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TEXAS. SAN ANTONIO MAN EXECUTED FOR KILLING STUDENT
July 19, 2006: a Texas gang member has been put to death by lethal injection for the 1996 murder of a San Antonio man - a crime for which he recanted his earlier confession.
Mauriceo Brown, 31, was condemned for shooting Michael LaHood, 25, during a robbery in front of LaHood's parents' San Antonio home on August 15, 1996.
Brown told police he and fellow gang members began committing a string of robberies at gunpoint the night before confronting LaHood and demanding his money and car keys.
When LaHood refused, Brown said he shot the man in the face.
Brown has since recanted the confession, saying he took responsibility for the murder because he feared retaliation by fellow gang members against his family.
In a final statement while strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, Brown apologised to LaHood's family.
"To the victim's family, I am sorry you lost a brother, loved one and friend," he said. "To my family, I love you all.
Keep your heads up and know I will be in a better place."
Brown was the 15th person executed in Texas this year and the 370th put to death since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, six years after the US Supreme Court lifted a national death penalty ban - totals that lead the nation. (Sources: Reuters, 19/07/2006)
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