This week in 2006
“I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me. You don’t have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you 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. I don’t deserve to cause you pain. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting.”
— Angel Resendiz, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed June 27, 2006
Last-ditch appeals delayed Resendiz’s execution after he told psychiatrists that he was half-man, half-angel, and as such couldn’t die. Serial killer Resendiz was linked to at least thirteen murders, but he may have committed up to twenty-four, earning him a spot on the FBI’s most-wanted list. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, “The start of the execution was delayed almost two hours while the U.S. Supreme Court considered several last-day appeals.”
This week in 1904
“I deserve to die, and the sooner they put an end to my troubles the better. I’ve got an uncontrollable temper, and if released would only commit more violent crimes. I’d kill a man for 5 cents as quick as for anything else.”
— Frank Henry Burness, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed June 27, 1904
Burness smiled in the execution chamber while awaiting electrocution for killing the captain of a schooner. He boasted that he had killed no fewer than nine people and vowed he’d do it again if given the chance. “Burness” was assumed to be just another alias; his true name was never discovered.
This week in 2007
“…I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That’s the biggest joke, I deserve this. And the other joke is I
am not Patrick Bryan Knight, and y’all can’t stop this execution now. Go ahead, I’m finished. Come on, tell me Lord…”
— Patrick Knight, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed June 26, 2007
Knight solicited jokes from the general public so he could tell one at his execution for the double abduction and murder of Walter and Mary Werner. He received more than thirteen hundred suggestions after a friend set up a MySpace .com profile named “Dead Man Laughing.” Knight, however, opted for more serious subjects and then claimed he was not “Patrick Bryan Knight.” His fingerprints, taken before the execution, confirmed his identity.
