January 16

Texas Executes Killer for Jewelry-Store Slaughter

HUNTSVILLE, Texas  - Texas on Wednesday executed its second inmate of the year, putting to death a convicted armed robber who wrestled a .357 Magnum pistol away from a jewelry store clerk and killed her during a 1983 holdup.

 Jermarr Arnold, 43, was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, 75 miles north of Houston, for shooting Christine Marie Sanchez in the head during an armed robbery at a jewelry store in the Texas coastal city of Corpus Christi.

 He was serving time in a California prison for armed robbery in 1988 when he sent a letter to the district attorney in Corpus Christi offering that he had information about the then-unsolved crime. He later told investigators that he had shot Sanchez after she tried to aim a .357 Magnum as he took several items of jewelry from her at gunpoint.

 During his 1990 trial, Arnold took the stand during the punishment phase and told the jury that he deserved to have his life forfeited because he had taken one.

 ``I'm no longer fit to live because I can't live in a moral, law-abiding society,'' he said. ``I think it would be a moral decision for you to make by sentencing me to die.''

 Strapped to the gurney in the death house, Arnold apologized to Sanchez' parents and two brothers, who were present.

 ``I can give you one thing, and I am going to give it to you today. I give you my life. I'm giving a life for a life. You have a right to see this, and I am glad you are here,'' Arnold said.

 After his statement was finished, he began singing the hymn ``Amazing Grace.'' The flow of lethal drugs stopped him after he finished the line ``I once was blind but now I see.''

 He made no final meal request.

 Arnold was the second of four inmates scheduled for execution this month in Texas, the nation's death penalty leader since the U.S Supreme Court lifted a capital punishment ban in 1976. Texas resumed executions six years later and has executed 257 people since then including Arnold.

 On Jan. 30, former farmer Windell Broussard is scheduled to be executed for stabbing to death a 28-year-old woman and her 10-year-old son in 1992. A day later, former mechanic Randall Hafdahl is set to die for fatally shooting an off-duty Amarillo police officer in 1985.