A Texas man was executed for the death of an old clerk who was burned to death during a convenience store robbery more than a decade ago.
Matthew Lee Johnson is Condemn death in 2012 In Nancy Harris, 76, a great-grandmother, he was splashed by lighter liquid and set fire in a store in Garland.
Johnson, 49, received a fatal injection at Huntsville State Prison at 6 p.m.
He is one of two executions scheduled for Tuesday in Indiana, where Benjamin Ritchie will receive a fatal injection to kill a policeman in 2000.
The two executions are part of four groups arranged in about a week. Glen Rogers was executed in Florida on May 15. Oscar Smith plans to receive a fatal injection in Tennessee on Thursday.
David Dow, one of Johnson's lawyers, said he would not seek a final appeal from the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution. The lower court of appeals had previously rejected Johnson's attorney's claim to maintain enforcement. The Texas Parliament and Parole Board denied Friday that Johnson asked for a lower penalty for the death penalty.
In a previous appeal, Johnson's lawyer argued that his death penalty was unconstitutional because he was not properly determined to have the future danger to society, which was the legal ruling required to impose him on death sentence. His latest appeal found that his execution date was illegally arranged.
Security video captures part of the attack on Harris.
Burned, she was able to describe the suspect's death a few days after the May 20, 2012 attack. Johnson's location was determined for 13 years on the day Harris was attacked.
Johnson's guilt was never doubted. During the 2013 trial, he admitted to catching Harris on fire. He expressed his regret and called himself "the lowest scum on the earth."
"I hurt an innocent woman. I took a person's life. I'm the reason. It's not my intention - kill her or hurt her, but I did."
Johnson said he was not aware of what he did because he was always high Cracked at $100 worth of smoking. His lawyer told jurors that Johnson had a long history of drug use and was sexually abused as a child.
The Texas Attorney General's Office said in court documents that Johnson's various appeals were aimed at an effort to delay the legal death penalty.
"Thirteen years after Johnson committed a crime, justice should no longer be rejected," the AG office said in a court petition filed last week.
The testimony of her son Scot Harris said Harris had worked in a convenience store for more than a decade and lived only about a block and a half. She has four sons, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Prosecutors said Harris was just working Sunday morning just for a short time when Johnson walked in, slumped over his head and asked for money.
After Johnson got the money from the register, he caught fire and walked out of the store calmly, according to court documents. Harris frantically tried to put out herself and her clothes, leaving the store, screaming for help before the police used a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames covering her body. Johnson was arrested about an hour later.
Harris suffered second and third degree burns on her head, neck, shoulders, upper arms and legs, and in the days before her death a nurse and doctor suffered a lot of pain in the days before her death.
If executed, Johnson will be the fourth person Death in Texas this yearHistorically, the busiest death penalty state in the United States. If both executions occur on Tuesday, that would bring the total to 18 death sentences nationwide.