Two men were set to be executed in the U.S. on Thursday, including a Texas father who beheaded three young children he was raising in a 2003 killing that rattled a community along the U.S.-Mexico border.
asserted
that → set → border
In Oklahoma, James Pravatt was also set to die by lethal injection for the fatal shooting of the estranged husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair.
asserted
he → set → affair
Prosecutors say he carried out the killing with her, and she is currently the state’s only woman on death row.
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she → say → row
The U.S. is on track to surpass 40 executions for a second consecutive year, a pace driven by Florida as the death penalty comes under renewed attention.
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penalty → surpass → attention
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would commute hundreds of death sentences before leaving office, which experts say would be the largest mass clemency in American history.
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experts → announce → history
Pavatt, 73, was set to be put to death at Oklahoma’s state penitentiary in McAlester.
asserted
Pavatt → set → McAlester
John Allen Rubio, 46, was set to be put to death later in Texas at the state prison in Huntsville.
asserted
Rubio → set → Huntsville
3 young children beheaded in Texas
Rubio and his girlfriend Angela Camacho were accused in the killings of 3-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio and 2-month-old Mary Jane Rubio in the squalid, windowless apartment they shared in Brownsville, located on Texas’ border with Mexico.
Camacho pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.
asserted
Camacho → behead → sentence
Rubio’s first capital murder conviction in the killings was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled that statements by Camacho were wrongly allowed as evidence in his trial.
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statements → overturn → trial
Rubio again pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for his second trial but he was once again convicted and sentenced to death.
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he → plead → death
Rubio, according to court records, wasn’t the biological father of the two older children but treated them as if they were his own.
uncertain
they → accord → them
At various points, Rubio claimed the children were possessed and that he was the “chosen one” intended to save the world.
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he → claim → world
Defense experts diagnosed Rubio as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a determination rejected by prosecution experts.
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experts → diagnose → experts
Defense experts testified his childhood — filled with violence at home, “toxic” parents, drug use and prostitution — damaged him developmentally.
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childhood → testify → him
The apartment building where the children were killed was later demolished and the land was turned into a park and a community garden.
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land → kill → park
Oklahoma advertising executive killed in garage
Pavatt was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 2001 death of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old advertising executive.
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Pavatt → kill → Andrew
Andrew was fatally shot in the garage of the Oklahoma City home he’d previously shared with his wife as he picked up their two young children before Thanksgiving.
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he → shoot → Thanksgiving
Pavatt, who attended the same church as the Andrew family, had been having an affair with Andrew’s wife, Brenda Andrew.
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who → attend → wife
They were convicted at separate trials and each was sentenced to death.
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each → convict → death
Weeks earlier before the shooting, Rob Andrew had told police someone was trying to kill him after the brake lines on his car were cut.
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lines → tell → car
Brenda Andrew told police after her husband was killed that masked intruders shot her in the arm and fatally shot him.
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intruders → tell → him
Pavatt and Brenda Andrew went to Mexico with her two children after the shooting and were arrested three months later while reentering the U.S.
At a clemency hearing last month, Pavatt said he was “not guilty of shooting anyone,” and that he’d fallen in love with Brenda Andrew and believed “everything she told me.”
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she → go → me
“It was not until my trial that I began to see the extent to which I had been manipulated by Brenda,” Pavatt told the board.
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Pavatt → begin → board
“I can see why the jury believed that we were both involved in Rob’s murder.”
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we → see → murder
Prosecutors have said that Pavatt and Andrew plotted to kill Rob Andrew, and that no matter who fired the shots, both were equally guilty.
asserted
both → say → shots
The Aporia
