Texas’ Death Chamber Operating at a Record Pace

An inmate convicted of killing a man during a Christmas Eve burglary eight years ago was put to death Tuesday as Texas neared its own record for the number of executions by a state in a year.

Stacey Lawton, 31, was pronounced dead after a fatal mix of chemicals was injected into his arms at the state prison in Huntsville, 75 miles north of Houston.

He was the 36th person executed this year in Texas, one short of the nation-leading 37 the state put to death in 1997.

The state has two more executions scheduled this week, which would give it a record 38 for the year, the most by any state since authorities began keeping death penalty records in 1930. Three more executions are scheduled in December.

Lawton was sentenced to die for murdering Dennis Price in Tyler, on Dec. 24, 1992.

Price had gone out to confront Lawton and two other men as they broke into his truck. Lawton shot Price in the chest with a shotgun he had stolen in an earlier burglary.

To the end, Lawton denied he was the triggerman.

“I don’t want you to look at me like I’m a killer. . . . I know how it looked, but I didn’t do it,” he told witnesses while he was strapped to a gurney in the state’s death chamber.

For his final meal, Lawton asked for a cheeseburger, French fries and a jar of pickles.

Texas, which leads the nation in capital punishment, has executed 235 people since the Supreme Court lifted a national death penalty ban in 1976.

Of those, 148 have been performed since Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, took office in January 1995.

Set for execution today is Tony Chambers, 32, who was condemned for sexually assaulting and murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1990.

On Thursday, Texas is scheduled to put to death Johnny Paul Penry, 44, despite his attorneys’ claims that he is mentally retarded and should not be killed. Penry was sentenced to die for the 1979 rape and murder of Pamela Carpenter, 22, in Livingston.