|
TEXAS (USA): BEUNKA ADAMS EXECUTED
April 26, 2012: Beunka Adams, 29, black, was executed in Texas.
Adams expressed love to his family and apologized to witnesses, including one of the women who survived the attack and relatives of the man who was killed. Adams was 1 of 2 men sent to death row for the Sept. 2, 2002 slaying of Kenneth Vandever, 37, during a holdup in a convenience store. After robbing the store, Adams and Richard Cobb drove off with the 2 female clerks and Vandever. They drove to a remote area where 1 woman was raped. Testimony showed Adams forced all 3 to kneel as they were shot. Cobb and Adams, believing they were dead, fled. Both were alive, however, and one was able to run to a house to summon help.
Cobb, who was 18 at the time of the holdup, was convicted and sentenced to die in a separate trial 8 months before Adams, who was 19 at the time of the crime. Cobb does not yet have an execution date set. Adams becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 482nd overall since Texas resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982.
Adams becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death in the USA this year and the 1294th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, 26/04/2012)
|
