HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ Convicted killer Gayland Bradford has been executed for the $7 robbery-slaying of a Dallas grocery store security guard almost 23 years ago.
Bradford was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. Wednesday, nine minutes after the lethal drugs began.
The 42-year-old Bradford was on parole for a robbery conviction when he was arrested for gunning down 29-year-old Brian Williams four days after Christmas in 1988. The shooting came on Williams’ second day on the job at the market just south of downtown Dallas.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to reconsider an appeal they rejected earlier. That cleared the way for Bradford on Wednesday evening to become the fourth Texas prisoner executed this year. Three more lethal injections are set for this month in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)