Execution Report: William Davis

William Prince Davis, 42, was executed by lethal injection on 14 September 1999 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a man at his office.

On 2 June 1978, Davis, then 21, entered the office of the Red Wing Ice Cream company in Houston, where Richard Lang, 60, was accepting the day's receipts from three ice cream truck drivers. Davis shot Lang once in the chest with a .32-caliber pistol, killing him. He also ordered the drivers against the wall. He fled with $712 in cash and a shotgun taken from the office.

In his statement to the police after his arrest, Davis said, "I had to shoot the man. He was going to take the gun away from me."

Davis had prior convictions for burglary and aggravated robbery. He began serving a 6-year sentence in June 1975, then was discharged in December 1977 after serving 2½ years.

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