16 October 2015 :
Licho Escamilla, 33, Hispanic, was executed in Texas.Escamilla was given the death penalty on October 24, 2002 for the November 2001 fatal shooting of Dallas police officer Christopher Kevin James, 34, who was trying to break up the brawl when he was shot.
The prisoner was pronounced dead 18 minutes after the lethal injection was administered at Huntsville. He told his family: "Pope Francis, God's children has asked the state of Texas to switch my death sentence to life in prison. But the state of Texas has refused to listen to God's children”. Escamilla was 19 at the time of the killing and a warrant had been issued for his arrest over the shooting dead of a neighbour, Michael Torres, three weeks earlier.
Escamilla is the 24th convicted killer to be executed this year in the US, 12 of which have taken place in Texas.
(Source: Sky News, 15/10/2015)