Execution Report: Yokamon Hearn

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A jury convicted Hearn of capital murder in December 1998 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in October 2001.

Hearn had previously been scheduled for execution on 4 March 2004, but on that day, he received a last-hour stay from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals so that his attorneys' claims that he was mentally retarded could be further investigated. The federal courts ultimately rejected this claim, as did the state courts when they reconsidered the issue in 2010. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Delvin Juan Diles pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He remains in custody as of this writing. Dwight Paul Burley and Teresa Shavonn Shirley both pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received 10-year sentences. They were discharged in December 2008 and November 2008, respectively.

"I'd like to tell my family that I love y'all and I wish y'all well," Hearn said in his brief last statement at his execution. "I'm ready." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m.

Hearn was the first prisoner in Texas to be executed using only one chemical. Historically, Texas and other the other states using lethal injection administered a series of three drugs to perform executions. In 2011, however, the first drug, sodium thiopental, became scarce due to a manufacturer's decision to cease producing it. Some states, including Texas, switched to pentobarbital for the first drug in the series, while Ohio eliminated the three-drug protocol and began using pentobarbital alone. Texas switched to a single dose of pentobarbital for Hearn's execution because its supply of the second drug in the series - pancuronium bromide - had expired.

By David Carson. Posted on 8 August 2012.
Sources: Texas Attorney General's office, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press, ABC News, public records.