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Convicted murderer, rapist in 1993 executed in Texas

By Allen Cone
Alvin Avon Braziel Jr., died by lethal injection Tuesday, 25 years after he killed a man and raped his newlywed wife. File Photo courtesy Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Alvin Avon Braziel Jr., died by lethal injection Tuesday, 25 years after he killed a man and raped his newlywed wife. File Photo courtesy Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Texas executed Alvin Avon Braziel Jr., by lethal injection Tuesday, 25 years after he killed a man and raped his newlywed wife.

Texas Department of Corrections officials pronounced Braziel dead at 7:19 p.m. in Huntsville -- the 13th and final inmate Texas put to death this year.

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Ten minutes earlier his final words were "I want to apologize for the second time to Lori for her husband dying at my hands."

He didn't mention that he raped Lora White, who was 23 in September 1993, and she wasn't present at the execution.

In 2001, he was convicted of capital murder of her husband, 27-year-old Douglas White.

Defense attorneys filed last-minute motions attempting to stay the execution, citing prosecutorial misconduct but they were denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals around 6:30 p.m.

They argued the county prosecutor "purposefully elicited emotional outburst" from Lora White during her trial testimony when he showed her a picture of Douglas White from his autopsy.

Douglas and Lora White were married just 10 days before the crimes. They were on the walking trail at Eastfield College in Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas, when an armed robber demanded money from them.

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Despite saying they didn't have any money, the man put a gun to Douglas White's head and threatened Lora White that if she ran he would "blow his [expletive] head off."

The couple prayed aloud.

Before shooting Douglas White, the man asked, "Where's your God at now?"

The robber then dragged Lora White into the bushes and sexually assaulted her.

Braziel, who was 18 at the time of the attack, was connected to the crimes in 2001 through DNA testing. He had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 1996 crime and was sentenced to five years in prison.

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