HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The Latest on the execution of a convicted killer in Texas (all times local):
5 p.m.
An East Texas man set to die for killing a neighbor couple 13 years ago during a shooting frenzy remains adamant about moving forward with his execution.
Barney Fuller Jr. has told prison officials he's not changing his mind about dropping court appeals.
He was taken Wednesday afternoon from the prison that houses the state's male death row inmates and moved about 45 miles west to the Huntsville Unit prison in downtown Huntsville where executions are carried out.
Prison agency spokesman Jason Clark says the 58-year-old Fuller has been in good spirits and has said he doesn't want to talk with his lawyer.
Fuller has been taken to a small holding cell a few feet from the Texas death chamber to await his lethal injection scheduled for Wednesday evening.
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12:30 a.m.
An East Texas man who pleaded guilty to killing a neighbor couple during a shooting rampage 13 years ago appears headed for an execution that he wants.
Barney Fuller Jr. asked that his appeals be dropped to expedite his lethal injection set for Wednesday evening.
The 58-year-old Fuller would be the seventh prisoner executed this year in Texas and the first in six months in the nation's most active death penalty state. It would be only the 16th execution this year nationally amid a downturn in capital punishment.
A federal judge earlier this year ruled Fuller was competent to proceed with his execution for the May 2003 fatal shootings of his neighbors, 43-year-old Nathan Copeland and Copeland's 39-year-old wife, Annette, inside their rural home about 100 miles north of Houston.
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