A last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court won a Texas inmate an extra half-hour of life last week before he was put to death for his role in the Christmas Eve 1993 slayings of a Baytown father and his two children.
Shannon Charles Thomas, 34, became the 19th Texas inmate executed this year, and the second Harris County man put to death this week when he was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m.
Thomas, who had declined interviews with reporters in the weeks before his execution, spoke for about a minute, mentioning several names and his family in his final statement.
"I just want you to know how much I love them," Thomas said. "I want you to be strong and get through this time. Do not fall back. Keep going forward. Don't let this hinder you.
"Tell them that I love them and stay strong. This is kind of hard to put words together; I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don't know what to say; I hope these words give you comfort.
"I want you to know I love you; just stay strong and don't give up. Let everybody know I love them ... and love is unconditional, as Mama always told us. I may be gone in the flesh, but I am always with you in spirit. I love you."
Thomas' final words came in a question as the lethal dose began to take effect: "Is the mic still on?"
He then sighed, took several quick breaths and made snoring sounds before falling silent.
Thomas' sister, Gwendolyn Thomas, sobbed quietly in a front corner of the witness room, close to the viewing glass, during the execution.
No one from the victims' family was present for the execution.
An 11th-hour appeal by Thomas' attorneys to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied last week. The appeal delayed the execution by about 30 minutes. Thomas made no last meal request, prison officials said.
Thomas was convicted of capital murder in 1996 for the deaths of Victor Rios, 11, and Maria Rios, 10. The children's father, Roberto Rios, 32, also was killed.
The case went unsolved until a man who knew Thomas and co-defendant Keith Bernard Clay gave information implicating the two.
Thomas and Clay had bought drugs from Rios and assumed he would have money in the house, police said. The motives for the murders were robbery and elimination of witnesses, according to the Texas Attorney General's Office. Clay was executed in 2003 for the robbery-murder of Baytown convenience store clerk Tom Varghese.