HUNTSVILLE, Texas, June 16 -- Texas prison officials have carried out their 22nd execution of the year, putting killer David Wayne Stoker to death by injection for the 1986 murder of a convenience store clerk. Texas has executed a record number of prisoners this year, and executions are scheduled both Tuesday and Wednesday.
The 38-year-old Stoker was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. He had no final words, but issued a written statement through prison officials. Stoker denied murdering night clerk David Manrrique in the Panhandle town of Hale near Lubbock in a robbery that netted $96. Stoker also decried the death penalty, thanked his lawyers, bade farewell to his friends on death row and closed writing, 'Let's rock'n'roll.' Manrrique's son, Moises, witnessed the execution and later told reporters that all the evidence in the case pointed to Stoker, who was apprehended after bragging about the killing. Manrrique says, 'It was very humane, I'll say that much. More (humane) than what he did to my dad. My dad had to suffer a long time. He got shot in the head and back.' Stoker is the 129th prison executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. ---
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