Keith Clay (v. nostro appello) � stato messo a morte. Prima dell'esecuzione la Comunit� di Sant'Egidio ha organizzato una veglia di preghiera con i liceali romani nei pressi del Colosseo.

WASHINGTON, 21 MAR - Keith Clay, 35 anni, e' stato il 300/o condannato a morte la cui sentenza e' stata eseguita in Texas da quando, vent'anni or sono, il boia e' tornato all'opera dopo una moratoria. Clay, che e' stato messo a morte con un'iniezione letale nel carcere di Huntsville, aveva ucciso a rivoltellate, durante una rapina, nel 1994, il commesso di un negozio. Prima dell'esecuzione, Clay ha pronunciato una preghiera. Il Texas e' di gran lunga lo Stato dell'Unione dove la pena di morte viene applicata con maggiore frequenza.

    Texas executes 300th inmate in 21 years

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, March 20  - Texas on Thursday   carried out its 300th execution since resuming capital punishment in 1982,  passing a grim milestone as the country's death penalty leader.

Texas executed Keith Clay, 35, by lethal injection for the Jan. 4, 1994, murder and robbery of gas station cashier Melathethil Varughese in Baytown, just east of Houston.

In his final statement, Clay apologized to his victim's family.

"To the Varughese family, I would ask that you forgive me because I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry," Clay said, strapped to the gurney at the state prison in Huntsville, 75 miles (120 km) north of Houston.

"There is not a day that I have not prayed for you."

For his last meal, Clay requested four pieces of fried chicken, a bacon cheeseburger,   mashed potatoes, two pints of ice cream and a two vanilla Cokes.

Clay became the 300th executed inmate in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court last week granted a stay to Delma Banks, a black man condemned for killing a white teenager, just 10 minutes before he was to be executed.

Clay garnered less of the attention that was paid to the Banks' case, which was seen as an example of what critics say are the flaws in the Texas justice system including racism, poor legal defense and alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

Texas has carried out more than a third of all U.S. executions since the Supreme Court lifted a nationwide death penalty ban in 1976. The state carried out its first in 1982.

Clay was the 11th inmate executed in the state this year.

If Texas keeps up its current pace, it will surpass its single-year U.S. record of 40 executions, set in 2000.

Few expect Texas, where public and political support is firmly behind the death penalty, to consider a moratorium on executions. Illinois declared a moratorium in January 2000.