A man who said he deserved to die was executed by injection for raping and killing a former homecoming queen and stuffing her body in the trunk of his parents' Cadillac.
Richard Brimage Jr., 41, was put to death Monday night months after ending his appeals. In his final statement, which he called "a message to you from God," he urged people to help children, "the truly innocent ones.""They are the key to making the world a better place," he said.
Relatives of the victim, 19-year-old Mary Beth Kunkel, watched the execution from behind a pane of thick glass.
"I'm pleased," mother Francis Kunkel said. "I thanked the Lord that it was over. To me it was sad."
Brimage lured Mary Beth Kunkel to his parents' house in 1987 to rape her. He injected her with cocaine and jammed a sock down her throat when she struggled. She died either of strangulation or by suffocation from the sock, according to testimony.