HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- About once every three weeks, I watch someone die. Beginning in 1984 when I arrived in Texas for The Associated Press, I've been just a few feet away as one convicted killer after another took a final breath in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville, where the state's 500th execution in modern times took place Wednesday. I really don't know how many I've seen. I lost count years ago and have no desire to reconstruct a tally. While death penalty cases are not the only assignments I cover, those certainly leave the strongest impressions. One inmate, Jonathan Nobles, sang "Silent Night" as his last words as he was receiving the lethal injection. He got to "Round yon virgin,...
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