This week in 2008

“I want you all to know, everyone with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Thank you for being here today to honor Felecia Prechtl, whom I didn’t even know. To celebrate my death. My death began on August 2, 1991 and continued when I began to see the beautiful and innocent life that I had taken. I am so terribly sorry. I wish I could die more than once to tell you how sorry I am…Thank you for being a part of my life. I love you. May God be with us all. May God have mercy on us all. I am ready. Please do not hate anybody because . . .”

— Karl Chamberlain, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed June 11, 2008

An Associated Press writer reported that Chamberlain was “unable to finish as he slipped into unconsciousness.” The August 2 date he referred to was the date of his crime, when he raped and murdered neighbor Felecia Prechtl, whose body was later found by her five-year-old son. (News accounts differ on the spelling of the victim’s first name.)