HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ A career rapist blamed for multiple murders and attacks in Houston and Austin has been executed.
Johnny Ray Johnson was condemned for the 1995 slaying of a woman who was raped, beaten and left to die on a Houston street. The victim was Leah Joette Smith.
Johnson, in a lengthy final statement, called for an end to the death penalty. He called Texas death row the “Polunsky dungeon.” The Polunsky Unit houses condemned men.
Johnson said, quote: “It’s life without meaning. It’s life without purpose. It is no life at all.”
He called death row a place of “unforgiveness … terrifying … and debilitating.”
Johnson closed by expressing love to friends who were watching him. “See y’all in heaven,” he said and then began singing a hymn that was cut short as the lethal drugs took effect.
Johnson was the eighth condemned killer put to death this year in Texas.