In Texas, a convicted murderer has been executed who killed his wife and two step-sons. The death sentence against Robert Sparks was enforced on Wednesday in a Texas jail.
The 45-year-old was given a lethal injection. At 18:39 he was pronounced dead. The US Supreme Court had rejected appeals against the execution only hours earlier.
Sparks was sentenced to death in 2008. In September 2007, he stabbed his wife and their nine and ten-year-old sons at night in his home in Dallas. He then raped his twelve and 14-year-old stepdaughters. He later claimed to have acted out of revenge because his wife wanted to poison him.
The lawsuit against Sparks caused a stir because a court clerk wore a tie with a syringe. Apparently, he wanted to express his support for the death penalty.
Sparks is already the 16th prisoner to be executed in the US this year. In Texas, the state with the most executions in decades, there were already seven executions this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
