Texas: A 70-year-old death row inmate was executed

A 70-year-old death row inmate on Thursday became the oldest prisoner ever executed in Texas since the restoration of the last sentence in the United States in 1976.

Billy Wayne Campbell, who was convicted of the shooting deaths of his parents and his estranged brother-in-law, his abduction and attempted murder in 1989, was executed by injecting lethal substances into Huntsville shortly after the rejection by the Supreme Court of his request to postpone the execution of the sentence by invoking his inadequate defense in his trial.

The death of Koble, a Vietnam War veteran electrician by profession, was confirmed at 18:24 local time. It was the third death row inmate in the United States this year and the second in Texas, the state that has killed more inmates than any other since 1976.

In 2018, 25 death row inmates were executed in the country, 13 in Texas, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). More than 2.700 people are awaiting execution in the United States, with an average waiting period of fifteen years. In Texas, about thirty death row inmates have spent more than 25 years behind bars, according to the Texas Tribune.

Source: KYPE