A death row inmate used his final moments to apologise to the family of the two people that he killed and beg them for forgiveness.
51-year-old Gary Green was sentenced to death in September 2009 for the double murder of his wife Lovetta Armstead and her daughter Jazzmen Montgomery, six, at their home in Dallas, Texas.
On Tuesday at the Polunsky Unit – where Texas' death row inmates are held – that sentence was carried out.
As Green was laid on the gurney awaiting his lethal injection, a Buddhist spiritual adviser said a short prayer, before Green then apologized to the gathered family members of his victims during his final statement.
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As he looked at the victims’ relatives through the glass, Green said: “I apologize for all the harm I have caused you and your family,
"We ate together, we laughed and cried together as a family.
“I'm sorry I failed you."
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Green admitted his guilt at taking the lives of ‘two people that we all loved’, adding: “I had to live that while I was here."
He continued: “We were all one and I broke that bond.
"I ask that you forgive me, not for me but for y'all.
“I'm fixing to go home and y'all are going to be here.
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“I want to make sure you don't suffer.
“You have to forgive me and heal and move on.
“I'm not the man I used to be."
Then, the needles were inserted into him and the execution process began.
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As it did, Green thanked prison staff and ‘all the beautiful human beings at the Polunsky Unit’ before he passed out and was eventually pronounced dead at 7:07pm local time.
On the day that he committed the murders, Ms Armstead wrote letters to Green telling him that she was leaving him, writing that despite loving him she had ‘to do what’s best for me’.
That angered Green, who wrote back: “You asked to see the monster so here he is the monster you made me...
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“They [sic] will be 5 lives taken today me being the 5th.”
He stabbed her more than two dozen times before drowning Jazzmen in the bathtub of the house.
He also stabbed Armstead’s nine-year-old son and intended to kill both him and his brother, although both survived.
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One of the prosecutors of the case, Josh Healy, described Green as ‘an evil guy’ who was involved in ‘one of the worst cases I’ve ever been a part of’.
Jazzmen’s father Ray Montgomery said that while he was not outspokenly pleased about Green’s execution, he saw it as justice.
“It’s justice for the way my daughter was tortured. It’s justice for the way that Lovetta was murdered,” he said.
Of Lovetta’s two sons, he said: “They still suffer a lot I think.”
Tom Wood