A 53-year-old American who was sentenced to death more than 30 years ago was executed yesterday, Thursday, in Texas, USA.

Brent Brewer’s final appeal was rejected Tuesday by the Texas appeals court.

His death occurred at 18:38 (yesterday afternoon local time, 02:38 this morning Greek time), according to a statement from the state authorities.

“I would like to say to the victim’s family that I could never find the right words to make up for what I did,” were Brewer’s last words.

This was the 21st execution to take place in the US this year and the seventh in Texas.

32 years on death row

Brewer was originally sentenced to death on 1991 for the previous year’s murder of 66-year-old Robert Laminack, who had hit Brewer and his girlfriend, Christy Lynn Nystrom, in his car.

After stabbing Laminac, the pair fled with his wallet containing $140.

Brewer’s death sentence was overturned in 2007 by the US Supreme Court, but in a retrial in 2009 he was re-sentenced to life.

A key role in this decision was played by the testimony of a psychiatrist on the assessment of his “future dangerousness”, which was later deemed unreliable by the Texas justice system.

Brewer has expressed remorse for his actions in a video explaining that he realized the gravity of the events after his arrest.

According to a recent Gallup poll on the death penalty, a majority of Americans (50% versus 47%) believe, for the first time since 2000, when research on the issue began, that it is not applied impartially in the US.

However, the majority of respondents (53%) still favor the death penalty.

For the first time running with nitrogen

All executions in the US are by lethal injection.

But the state of Alabama has announced its intention to execute Kenneth Smith in January 2024 by nitrogen inhalation, which will be the first time this has happened. In this type of execution death is caused by hypoxia.

Smith’s execution by lethal injection in November 2022 for a murder he committed in 1986 was called off at the last minute because prison officials failed to start the IV before the execution warrant expired at midnight.