Gary Green, a 51-year-old American, was executed in Texas for a double murder: here are his last words to the family of his victims
Sylvie Claire / March 8, 2023
The U.S. state of Texas on Tuesday executed a man convicted of killing his wife and her daughter in 2009.
Gary Green, 51, was pronounced dead at 7:07 p.m. local time from Huntsville Penitentiary in this large, conservative southern state.
He was sentenced to death in 2010 for stabbing his wife and drowning her six-year-old daughter in a bathtub a year earlier in Dallas.
The morning of the tragedy, his wife had sent him a letter of rupture. He had answered that "five lives would be lost", recalls the local press.
In the end, he did not kill his wife's two sons, aged 9 and 12, but tried to end his life by swallowing a large dose of drugs.
His lawyers have tried in recent years to have his death sentence overturned, citing alleged mental illness and intellectual retardation. The Supreme Court has in fact forbidden the execution of people who are unable to understand the meaning of the sentence.
They have never won their case.
I apologize for all the pain I have caused you and your family," Green said as he looked at his victims' loved ones before he was executed. "We ate together, we laughed and cried together as a family. I'm sorry I let you down. »
He said he took "two people we all loved, and I had to go through that while I was here" before continuing, "We were all one and I broke that bond. I'm asking you to forgive me, not for me but for you. I'm about to go home and you all are going to be here. I want to make sure you don't get hurt. »
Gary Green was also one of the convicts who went to court to prevent Texas from executing him with lethal substances that might be past their expiration date.
Despite a decision in their favor by a trial judge, three of the plaintiffs have already been executed since the beginning of the year.
Another execution, that of Arthur Brown for a quadruple murder he denies committing, is scheduled for Thursday in Texas.