Execution in Texas

A man from Texas, who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her new partner, was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night, marking the first execution in the U.S. this year.

Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was declared dead at 6:50 p.m. local time at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Huntsville Unit.

His conviction dates back to April 1998, when he shot and killed 39-year-old Glenda Dennis Haislip and her new boyfriend, 30-year-old Darren Keith Cain, at Haislip’s apartment near Houston.

Before the lethal injection was given, Thompson expressed remorse to the victims’ families, saying he hoped they could begin to heal. “There are no winners in this situation,” he remarked, reflecting on how his execution would add to the cycle of trauma, even after 28 years.

In his final words, he offered an apology and urged the families to “keep Jesus in your life and keep Jesus first.”

As the drug took effect, witnesses noted that Thompson gasped loudly before drifting into silence, and he was pronounced dead about 22 minutes later.

Dennis Kane, whose son was a victim of Thompson, shared his thoughts after witnessing the execution: “He’s in hell.” Meanwhile, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare stated, “This has been justice for a long time,” signaling a sense of closure for the case.

On the night the murders occurred, Thompson reportedly arrived at Haislip’s apartment at 3 a.m. and got into an altercation with Cain. Although police were called and told him to leave, he returned a few hours later and killed the couple. Cain died at the scene, while Haislip succumbed to her injuries a week later.

Initially sentenced to death, Thompson’s sentence was overturned later, but after a new penalty trial in 2005, he was sentenced to death again.

Following his escape from a Houston jail shortly after the murders, Thompson remained on the run for three days before being captured in Louisiana while attempting to arrange an overseas wire transfer to flee to Canada.

About an hour before the execution was set to take place, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Thompson’s appeal. Earlier in the week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole also rejected his request to change his death sentence.