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HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- An apologetic Henry Dunn Jr. was executed for participating
in the fatal shooting of a man who was abducted and targeted for robbery because
he was gay.
Strapped to a gurney Thursday night, he expressed love for his family and asked for forgiveness from his victim's relatives.
"I hope you can find it in your heart to find forgiveness and strength, to move on and find peace," Dunn said, looking at Nicolas West's sister, brother and brother-in-law.
Dunn was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m., six minutes after the injection began.
In a written statement released following his death, he said the death penalty in Texas is broken. He said unqualified attorneys were appointed for him under state law.
Dunn, 28, was the eighth Texas inmate executed this year and second this week. Three more are scheduled for lethal injection later this month.
The former fast-food restaurant worker acknowledged being present when the 23-year-old West was gunned down near Tyler more than nine years ago. But he said a companion, also sent to death row, was primarily to blame for the hate crime.
"I don't hate homosexuals," Dunn, who was 19 at the time of the killing, said last week. "That's their right to be that way if they want to."
Donald Aldrich, 38, also is on death row for the West slaying. A third man, David Ray McMillan, who was 17 when the crime occurred on November 30, 1993, received a life prison term.
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday afternoon refused to review the case and halt the execution.
West, a medical clerk, was abducted from a Tyler park known as a homosexual meeting spot. Taken to a remote area of Smith County, he was stripped, ordered to his knees and shot as many as 15 times.
"It was a deliberate, preplanned, cold-blooded kidnapping and murder," Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen said.
Also present were several family and friends of Henry Dunn. In his last statement, he directly addressed them. Media witness, Mark Passwaters, of the "Huntsville Item" sat on the witness side with Dunn's family. He described Dunn's last statement, "He told his family that he loves them and that he would always remember them and then he made an appeal to the family of the victim to forgive him."
Dunn made that
statement at 6:09 p.m. The lethal dose was then administered. He was pronounced
dead at 6:15. So far, this is the 8th execution in Texas for 2003. The second
this week.
- from KLTV.com, Feb 7 2003
TEXAS----stay of impending execution
A condemned Texas inmate won a reprieve
Monday from a federal appeals
court a day before he was scheduled to be
put to death.
Henry Dunn Jr.'s lethal injection, scheduled
for Tuesday evening, was put
off with an order from the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in New
Orleans, said Mike Viesca, a spokesman for
the Texas attorney general's
office.
Dunn, 27, was sentenced to death for abducting,
robbing and fatally
shooting 23-year-old Nicolas West near Tyler
in November 1993 in what
authorities said was a gay-bashing hate crime.
He and his lawyers contended a previous
state-appointed attorney was
inexperienced, unqualified and incompetent
and missed deadlines that made
future appeals impossible.
Donald Aldrich, now 37, also is on death
row for the West killing. A
third man, David Ray McMillan, received a
life prison term.
Dunn said he was at the scene of the shooting,
but denied he was
responsible for the hate crime. Aldrich, considered
the leader of the
group that preyed on homosexuals in the Tyler
area, told authorities he
didn't like gays because a gay relative raped
him as a child. Gays also
were easy robbery targets, he said.
Aldrich's case remains on appeal. He does not have an execution date.
Dunn was among 7 death-row inmates who
tried to escape from prison
Thanksgiving night 1998. Only 1, Martin Gurule,
cleared a pair of
fences that surrounded the Ellis Unit prison
northeast of Huntsville. A
week later, Gurule was found drowned nearby.
Dunn and the other 5 were stopped by gunfire
from corrections
officers.
Dunn was the 1st of 2 Texas prisoners set to die this week.
On Thursday, Ronford Styron, 32, is set
to die for the beating death of
his 11-month-old son in October 1993. Styron,
from Dayton in Liberty
County, told police he did not believe the
child was his own offspring
and took out his anger on the infant.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
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