WASHINGTON, 31 MAG - Un uomo di 35 anni, che, durante una rapina che gli valse 50 dollari, aveva ucciso il commesso di una videoteca, e' stato messo a morte nel carcere di Huntsville con un'iniezione letale.

   Stanley Baker uccise Wayne Walters con tre colpi di pistola a College Station, Texas, nel settembre del 1994. L'uomo, quando venne arrestato, poco dopo la fatale rapina, aveva con se' piani per uccidere 30 persone.

   Baker e' stata la 15.a persona la cui condanna a morte e' stata eseguita quest'anno in Texas e la quinta nel solo mese di maggio. Altre cinque esecuzioni sono previste in giugno.

   Da quando la PENA DI MORTE e' di nuovo eseguita negli Usa, cioe' dal 1982, il Texas ha mandato a morte 271 persone, molte di piu' di qualsiasi altri Stato dell'Unione.

MAY 30, 2002:

TEXAS - execution - Killer of video store clerk executed

Convicted killer Stanley Baker was executed this evening for fatally shooting a video store clerk 8 years ago in College Station.

 "I don't have anything to say," Baker said when the warden asked if he had a last statement. "I'm just sorry about what I did to Mr. Peters and that's all," he said, misidentifying his victim.

 Baker had no witnesses and no witnesses from the victim's family attended.

 As the drugs began taking effect, he remarked, "My arm feels cold... got some pain in my left arm, I guess that's the poison."

 Baker coughed, gasped and slightly wheezed. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., 9 minutes after the lethal does began.

 Baker had the murder weapon, was driving the victim's truck and had about $50 taken from the store when he was arrested a couple of hours after shooting Wayne John Walters, 44.

 Police also had blood evidence and a piece of a tooth that tied Baker to the crime.

 "When I was firing the shotgun, I broke my tooth and I left some DNA evidence behind," he chuckled as he pointed to a chipped front tooth during a recent interview on death row.

 He was arrested by a state trooper in Bastrop, about 70 miles west of College Station. When he surrendered, he had a cut lip from the recoil of the shotgun and a bloody shirt.

 "I really was depressed all the time," he said. "I just wanted it to end. It's weird the way it happened. It's like I went insane."

 Dressed in green fatigues, Baker walked into the adult video store Sept. 28, 1994, carrying a 12-gauge shotgun. Walters surrendered his keys without resistance but Baker opened fire. The 3rd shot hit Walters in the back of the head as the clerk was laying on the floor.

 Authorities believed Baker had bigger plans. His notebook found in the stolen truck listed his goals for the year as "30 victims dead, 30 armed robberies, and steal a lot of cars."

 Bill Turner, the Brazos County district attorney who prosecuted Baker, said he believed the cut lip and bloody shirt changed Baker's immediate plans to walk armed into a Winn-Dixie supermarket where Baker recently quit work as a stock clerk after a dispute.

 Documents found at Baker's home indicated he wanted to kill the store manager and others and leave no witnesses behind.

 "Though I've given 4 years to your store, I've long felt my efforts were unappreciated," Baker said in an obscenity-filled resignation letter.

 When arrested, he had hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a brass-knuckled stiletto, a bulletproof vest, a garrote and survival gear.

 At his home, police found a map of New York City and a notation from Baker describing it as "the ultimate hunting ground," Turner said.

 "I really think we were lucky there was one person dead," the prosecutor said Wednesday. "I think if he hadn't chipped his tooth, he would have gone on about his way, gotten to Winn-Dixie and caused a lot of problems.

 "Some people kill out of meanness or they want your money. To me, this guy was more about killing people to prove he was a bad guy. He wanted the world, at that time, to know he was a bad guy."

 The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case in late March. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a pair of 17-0 votes Tuesday, refused to recommend his sentence be commuted to life in prison and refused a reprieve request.

 "I'm just glad it's about over. I'm looking forward to the last meal, but not the part that comes after," he laughed. "It's going to happen. I might as well accept it."

Baker was born in Paris, France, where his Army father was stationed. He grew up in San Antonio, spent four years in the Army and moved to College Station. He joined the National Guard and spent two years taking classes at Blinn College. He said he wanted to be a history teacher.

 Baker, who did not testify at his 1995 trial, said he was at a loss to explain what set him off.

"I ask myself that, too," he said.

Baker becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 271st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He was the 5th inmate executed this month.

At least 5 executions are scheduled for June, putting Texas on a pace for the year to nearly equal the record 40 executions carried out in 2000.

Baker becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 780th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.