HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A 58-year-old East Texas man who pleaded guilty to a 2003 shooting frenzy that left two of his neighbors dead is set to be executed.
Wednesday's scheduled lethal injection of Barney Fuller Jr. would be the seventh this year in Texas and the first in six months for the nation's busiest death penalty state.
It would be the 16th this year nationally, reflecting a death penalty slowdown as capital cases get closer court scrutiny and states experience difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.
Fuller has asked that no court appeals be pursued to possibly save his life.
He is convicted of killing 43-year-old Nathan Copeland and Copeland's 39-year-old wife, Annette, in a long-standing dispute over a threatening phone call he made to them.
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