A man was executed by injection early Thursday in Huntsville, Texas, for kidnapping and murdering a convenience store manager during a robbery that also left a 7-year-old boy dead.
Jeffery Lee Griffin, 37, had been on death row since 1979 for killing David Sobotik, 19, who was stabbed repeatedly in a pattern around his heart.Griffin was laughing with a prison chaplain as witnesses filed into the death chamber.
"I want to say bye to my mom," he said. "I love her; my aunt; my fiance, Regina, in England. I'm going to be free."
Then he nodded to an assistant warden and told him, "You're a good warden. I'll see you. I'm ready."
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He was pronounced dead six minutes later.