This week in 2002

“The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here—I am. I’m not going to struggle physically against any restraints. I’m not going to shout, use profanity or make idle threats. Understand though that I’m not only upset, but I’m saddened by what is happening here tonight. I’m not only saddened, but disappointed that a system that is supposed to protect and uphold what is just and right can be so much like me when I made the same shameful mistake…No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious.”

— Napoleon Beazley, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed May 28, 2002

Beazley, a teenager from an upper-middle-class African American family, was a star athlete and the president of his senior class. But he also dealt drugs and carried a gun. In 1995, he told a friend he wanted to experience what it was like to steal a car and murder someone. He and two accomplices (who received life sentences) followed John and Bobbie Luttig to their home and shot at them both, killing John.