WASHINGTON, 23 GEN - Nel carcere di Huntsville, in Texas, un operaio edile che picchio' a morte con un'asta d'acciaio i nonni mentre dormivano per rubare loro i soldi e comprarsi la droga ha ricevuto l'iniezione letale mercoledi' sera.

   Robert Lookingbill era stato condannato alla pena capitale per l'uccisione della nonna di 70 anni e stava scontando una pena a 75 anni per quella del nonno, che mori' dopo quasi un anno di coma.

   Nella camera della morte, Lookingbill, 37 anni, ha avuto poche parole per sua moglie, sposata mentre attendeva l'esecuzione, i suoi amici e i suoi familiari e ha mandato loro un bacio. Il decesso e' stato constatato 13 minuti dopo l'avvenuta iniezione.

   Dopo avere ritrattato la sua confessione, Lookingbill non aveva mai smesso di proclamarsi innocente del doppio delitto che risaliva al dicembre del 1989.

   Di recente, pero', aveva detto, quando gia' era nel braccio della morte, che lo Stato gli faceva un favore mettendolo a morte perche' ''l'altra parte offre di piu' di questa vita''.

   L'edile e' stato la terza persona la cui condanna e' stata eseguita quest'anno in Texas e il 292.o da quando le esecuzioni sono riprese. 

Texas executes man who killed grandmother

In Huntsville, a construction worker who was on parole when he bludgeoned his grandparents to steal money to buy cocaine was executed Wednesday night.

"When it comes, you can't run from it and I'm not going to run," Robert Lookingbill said in his final statement from the death chamber gurney.

"I would like to thank all my loves ones that are standing over there for all the kindness and support you have shown me over the years," he said, referring to his wife, Brenda, and some friends. "Be strong. Do not hate, but learn from this experience. It has been a blessing to know all of you. Don't forget me."

He mouthed kisses to them. He let out 2 strong breaths and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., 13 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Lookingbill was resigned to facing lethal injection for Adeline Dannenberg's 1989 fatal beating with a steel bar as she slept. The U.S. Supreme Court denied 2 requests for stays.

He never wavered on his insistence he didn't kill his 70-year-old grandmother in her South Texas home.

"They're doing me a favor," Lookingbill said recently from death row. "The other side offers more than this life."

Lookingbill, 37, was the 3rd convicted killer put to death this year in Texas.

"It was one of those cases where the jury had no problem convicting him," said Sophia Arizpe, one of the Hidalgo County district attorneys who prosecuted Lookingbill. "He had the blood spatters on his clothing and his boots, which is consistent with being there when the crime is committed."

Lookingbill grew up in Hidalgo County, dropped out of high school at 11th grade and lived with his parents or grandparents, Adeline and Lorenz Dannenberg. He returned to the Dannenbergs in 1987 after serving less than a year in prison on a burglary conviction.

On Dec. 5, 1989, Lookingbill came home after 1 a.m. from what he said was "a night of partying" that included drinking and snorting cocaine and said he found his grandparents beaten.

"It was pretty upsetting," Lookingbill said.

His grandmother was in bed with fractures to her skull, jaw and hand and bone fragments in her brain. She died 10 days later. Lorenz Dannenberg, 77, was found with similar head injuries on the living room floor. He survived for about a year but was comatose, unable to help police.

Lookingbill also was sentenced to 75 years in prison for attempted capital murder in his grandfather's attack.

Lookingbill said he called police and sought help from the renter of an apartment behind the Dannenbergs' house.

As police questioned Lookingbill, other officers found a 3 1/2-foot-long metal bar covered with blood stains and hair strands in a tool shed behind the Dannenbergs' house. The blood belonged to Lorenz Dannenberg.

Lookingbill, while maintaining he had found his grandparents beaten, eventually signed a confession saying he arrived home "all coked up," beat his grandparents and took more than $500 from his grandmother's purse. Prosecutors said he took the money to buy drugs.

Lookingbill said he thought he was putting his initials on statements regarding his rights and the $568.31 found in his jeans pocket by police that night was earnings from his construction job.

"I didn't have to steal the money to get cocaine," he said. "They were worth more to me than $500."

Arizpe said there was no indication Lookingbill had a bad relationship with his grandparents. Prosecutors focused on his drug use and that he knew the Dannenbergs had money at home, she said.

Lookingbill becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 292nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982.

Lookingbill becomes the 53rd condemned inmate put to death in Texas since Rick Perry's tenure as Governor began.

Lookingbill becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 824th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.