|
TEXAS (USA): ‘ARAB SLAYER’ EXECUTED AFTER VICTIM PLEAS FOR CLEMENCY
July 20, 2011: Mark Stroman, 41, white, was executed in Texas. He was convicted of entering the store where Vasudev Patel was working on Sept 21, 2001, demanding money from the register, and then shooting him in the chest.
He admitted to at least three attacks in the weeks after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington, all on men he believed to be of Middle Eastern descent.
Stroman was given a lethal injection of drugs and pronounced dead at 8:53 p.m. local time, Michelle Lyons, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman, said.
"The Lord Jesus Christ be with me," Stroman said, according to Lyons. "I am at peace. Hate is going on in this world, and it has to stop. One second of hate will cause a lifetime of pain. I'm still a proud American. Texas loud, Texas proud. God bless America, God bless everyone."
A survivor of one of the attacks, Raisuddin Bhuiyan of Bangladesh, had tried to convince courts to stay the execution, saying it was against his religious beliefs as a Muslim.
Stroman's execution was held up for two hours while judges heard the final appeals by Bhuiyan, who was shot in the face during the condemned man's post-9/11 shooting spree. Bhuiyan and his lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry, claiming Bhuiyan's rights as a victim were being violated because he never got to meet with his attacker or tell the court how he wanted Stroman punished.
But death-penalty advocates said the victim doesn't get to decide the punishment. (Sources: Reuters, 20/07/2011)
|
