HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A former prison guard convicted of killing his 4-year-old son and five other people in 1992 was executed Wednesday after claiming his accomplice is innocent.
Before receiving his lethal injection, Robert Earl Carter, 34, said the crimes were his doing and another man convicted along with him, Anthony Graves, was innocent."I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused your family," he said, looking at six relatives of the victims. "It was me and me alone. Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it. I lied on him in court."
A few hours after the Texas execution, Oklahoma executed a man convicted of killing and dismembering his girlfriend.
Carter and Graves were convicted of murdering Bobbie Davis, 45; Nicole Davis, 16; Denitra Davis, 9; Brittany Davis, 6; Lea'Erin Davis, 5; and Jason Davis, 4. Jason Davis was Carter's son; he was stabbed to death as he cowered under a blanket.
The victims had been stabbed, shot or both when they were discovered by firefighters responding to a blaze at a home in Somerville, about 20 miles southwest of College Station.
Jason Davis' mother, Lisa Davis, was at work at the time of the killings. Authorities believe the men intended to confront Lisa Davis; court records show Carter was upset that she had named him in a paternity suit so she could seek child support for Jason.
Graves, 34, also was convicted of capital murder and is awaiting an execution date. Carter originally blamed Graves for all the murders, but at Graves' trial in 1994, Carter testified that he was the one who shot Nicole Davis.
In McAlester, Okla., James Glenn Robedeaux, 51, was executed by injection early Thursday for the 1985 murder and dismemberment of his girlfriend, Nancy Rose Lee McKinney. He met her shortly after being released from prison for the 1978 strangulation death of his wife.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush, meanwhile, was prepared Thursday to grant his first reprieve in a death penalty case after 131 Texas executions during his five years in office, including Wednesday's execution.
Bush, a death penalty supporter who last week announced that he supports DNA testing in some cases to settle any doubts, said he was "more than likely" to grant convicted child killer Ricky Nolen McGinn the one-time, 30-day reprieve as defense attorneys seek more testing of crime scene evidence.
McGinn is scheduled to die Thursday evening for the 1993 rape and killing of his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Bush said he would wait until McGinn runs out of appeals before acting.