'Railroad killer' is put to death for a 1998 slaying
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
THE Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- Train-hopping serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, linked to at least 15 indiscriminate slayings near railroad tracks across the country, said he deserved what he was getting and asked for forgiveness before he was executed Tuesday night.
Resendiz, 46, mumbled a prayer, saying, "Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me" as he waited for the execution to proceed. His feet nervously moved under a white sheet partially covering him.
He acknowledged relatives watching through a nearby window and then turned and looked toward the victims' relatives in another room.
"I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me," he said in English, looking toward the relatives of some of his victims. "You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me.
"I thank God for having patience for me. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting."
He then said a prayer in Spanish. He was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m.
The Mexican drifter known as the "railroad killer" was executed for killing Houston physician Claudia Benton in late 1998. But Resendiz's killings began with a murder in San Antonio in 1986 and ended in June 1999 with a double slaying in Illinois. For a while, he was on the FBI's Most Wanted list as authorities searched for a killer who slipped across the U.S. border and roamed the country by freight train.
Benton's death is among eight in Texas linked to Resendiz. Two were tied to him in Illinois and two in Florida, and one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
Benton, 39, was stabbed with a kitchen knife, hit 19 times with a 2-foot-tall bronze statue and raped in her home eight days before Christmas in 1998 in the Houston enclave of West University Place, just down the street from a railroad track.
Her husband, George Benton, returned to the state to witness Resendiz's death.
Resendiz, who had appeared in court last week with a long beard and long hair, was clean-shaven Tuesday night.
The start of the execution was delayed almost two hours while the U.S. Supreme Court considered several last-day appeals. The court rejected the appeals at 7:25 p.m.
Resendiz's lead appeals attorney, Jack Zimmermann, had argued that Resendiz, who described himself as half-man and half-angel, told psychiatrists that he couldn't be executed because he didn't believe he could die.
The court also rejected an appeal by the Houston-based consul general of Mexico questioning Resendiz's competency and challenging the constitutionality of the lethal injection process as cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment is not practiced in Mexico.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/14919477.htm
THE Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- Train-hopping serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, linked to at least 15 indiscriminate slayings near railroad tracks across the country, said he deserved what he was getting and asked for forgiveness before he was executed Tuesday night.
Resendiz, 46, mumbled a prayer, saying, "Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me" as he waited for the execution to proceed. His feet nervously moved under a white sheet partially covering him.
He acknowledged relatives watching through a nearby window and then turned and looked toward the victims' relatives in another room.
"I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me," he said in English, looking toward the relatives of some of his victims. "You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me.
"I thank God for having patience for me. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting."
He then said a prayer in Spanish. He was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m.
The Mexican drifter known as the "railroad killer" was executed for killing Houston physician Claudia Benton in late 1998. But Resendiz's killings began with a murder in San Antonio in 1986 and ended in June 1999 with a double slaying in Illinois. For a while, he was on the FBI's Most Wanted list as authorities searched for a killer who slipped across the U.S. border and roamed the country by freight train.
Benton's death is among eight in Texas linked to Resendiz. Two were tied to him in Illinois and two in Florida, and one each in Kentucky, California and Georgia.
Benton, 39, was stabbed with a kitchen knife, hit 19 times with a 2-foot-tall bronze statue and raped in her home eight days before Christmas in 1998 in the Houston enclave of West University Place, just down the street from a railroad track.
Her husband, George Benton, returned to the state to witness Resendiz's death.
Resendiz, who had appeared in court last week with a long beard and long hair, was clean-shaven Tuesday night.
The start of the execution was delayed almost two hours while the U.S. Supreme Court considered several last-day appeals. The court rejected the appeals at 7:25 p.m.
Resendiz's lead appeals attorney, Jack Zimmermann, had argued that Resendiz, who described himself as half-man and half-angel, told psychiatrists that he couldn't be executed because he didn't believe he could die.
The court also rejected an appeal by the Houston-based consul general of Mexico questioning Resendiz's competency and challenging the constitutionality of the lethal injection process as cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment is not practiced in Mexico.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/14919477.htm