Don Wilson Hawkins, 43 anni, � stato messo a morte.

OKLAHOMA CITY (STATI UNITI), 9 APR - E' stato messo a morte ieri in Oklahoma un uomo che aveva rapito nel 1985 una donna di 29 anni e le sue due figlie, e poi annegato la madre in un lago quando aveva capito che la sua famiglia non poteva pagare il riscatto richiesto.

Don Wilson Hawkins, 43 anni, e' morto due minuti dopo aver ricevuto l'iniezione letale nel carcere della citta' di McAlester, nell'est dello stato.

Hawkins e il suo complice Dale Shelton - che sta scontando l'ergastolo - rapirono, nel parcheggio di un centro commerciale di Oklahoma City, Linda Ann Thompson e le sue figlie di 18 mesi e quattro anni. I due rubarono alla donna pochi dollari, poi la segregarono incatenata in un granaio, mentre le due piccole erano tenute in una casa.

Il giorno dopo il rapimento Hawkins e Dale capirono che la famiglia non poteva pagare il riscatto: liberarono le bambine lasciandole a casa di una baby sitter e portarono invece la madre a un lago, dove venne annegata, perche' i due temevano potesse riconoscerli.

Hawkins e' stato il sesto condannato messo a morte quest'anno, e il 61/o da quando lo stato ha ripreso ad eseguire le condanne alla pena capitale nel 1990.

Oklahoma executes man who kidnapped, drowned woman

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 8 - Oklahoma executed on Tuesday a man who kidnapped a woman and her two children and later drowned the mother in a lake when he realized her family could not meet ransom demands.

Don Wilson Hawkins, 43, died at 6:07 p.m. CDT (2300 GMT), two minutes after being injected with a lethal cocktail of chemicals at the state's death chamber in the eastern Oklahoma city of McAlester, prison officials said.

"I've got peace. The state needs vengeance for the crime I've done," Hawkins said in his last statement, according to prison spokesman Jerry Massie.

"They're going to punish my body, but Jesus has forgiven me," Hawkins reportedly said.

Hawkins was convicted of the 1985 kidnapping and murder of Linda Ann Thompson, who was 29.

Hawkins and co-defendant Dale Shelton kidnapped Thompson at a shopping mall parking lot in Oklahoma City with her two daughters, then aged 18 months and 4 years.

The men stole a few dollars from Thompson and took her bound in chains into a barn, while her children were kept separate in a house.

The day after the three were abducted, the kidnappers decided the family could not pay the ransom. Hawkins and Shelton then dropped the children off at the home of a baby sitter and took Thompson to a lake.

The men had tied up Thompson, and Hawkins drowned her because he thought she would be able to identify them in court, according to court records.

Shelton was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the crime.

Hawkins' last requested meal was a stuffed-crust pizza and a soft drink.

He was the sixth man Oklahoma has executed this year, and the 61st since the state resumed implementing the death penalty in 1990.