Arizona and Texas
Two men sentenced to death for murder executed in the US
Death Row at the Miami Beach Police Museum. In the US, executions are still a reality in some states.
© Martin Wagner / Imago Images
Two men have been executed in Arizona and Texas. They had both been sentenced to death for murder. A total of 15 people have been executed in the United States so far this year.
Two murderers sentenced to death were executed in the United States on Wednesday. In Arizona, 76-year-old African American Murray Hooper died from lethal injection, state Attorney General Mark Brnovich said. Hooper had been sentenced to the maximum sentence for double murder nearly 40 years ago. 55-year-old Stephen Barbee was executed in a Texas prison in the evening.
According to the indictment, Hooper broke into a house in Phoenix on New Year’s Eve 1980 with two accomplices. The three are said to have tied up the three residents of the house and shot them in the head. A man and his mother-in-law died, the wife survived and later identified all three burglars. They were sentenced to death in 1983. His accomplices died before the death penalty could be carried out, and Hooper maintained his innocence but was never acquitted.
Lawyers had appealed to the US Supreme Court – unsuccessfully
Barbee was sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and their seven-year-old son. Barbee initially admitted to the crime but later retracted his confession, saying he had been coerced into confessing by the police. Since his conviction, he has engaged in a legal battle with the judiciary and has twice obtained a stay of sentence. His lawyers filed a final appeal in the US Supreme Court on Tuesday, but the appeal was dismissed.
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With Hooper and Barbee, 15 people were executed in the United States that year.