Texas Slayer Says Goodby to Dad, Then Is Executed

Jay Kelly Pinkerton, convicted of the mutilation-slaying of one woman and the murder of another, said goodby to his father and was executed today by injection, nine months after escaping the same fate by just 26 minutes.

Pinkerton, 24, was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m., just hours after federal judges rejected an appeal hand-delivered by his mother.

His father, Gene, the only relative to witness the execution, gripped an aluminum rail in the death chamber a few feet from his son.

“Be strong for me,” Pinkerton told his father. “I want you to know that I’m at peace with myself and with my God. I talked to everybody on the phone. I got to talk to Mom. Say goodby to Mom. Keep your spirits up for me.”

Then he chanted: “I bear witness to Allah. I ask for your forgiveness.”

“Bye, Jay,” his father said.

“I love you, Dad,” replied Pinkerton, who then said, “I feel dizziness. I feel dizziness.” He yawned, his eyes closed, and he died.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday twice refused to block the execution.

Pinkerton, an apprentice meat cutter, was executed for raping and mutilating Sarah Donn Lawrence in 1979 during a burglary of her Amarillo home when he was 17 years old. Lawrence, 30, was stabbed more than 50 times and her throat was slashed.

He also was convicted of the 1980 murder of Sherry Welch, 25, of Amarillo, who was stabbed while working in a furniture store.

Gov. Mark White called the slayings “two of the most brutal and heinous crimes imaginable.”