Willie Shannon

Willie Marcel Shannon, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 8 November 2006 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a man during a carjacking.

On 19 July 1992, Benjamin Garza took his wife, Solia, and three teenage children to a shopping center in southwest Houston. While his family went inside to shop for shoes, Garza waited outside in their station wagon. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. Shannon, then 19, entered the car from the passenger side. He ordered Garza out of the car, but Garza fought back. Shannon then pulled out a gun, shot Garza in the head, and kicked him out of the vehicle. Shannon then drove off, running over Garza's hand and shooting him two more times. A woman then ran into the store, shouting about what happened. Solia Garza and her children rushed outside to find their husband and father dying on the pavement.

A few hours later, Shannon wrecked the car in Chambers County, about 50 miles east of Houston. When a sheriff's deputy approached him to ask about the accident, Shannon escaped into the woods on foot. Later - about five hours after the shooting - a security guard at a truck stop in Beaumont notified police that he spotted a man with a pistol in his pants, looking for rides. Shannon was captured after a brief chase.

During the punishment hearing at Shannon's trial, the state introduced evidence that he raped a hotel maid ten minutes before killing Garza. The prosecution claimed that Shannon committed the carjacking because he needed a vehicle to flee in. Shannon was never charged in the rape case, and he denied any involvement in it.

At the age of 19, Shannon had not served time in prison, but he did have a prior conviction for aggravated assault and a record of juvenile delinquency. He was also an admitted drug dealer.

A jury convicted Shannon of capital murder in November 1993 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in December 1996. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

"I did not intentionally shoot this man," Shannon said in an interview from death row the week before his execution. He said that he thought Garza wouldn't likely fight him over the car. On the contrary, Garza became angry and shouted, "You young punk, you just want my car?" Shannon said they struggled, and the gun went off. "I never saw him hit the ground. I didn't even know where he was hit," Shannon said. "I'm no killer. I made a mistake."

"I'm willing to accept my punishment for the crime," Shannon said, but he stated that he should have only been convicted of involuntary manslaughter. "There was justice in my being convicted, but the death penalty is revenge. It's overboard."

As Solia Garza and her children entered a viewing room to witness Shannon's execution, the condemned man smiled at them and hummed. "Don't take my smile for disrespect," Shannon told the family. "I'm happy. I'm going home to Heaven." Shannon said that he would ask his victim for forgiveness if he sees him.

"I took a father from his family," Shannon continued. "It wasn't my fault. It was an accident." After Shannon expressed love to his mother and friends, who were also in attendance, the lethal injection was started. He was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m.