A man was executed in Texas for a triple killing committed during a robbery attempt at a rural home, one week after the other man convicted in the case was put to death.
Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, was pronounced dead at 6.34pm (11.34am NZT) following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He became the sixth person put to death so far this year in Texas, with three more executions scheduled in the state over the next two months.
In the execution chamber, a prison chaplain rested his left hand on Ramey’s right shoulder and offered a brief prayer before the warden asked Ramey if he had a final statement.
Ramey then praised God and thanked friends, family, and “brothers on death row” who he said “grew up with me” and helped him become a man.
“I came in young and didn’t understand,” he said, moments before the injection got underway.
A jury had convicted Ramey of capital murder and sentenced him to death for the August 2005 shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, at the home they shared in Edna, a small rural city about 160 kilometres southwest of Houston.
Ramey and LeJames Norman believed there was cocaine in the house and hoped to steal it, according to court records. The men entered the home with guns, found none and fatally shot the three residents, who lived across the street from Norman, the records show.
Norman was executed on September 16 at the Huntsville prison, where all Texas executions are carried out.
Including Ramey's execution, a total of 28 inmates have been put to death in US states so far this year. Florida leads all states by far with 15 executions to date in 2026 as the nation's busiest death chamber.
Hours before Wednesday's execution, the US Supreme Court rejected Ramey's final appeal.
His attorneys had argued that jurors had never heard about how Ramey suffered physical abuse as a child and grew up in poverty. State prosecutors told the court the appeal was “meritless” and argued that evidence showed Ramey had “an escalating pattern of criminal behaviour”.
Norman was arrested about five months after the killings while trying to cross back into the US from Mexico, where he had fled. He went on to testify during Ramey’s trial in January 2007 that both he and Ramey shot the victims. Ramey’s attorneys blamed the shootings on Norman.
Ramey’s former girlfriend testified that she was with Ramey when he threw two pistols into a lake after the killings, and that he told her in detail about his involvement.
Lopez was shot four times, including in the back of the head; Peacock was shot twice in the head; and Roberts was shot five times in the chest, neck and head.
Norman was sentenced to death in December 2008 after pleading guilty to capital murder.
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