USA-EXECUTION-TEXAS

Texas executes man who received Sept. 11 reprieve

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A Texas inmate who was supposed to die on Sept. 11 but received a reprieve because of the attacks on New York and Washington was put to death on Wednesday for a 1988 murder.

Jeffery Tucker, 41, became the 15th person executed this year in Texas, the nation's leading capital punishment state, when he received a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, 75 miles (120 kms) north of  Houston.

Tucker was set to die on Sept. 11, but the plane attacks that killed some 4,600 people also disrupted the federal court system. Fearful that Tucker's legal appeals would be affected, Texas Gov. Rick Perry granted a 30-day reprieve.

Once the courts resumed normal operations, Tucker's appeals were quickly dismissed and a new execution date set.

He was condemned for the July 11, 1988, murder of Wilton Humphreys, who was shot to death near the northern Texas town of Granbury while trying to sell his truck and trailer to Tucker.

Tucker told police he pretended he was going to buy the vehicles, when his real intent was to steal them and take off on a cross-country crime spree.

In a final statement while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber, Tucker apologized for the crime.

"I'd like to tell the Humphreys family I am sorry for the pain and suffering that I have caused you. ... I just ask that my death bring you peace and solace," he said.

For his final meal, Tucker requested six pieces of fried chicken, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, eight cinnamon rolls, vanilla ice cream, a pitcher of milk and ketchup.

He was the 254th person put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a national death penalty ban.

A Dallas man who killed a restaurant manager during a 1988 robbery was set for execution on Thursday night.