USA; TEXAS, ESEGUITA CONDANNA TRIPLICE OMICIDA

WASHINGTON,  - Nel carcere di Huntsville in Texas e' stata eseguita iersera la condanna a morte di un ex sergente dell'esercito che uccise tre persone: la moglie da cui era separato e che voleva divorziare da lui, una figlioletta di cinque mesi e una nipotina di un anno e mezzo.

Christopher Black Senior, 43 anni, non ha rilasciato dichiarazioni, prima di subirel'iniezione letale.

Gli omicidi avvennero il 7 febbraio 1998 a Kileen nel Texas, dove la moglie di Black viveva: la donna, 36 anni, ricevette dieci pallottole in corpo, la nipotina cinque, la figlioletta solo una. Un uomo sopravvisse alla sparatoria e testimonio' contro Black.

Dopo il triplice omicidio, l'ex sergente chiamo' la polizia, dicendo che era rimasto senza pallottole. Quando la polizia arrivo', l'ex sergente teneva in braccio la figlioletta. Prima di partire per Kileen, per la sua spedizione omicida, l'uomo spedi' nastri registrati ai suoi familiari, in cui spiegava le ragioni del delitto.

L'esecuzione di iersera, cui hanno assistito i genitori e quattro sorelle della vittima, e' stata la 18.a in Texas dall'inizio dell'anno e la 307.a da quando le esecuzioni sono riprese in Texas nel 1982.

Texas executes man who shot wife, baby over divorce

HUNTSVILLE, Texas,  - Texas on Wednesday   executed a former Army sergeant whose anger over an impending divorce led   him to gun down his wife, his infant daughter and another toddler in 1998.

Christopher Black Sr., 43, was executed by lethal injection for the Feb. 7, 1998, killing spree, becoming the 18th inmate put to death this year in the top U.S capital punishment state and the second in as many weeks.

Angry that his wife, Gwendolyn Black, 36, wanted a divorce, he bought a gun and took it to her home in the central Texas city of Killeen.

He shot her 10 times, then shot his 17-month-old step-granddaughter, Katrease Houston, five times and put a single bullet into his 5-month-old daughter Christina's head.

A friend of Gwendolyn Black, Deidre Blackburn, escaped during the shooting and later testified against him.

Black called 911 immediately and confessed, and was holding his dead child in his arms when police arrived.

 At his trial, testimony showed Black applied for a handgun license and then recorded tapes explaining his reasons for the murders. The cassettes were mailed to his family so that they arrived after he had carried out the crime.

Black declined to give a final statement as he lay strapped to the gurney in the Texas death chamber. His brother watched from a nearby viewing room, while his wife's parents and four siblings viewed the execution from an adjacent room.

For his last meal, Black requested a steak cooked to medium well, fried chicken wings and thighs, french fries with mushroom gravy, steamed vegetables, bread, a chef salad with Italian dressing, chocolate fudge cake, peach cobbler and sweetened iced tea.

Black was the 307th person executed since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a nationwide death penalty ban. Two other executions are scheduled this month in Texas.