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| Texas executes man for 2001 murder |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 06/08/2005 |
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Texas executed a 28-year man on Tuesday who halted all legal appeals and volunteered for lethal injection for the 2001 murder of a prostitute in Houston. Alexander Martinez, 28, was convicted of stabbing to death 45-year-old Helen Oliveros after arguing with her about a $300 payment. Martinez slit her throat and sexually assaulted her. He later dumped her body in a vacant lot. Martinez was the ninth person executed this year in Texas. He had previously served a prison sentence for attempted murder of a restaurant worker. Martinez confessed to killing Oliveros after he was arrested in 2001 for slitting his stepmother's throat. His stepmother survived the attack. Statistics show an increasing number of death row inmates in the United States are seeking to halt the automatic appeals that accompany their death sentences and often take years to complete. Of the nearly 1,000 people executed in the last three decades, one in eight asked for their appeals to be dropped, although last year the rate rose to one in six. Experts have cited increasing tough living conditions in prison where the death row inmates are kept in constant isolation as a possible reason for the increase in "volunteers" for the death chamber. Martinez was the 345th person put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a national death penalty ban, a total that leads the nation. Texas has six more executions scheduled this year. |
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