A Texas man who was sentenced to death for the 1998 murders of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend was executed Wednesday night. This marks the first execution in the United States for this year.
Charles Victor Thompson, aged 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. local time after receiving a lethal injection at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville. He had been convicted of killing Glenda Dennis Haislip, 39, and Darren Keith Cain, 30, at Haislip’s apartment in the Houston area.
Before the execution, Thompson expressed remorse and asked for forgiveness from the families of the victims. He stated, “I hope we can begin to heal and move on from this,” emphasizing that “There are no winners in this situation.” He also mentioned that his execution “will create more victims and traumatize more people 28 years later.”
In his final words, he offered an apology, stating, “I’m sorry for what I did… keep Jesus first.” As the lethal drugs took effect, he gasped loudly and took approximately 12 breaths before making snoring sounds, eventually stopping entirely after about 22 minutes.
Dennis Kane, father of one of the victims, was present during the execution and remarked, “He’s in hell.”
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, who was involved in prosecuting the case, said that this event symbolizes a closure, asserting, “This chapter is closed,” and elaborated that “This has been justice for a long time.”
The tragic events began when Thompson arrived at Haislip’s apartment at 3 a.m. and got into an altercation with Cain. After being asked to leave by police, he returned later and fatally shot the couple.
Thompson’s initial death sentence was later overturned; however, a jury reinstated the sentence in a new trial in 2005. Prior to his arrest, Thompson had managed to escape from a local jail but was captured in Louisiana while attempting to arrange a transfer to flee to Canada.
About an hour before his execution, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal, and earlier in the week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole rejected his request to change his death sentence.
