HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Jesse De La Rosa, who killed a store clerk in a robbery that netted a six-pack of beer, died by injection early Wednesday, the first Hispanic and youngest person executed since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
De La Rosa, 24, was executed for the August 1979 murder of San Antonio convenience store clerk Masoud Ghazali, who was shot in the head and face during a robbery.
De La Rosa and an accomplice were unable to open the cash register and fled with only a six-pack of beer.
Forty-thrde people have been executed in the United States since 1976. De La Rosa became the seventh person executed in Texas, which also put to death the first black in the country since the death penalty was reinstated.
Prison officials said the high school dropout was calm throughout the day, napping in the afternoon before visiting with relatives and eating a final meal of classic Mexican food.
De La Rosa in March recanted his confession to the murder, and lawyers Rusty Guyer and Ralph Lopez claimed a third person was in the store who could testify De La Rosa's accomplice, Alejandro Alcorta Garcia, shot Ghazali.
The Supreme Court voted 7-2 without comment Tuesday to deny a stay. Five hours before De La Rosa met the executioner's needle, Gov. Mark White refused to grant a 30-day reprieve.
