The man who murdered a Christian missionary for $8 was executed in Texas yesterday.
Juan Garcia, 35, shot Hugo Solana in 1998 during a botched robbery in Houston. Solana had moved with his family from Guadalajara in Mexico a few weeks previously so that his children could be educated in the United States.
Solana's wife Ana and her daughter witnessed the execution by lethal injection. Afterwards Ana said she wished that the execution had not taken place and that she accepted Garcia's apology because it came "from his heart". "It's about God. It's about Jesus," she said, adding that guilty people should have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
The execution was the 529th in Texas since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 – the most of any state.
In his statement, Garcia sought forgiveness from Solano's family.
"While I am still alive I bring suffering to you all. The harm that I did to your dad and husband, I hope this brings you closure to all of you. I never wanted to hurt any of you all," he was quoted as saying by prison officials.
This month, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that the execution go ahead.
None of Garcia's three co-defendants were sentenced to death.
"I never intended to kill him," Garcia told the Houston Chronicle a few days before the execution. He added he did not rob Solano of $8 – the aggravating factor that made the crime a capital offence, the paper reported.
Prosecutors said he stole the money.
"I never intended it to happen the way it happened. I didn't mean to kill. I had no reason to," Garcia was quoted as saying by the paper.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
