Texas executes man convicted in 1998 double murder

U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that Milton Mathis was mentally impaired and ineligible for execution

Published June 22, 2011 10:34AM (EDT)

A man convicted of fatally shooting two people inside a Houston drug house has been executed in Texas.

The lethal injection of 32-year-old Milton Mathis was carried out Tuesday evening, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was mentally impaired and ineligible for execution.

Mathis was condemned for the December 1998 shooting that killed 24-year-old Travis Brown III and 31-year-old Daniel Hibbard. It also paralyzed then-15-year-old Melony Almaguer.

Almaguer and her husband witnessed Mathis' execution from behind a window at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. Mathis told Almaguer he never meant to hurt her. He also said the system failed him.

He began snoring as the drugs were administered. He was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m.

Mathis was the sixth person executed in Texas this year.


By Michael Graczyk

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