Review Doesn't Halt Texas Executions

This photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Michael Richard who is scheduled for execution by lethal injection at the Texas prison in Huntsville, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007. Richards 49, is set to die for the 1986 slaying of Marguerite Lucille Dixon, a 53-year-old nurse and mother of seven. (AP Photo/Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice) (AP)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- The nation's busiest death penalty state executed another inmate Tuesday night, hours after the Supreme Court said it would review whether the lethal injection method most states use is cruel and unusual.

Michael Richard, 49, was put to death for the 1986 shooting of Marguerite Lucille Dixon, a 53-year-old nurse and mother of seven. Richard had been released from his second prison term eight weeks before Dixon was raped and killed inside her home.

Asked if he'd like to make a final statement, Richard said, "I'd like my family to take care of each other. I love you, Angel. Let's ride." He was pronounced dead at 8:23 p.m.

Another execution, the 27th in Texas this year, remained scheduled for Thursday, and officials said Tuesday's announcement by the Supreme Court would not affect the state's execution docket.

"We will go forward with our interpretation of the law," Gov. Rick Perry said.

After the Supreme Court's announcement, Richard's attorneys asked the justices to halt his execution in the meantime, but the court rejected that appeal.

Ten of the 37 states that use the three-drug cocktail under review by the Supreme Court have suspended its use after opponents alleged it was ineffective and cruel, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But Texas is unlikely to halt lethal injections unless the Supreme Court issues a blanket stay.

"We are monitoring this, but until the court rules or gives direction, nothing changes from our perspective," said Allison Castle, a Perry spokeswoman.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott declined to comment.

If the three-drug cocktail were outlawed, it wouldn't be the first time Texas adapted to changing rules on how to humanely execute inmates. Criminals who committed capital crimes died by hanging in Texas from 1819 to 1923, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

On Feb. 8, 1924, the state executed five people in the electric chair, the method it would use to kill 361 inmates through 1964.

Richard was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out his conviction in 1992 because jurors were not allowed to consider evidence that Richard had been abused as a child. In 1995, a second jury convicted him and sentenced him to die.

At least one psychological assessment put his IQ at 64, with 70 considered the threshold of retardation.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down requests to halt the execution because of claims Richard was mentally retarded. Attorneys then asked for a reprieve because the court had decided to consider the lethal injection matter, but almost two hours later, the justices rejected the appeal.

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Associated Press writers Jeff Carlton and Anabelle Garay in Dallas contributed to this report.