Inmates executed in Mississippi, Texas

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, July 23 (UPI) -- Corrections officials in Texas and Mississippi executed two convicted murderers Wednesday whose victims were both assaulted with claw hammers.

Derrick Sonnier, 40 was put to death by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas, for the brutal deaths of Melody Flowers, 27, of Humble and her 2-year-old son Patrick nearly 20 years ago, the Houston Chronicle reported. Authorities said Sonnier beat the single mother with a claw hammer, and stomped, choked and stabbed her, the newspaper said. He then stabbed the boy to death.

Mississippi put Dale Leo Bishop to death by lethal injection at the state penitentiary at Parchman, WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss., reported. Bishop was convicted for his role in the 1998 claw hammer beating death of a friend, Marcus Gentry.

Bishop's attorneys sought to have the death penalty lifted, arguing he didn't actually strike the victim with the hammer. But Gov. Haley Barbour and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeals.