Karl Chamberlain

Karl Eugene Chamberlain, 37, was executed by lethal injection on 11 June 2008 in Huntsville, Texas for the rape and murder of a woman in her apartment.

On 2 August 1991, Chamberlain, then 21, went to the apartment of Felecia Prechtl, 30, bringing duct tape and a .30-caliber rifle with him. Chamberlain and Prechtl lived in the same apartment complex in Dallas. Chamberlain forced Prechtl into her bedroom and bound her hands and ankles with duct tape. After raping her, he shot her once in the head. He then left and returned to his own apartment.

A few minutes later, Prechtl's brother discovered the victim's body in her bathroom, with her jeans and underwear pulled down to her knees, and wearing no other clothing. Police found a roll of duct tape at the scene. Some fingerprints were taken from the duct tape, but no matches were found in the police department's data base. Investigators also found sperm in the victim's anal cavity. Chamberlain was questioned on the night of the murder, but he denied any knowledge of the crime and was not arrested.

The case remained unsolved for five years. In 1996, the fingerprints from the duct tape were checked again. One of the potential matches identified was Chamberlain, whose prints had been taken after an arrest for attempted robbery in Houston. Police arrested him on 17 July 1996. In a written confession, he stated that on the day of the murder, he went to Prechtl's apartment to borrow sugar, and she was scantily dressed when she answered the door. He went back to his apartment with the sugar, but then decided to return. He claimed that he had consensual anal intercourse with the victim, but shot her after she threatened to tell his wife. Chamberlain also told police that the murder weapon could be found at his father's house. DNA from a blood sample he gave at the time of his arrest was matched to the sperm sample taken from the victim's body.

Chamberlain also had a conviction for theft as a 17-year-old juvenile.

A jury convicted Chamberlain of capital murder in June 1997 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in June 1999. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

In an interview from death row the week before his execution, Chamberlain admitted his guilt and expressed regret over his actions. "My greatest regret is going down there and not killing myself," he said. "I had kind of like a slip into delusion. It makes absolutely no sense ... It was like I lost all control." Nevertheless, Chamberlain said that prosecutors, his lawyers, and the jury should have paid more attention to the fact that in the five years following the murder, he managed to stay out of trouble.

Chamberlain's execution was attended by Prechtl's brother, son, and parents. The condemned killer looked at them directly, with a big smile on his face, as he spoke his last words: "I want you all to know I love you with all my heart. I want to thank you for being here ... We are here to honor the life of Felecia Prechtl, a woman I didn't even know, and celebrate my death. My death began on August 2, 1991, and continued when I began to see the beautiful and innocent life that I had taken. I am so terribly sorry. I wish I could die more than once." Chamberlain continued speaking as the lethal injection was administered. "I love you. God have mercy on us all," he said, still grinning. "Please do not hate anybody because ..." He then lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m.

Chamberlain's execution was the first to take place in Texas since September 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Kentucky case challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. The court upheld lethal injection in April, allowing executions in Texas and other states to resume. Chamberlain was the sixth prisoner executed in the United States since the court's decision.