Texas executes Arthur Brown Jr., kills four in Houston robbery

Huntsville, Texas — Texas is executed An inmate convicted of drug-related murders of four people, including a woman who was nine months pregnant, more than 30 years ago.

Arthur Brown Jr., 52, claimed he was innocent before being given a lethal injection Thursday night at Huntsville State Penitentiary. He was convicted of murder while being robbed.

Authorities say Brown was part of a drug trafficking ring from Texas to Alabama and bought drugs from Jose Tovar and his wife, Rachel Tovar.

It was 32-year-old Jose Tovar who was killed during a drug robbery. His wife’s 17-year-old son, Frank Farias. 19-year-old Jessica Quinones, the pregnant girlfriend of another son of Rachel Tovar. and 21-year-old neighbor Audrey Brown. All four were tied up and shot in the head. Rachel Tovar and one other girl were shot and survived.

“I can’t imagine anyone killing a pregnant woman and tormenting her so much. Words can’t describe it,” Quiñones’ sister, Maricela Quiñones, said before the execution.

Brown is the fifth person to be executed in Texas this year, and the ninth in the United States. Another inmate, Gary Greene, was executed Tuesday for murdering his estranged wife and infant daughter.

Brown was defiant in his final statement.

“What is happening here tonight is not justice,” he said. “It’s also the murder of an innocent man.”

He said he had proven his innocence, but “the court stopped me.”

“The state hid the evidence for so long that my lawyers couldn’t find it,” he exclaimed. – a dozen relatives of his victims seen from a window a few feet away from him.

Once a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital took effect, he took two deep breaths, gasped, and began snoring.After six snores, all movement ceased.He was pronounced dead 17 minutes later at 6:37 p.m.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who was among the witnesses to the execution, disputed Brown’s claim of innocence.

“He was the beneficiary of a backward-looking justice system at the local, state, and federal levels, right down to the U.S. Supreme Court, which confirmed all of his convictions and sentences,” she said.

Three members of Jessica Quinones’ family, including her mother, were among the witnesses, and issued a statement saying the day was neither joy nor celebration, but “deep relief and gratitude.”

“After 30 years of anguish and uncertainty, I was finally able to rest in the knowledge that the monsters that took so many lives would never again afflict the bodies and souls of others.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Brown’s attorney’s appeal to stay the execution. They argued that because Brown was mentally handicapped, he was exempt from execution, but prosecutors disputed this claim, and the High Court banned the death penalty for the mentally handicapped.

“Mr. Brown’s intellectual limitations were known to his friends and family. … Individuals who knew Mr. Brown throughout his life have consistently described him as ‘slow,'” he said. His attorney wrote in a petition to the Supreme Court.

One of Brown’s accomplices in the shooting Marion Dudley, was executed in 2006. A third partner was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Brown, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has long claimed another person committed the murder.

Brown’s attorneys had previously filed other appeals that were dismissed by lower courts. They argued that he was innocent and that the witness had actually implicated another suspect. He claimed he was found guilty because he was black.

A Houston judge on Tuesday denied a request for a DNA test of evidence Brown’s attorney said may have exonerated his client.

Josh Rice, head of the post-conviction warrant division at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Houston, called Brown’s last-minute appeal a delay tactic.

According to Rice, school records filed at Brown’s trial showed that the inmates were initially thought to be mentally retarded in the third grade, but by the ninth grade they were not. There was no. Prosecutors also said Brown’s claim of innocence was problematic.

“It was an absolutely brutal mass murder,” Rice said, adding, “These families deserve justice.”

Maricela Quiñones said her sister was an innocent victim and had no idea Mr. and Mrs. Tovar were dealing drugs from their home. said he was blaming

“Since my sister died, my mother is not the same as before,” she said.

She described her sister as “a very loving and caring person” who looked forward to becoming a mother.

She said her family is unlikely to close down.

“We lost two people. Alyssa never had a chance at life,” she said, referring to her sister’s unborn child.

Brown was one of six Texas death row inmates on a lawsuit to stop the state’s prison system from using what they claim is. Expired and Unsafe Execution DrugsFive of the inmates were executed this year, even though an Austin civil court judge preliminarily agreed with the allegations.