HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Texas has executed a 34-year-old man convicted of drug-related slayings of a man and his two children on Christmas Eve in 1993.
Shannon Thomas, 34, was the 19th Texas inmate executed this year, and the second man put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville this week when he was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m. Wednesday.
An 11th-hour appeal by Thomas' attorneys to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, but the appeal delayed the execution by about 30 minutes, the Houston Chronicle said.
The victims -- a 32-year-old man, a son, 11, and daughter, 10 -- had been shot in the head in their home. The father was found with a knife in his neck. The Texas Attorney General's Office said the motives for the murders were robbery of drug money and elimination of witnesses.
Thomas made no last meal request and refused to speak with reporters, but spoke messages of love to his family as the execution process began.
