Execution Report: Beunka Adams

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Adams wrote that he could tell Driver wasn't wounded. "I yelled at her a few times to get her to say something and then fired a shot over her head to make my friend think I had killed her." He said he missed her intentionally. "I ask any rational person to ask themselves: What are the chances of someone to accidentally miss, with a 12 gauge shotgun, someone laying on the ground at their feet?! ... That woman is alive because I did not intend and did not shot [sic] her."

Adams admitted kicking Dement repeatedly because he thought she was dead and didn't want Cobb to turn his attention to Driver, who he knew was unhurt.

Adams did not speak about the killing to reporters while on death row.

Three days before his scheduled execution, Adams won a reprieve from a federal district court so that his claims of inadequate legal representation could be considered. Two days later, however, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the district court and put the execution back on schedule. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Nikki Dement and members of Vandever's family attended Adams' execution. "To the victims, "I'm very sorry for everything that happened," Adams said in his last statement, staring at the ceiling. "Everything that happened that night was wrong," he said. "If I could take it back, I would ... I messed up and can't take that back."

Adams expressed love to his family and asked his victims and their families not to be taken over by hate. "I am not the malicious person that you think I am," he said. I was real stupid back then. I made a great many mistakes." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m.

Update: Richard Cobb was executed on 25 April 2013.

By David Carson. Posted on 27 April 2012. Edited for spelling on 16 May 2012. Paragraph 7 edited on 23 April 2013 to read "Dement was lifted by her ponytail..." Updated with Cobb's execution date on 1 May 2013.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, Associated Press, Huntsville, Item, savebeunkaadams.com.