Wednesday’s execution will be the 479th in Texas since 1982 and the 240th since Rick Perry became Governor. As of Wednesday, more than 50 percent of all executions in Texas in the modern era will have been conducted under Rick Perry.
Office of Governor Rick Perry 512 463 2000.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — An inmate already saddled with 17 life prison terms told a jury he deserved death for organizing the largest-ever jailbreak from a Texas prison and then killing a suburban Dallas police officer while a fugitive with six others who escaped with him.
Prosecutors insisted George Rivas actually was trying to manipulate jurors and use reverse psychology on them to avoid the death chamber. But if that was the prisoner’s plan, it didn’t work. Jurors decided he should die, and now the 41-year-old Rivas is set for lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville.
Rivas was the first of his prison-break gang, which became known as the “Texas 7,” to be tried for the fatal shooting of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins on Christmas Eve of 2000. All of the inmates received death sentences for the killing.
With his appeals exhausted, Rivas has seen his request for clemency rejected by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. He’s acknowledged he’s ready to die for the killing.
“It’s bittersweet,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from death row. “Bitter because I hurt for my family … Sweet because it’s almost over.” He declined an interview with The Associated Press.
