 37 this year, putting the country on track to exceed 40 for a second consecutive year, a pace driven by Florida. Texas put to death John Allen Rubio, 46, who was convicted of fatally stabbing and beheading three young children in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-577616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n