Texas Executes Killer Who Escaped Mexican Prison

A man who escaped the prison in Mexico where he was serving a murder sentence and killed again in the US has become the second Mexican citizen executed in Texas this year. Ramiro Hernandez, 44, was executed by lethal injection for beating a university professor to death in 1997 and repeatedly raping his wife, Reuters reports. He had been hired as a ranch hand just 10 days before the murder. "I’m looking at the angel of God," he said after being strapped to a gurney in the Huntsville death chamber. "I ask forgiveness from the family of my boss."

Hernandez was among dozens of Mexican citizens on death row found to not have been properly advised of their consular rights, and the Mexican government expressed "its most vigorous protest," at the execution "in clear violation of the judgment of the International Court of Justice." But that issue did not play a role in his appeals, which focused on alleged mental impairment, the AP finds. Hernandez is the second person to be executed with pentobarbital from Texas' new supplier, whose identity the state has refused to reveal. Serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells, who claimed to have killed up to 70 people across the US, was executed last week. (More Texas stories.)