12 January 2017 :

Christopher Wilkins, 48, White, was executed. A Fort Worth jury sent Wilkins to death row in 2008 for killing 2 men Oct. 28, 2005, 40-year-old Willie Freeman and 33-year-old Mike Silva. He admitted shooting the victims over a $20 phony drug deal. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the execution. The court's ruling on appeals for Wilkins came about three hours before his scheduled lethal injection. Wilkins' execution is the nation's 1st this year. He also admitted that a day earlier he had shot and killed another man, Gilbert Vallejo, 47, in a dispute over a pay phone, and about a week later he used a stolen car to try to run down 2 people because he believed 1 of them had taken his sunglasses. Wilkins becomes the 1st inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 539th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Wilkins becomes the 1st inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1443rd overall since the nation resumed executions on Januarty 17, 1977.