USA - David Renteria (TX)

USA - Texas. David Renteria, 53, Hispanic, was executed

November 16, 2023:

November 16, 2023 - David Renteria, 53, Hispanic, was executed.
Renteria was sentenced to death in the abduction and slaying of 5-year-old Alexandra Flores, who vanished from a Wal-Mart on Nov. 18, 2001. The little girl was strangled and her body set on fire. The body was found the next day in an alley.
Renteria was pronounced dead at 7:11 p.m. CST following an injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. Renteria prayed, sang and asked for forgiveness before his execution.
“I’m sorry for all the wrongs I have done. And for those who have called for my death, who are about to murder me, I forgive you,” he told those present in a loud, clear voice. He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later after receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative.
Renteria was convicted on ample evidence- video surveillance, blood DNA, and a palm print from the bag placed over Alexandra's head. Renteria maintained his innocence- claiming that members of a gang called Barrio Azteca, including a person using the nickname “Flaco,” forced him to take the girl by making threats to his family — and that it was the gang members who killed her. However, "none of the evidence admitted at trial—including the Walmart surveillance videos—supported Renteria's claim that others were involved in kidnapping and murdering Flores". Renteria had several previous convictions for sexual offences.
Renteria was initially sentenced to death on Sept. 23, 2003, but on Oct. 4 2006 the Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence (not the conviction) because the original jury might have been left with the impression that Renteria did not express remorse, while he had written such a letter.
During a new resentencing trial in 2008, Renteria was again sentenced to death.
Renteria was the eighth man executed in Texas this year, the 585th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982, the 23st in the U.S. put to death this year, and the 1,581th overall since the country resumed executions in 1977.
On the Renteria case see also HoC September 23, 2003, October 4, 2006 And May 7, 2008.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-execution-el-paso-5b4d2f1a66e3050dcecfd2fd10e546f3