'Texas Seven' death row inmate awaits execution

March 28 (UPI) -- Texas is preparing to execute Patrick Murphy on Thursday night, one of the last two remaining members of the so-called Texas Seven, a group of escaped prisoners who killed a police officer in 2000.

The 57-year-old is set to receive the lethal injection after 6 p.m. at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. The state has executed four other members of the "Texas Seven" and another killed himself before his capture.

On Dec. 13, 2000, the seven men overpowered prison workers at the Connally Unit in Karnes County using a detailed plan to break out of the unit. They took their uniforms, several weapons and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. They fled north in a prison truck.

On Christmas Eve, a botched robbery at a sporting goods store in Irving ended in a shootout between the escaped convicts and officer Aubrey Hawkins.

According to court records, Hawkins died shortly after arriving on the scene after being shot nearly a dozen times. The "Texas Seven" drove to Colorado, hiding in an RV park until January. One group member, Larry Harper, killed himself.

Under Texas' law of parties -- which holds all individuals responsible for a crime, regardless of their role -- the six were convicted in Dallas of capital murder.

Murphy said he was standing at the front of the sporting goods store as lookout when Hawkins arrived on the scene and drove around to the back where the other six were. Murphy said he didn't know the officer died until after the seven left the area.

His lawyers are hoping proposed legislation to outlaw the death penalty for accomplices who didn't directly cause a murder will provide incentive for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stay the execution, the Texas Tribune reported.

"Carrying out the execution of Patrick Murphy, who neither fired a shot at Officer Hawkins nor had any reason to know others would do so, would not be proper retaliation but would instead simply be vengeance," lawyers David Dow and Jeff Newberry said in a petition to the parole board seeking a commutation or delay in the execution.

Texas previously executed Joseph Garcia, Michael Rodriguez, George Rivas and Donald Newbury for their role in the death. Randy Halprin awaits an execution date.