Execution Report: Troy Farris

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"I wasn't there when the crime was committed," Farris said in an interview from Death Row the week before his execution. He said he found out about Rosenbalm's death on the radio. Nevertheless, he said he was "happy" and not afraid of being executed.

"Fourteen years is a long time, especially when you live under these conditions," he said. "I'm tired. I really am. It's not that I'm giving up; that's not it at all. It's just that I'm tired. Anything is better than this."

Farris's execution was delayed for about an hour because of a late appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was denied.

Farris's friend Tina McIntire, and Deputy Rosenbalm's widow, Cindy, were among the witnesses to his execution. About a dozen law enforcement officers from Tarrant County, including Sheriff David Williams, stood outside the prison in their uniforms.

In his last statement, Farris expressed love to the victim's family and to his own family and friends, calling several of them by name.

"I can only tell you that Clark did not die in vain," he said to Cindy Rosenbalm. "I don't mean to offend you by saying that, but what I mean by that is, through his death, he led this man to God."

After Farris concluded his last statement, the lethal injection was started. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 15 August 2016.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press.