Mexican serial killer executed in Texas

HOUSTON, Texas, June 28, 2006 (AFP) – A Mexican illegal immigrant convicted of brutally killing at least 15 people around the United States, most of them in Texas, was put to death late Tuesday, becoming the 23rd person to be executed in the United States this year.

"He was pronounced dead at 8:05 (0105 GMT Wednesday)," a state prison official told AFP in a telephone interview from the town of Huntsville, north of here.

The official said family members of both convict Angel Maturino Resendiz and his victims were watching the procedure from outside the execution chamber. Resendiz had declined a final meal.

But in his last statement, he said he was accepting his punishment and asked relatives of his victims for forgiveness.

"I know I allowed the devil to rule my life," Resendiz said. "I just ask you to to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me. I thank God for having patience with me."

The 46-year-old inmate known to many as "the railroad killer" was administered a lethal injection after the US Supreme Court denied a last-ditch appeal by his lawyers, who had been trying to mount an insanity defense.

Mexico, meanwhile, had demanded clemency. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez had written to Texas authorities, asking that Resendiz’s life be spared.