Grim Milestone: Allah-Invoking Fiend 400th Iced in Texas Since 1976

The State of Texas hit the grim milestone of 400 people executed since 1976 by removing Allah-invoking Johnny Ray Conner from society last night, despite pleas from the Euroweenies to spare this piece of garbage.

Convenience store clerk killer becomes 400th executed in Texas

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Condemned killer Johnny Ray Conner asked for forgiveness and said he'd be waiting in heaven for loved ones, including his victim's relatives, as he became the 400th Texas inmate executed since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty a quarter-century ago.

"Shed no tears for me," Conner, 32, said as tears flowed from witnesses on both sides of the death chamber Wednesday evening.

Hey, no problem. I'll respect your dying wish. Not a single tear shed here.

He received lethal injection for the slaying of Kathyanna Nguyen, 49, during a failed robbery at her Houston convenience store in 1998. Conner's two sisters were among people watching through a window as he died. Nguyen's daughter and a sister were among those watching through another window.

"When I get to the gates of heaven, I'm going to be waiting for you," he told them. "I will open my arms for you."

He had asked the warden for permission to speak longer than the usual alloted two to three minutes, specifically wanting to talk to his victim's daughter, and spoke slowly and with emotion.

"What's happening now, you are suffering," he told his family. "I didn't mean to hurt y'all.... This is destiny. This is life. This is something I have to do."

He ended by saying what was happening to him was "unjust and the system is broken," then invoked Allah. "To Allah I belong and to Allah I return," he said.

One wonders how much notice his tribute to Allah will get from the media.

Eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead, making him the 21st condemned killer executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Three more executions are scheduled for next week.

The 400-execution milepost prompted an outcry from death penalty opponents. Only a handful of protesters, however, gathered down the street from the prison entrance Wednesday evening. The first in Texas was carried out in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume.

"I know it's just a number, but 400," said David Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "Sometimes when I think about it I'm numbed, but still shocked. I'm very sad we're still doing this.

You won't have long to wait for No. 401, so get the sobbing out of the way now.

Scheduled to die next is DaRoyce Mosley, set for lethal injection Tuesday for his part in the slayings of four people in the robbery of a bar in Kilgore in East Texas in 1994.

Listening to radio this morning, a discussion about the Yankees was interrupted by moonbat author John Feinstein, who went on a rant about George W. Bush killing people in Texas and Iraq. Give it a rest and stick to sports. He also yukked it up about how his nine-year-old daughter wants to impeach Bush and Dick Cheney.

I wonder where she got that idea?