With his mother sobbing hysterically a few feet away, Kenneth Ray Ransom was executed for his part in a stabbing rampage that left four people dead at a Houston amusement center 14 years ago.
Ransom, 34, strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney Tuesday evening, had asked his mother, Pearlie, to be strong.The woman fell to the floor of the viewing room and screamed when her son gasped as the lethal drugs began taking effect. She was lifted into a wheelchair and taken from the room before her son was pronounced dead.
Ransom's last statement included a lengthy Muslim chant. He also insisted he was innocent of the killings and said his death would be "an instrument to abolishing the death penalty."
Ransom was condemned for fatally stabbing one of the four employees killed July 1, 1983, at the Malibu Grand Prix, a video arcade and go-cart track in southwest Houston.