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TEXAS EXECUTES SECOND INMATE IN A WEEK
March 11, 2009: A convicted murderer became the second inmate put to death this week by lethal injection in Texas, the US state with the highest capital punishment rate in the country.
Luis Salazar, 38, was pronounced dead at 6:20 pm (2320 GMT), nine minutes after he was administered the lethal concotion at Huntsville prison, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
Salazar was convicted in 1998 for the October 1997 stabbing murder of his neighbor and friend, 28-year-old Martha Sanchez, whom he tried to rape after forcing his way into her home in a drunken, drugged up stupor.
Salazar killed Sanchez in the presence of her 10-year-old son, who was also stabbed in the chest when he tried to stop the attack.
The US Supreme Court turned down his final appeal to his death sentence in June.
Salazar was the second inmate put to death this week and the 12th since the start of the year in Texas, the US state with most executions, 435, since 1976, when the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment. (Sources: AFP, 11/03/2009)
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