Texas executed Steven Nelson by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2011 murder of a well-loved young priest.
Nelson, who was declared dead at 6:50 p.m. CT, was convicted of killing the Rev. Clint Dobson at NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, just west of Dallas.
Rev. Jeff Hood, who was Nelson’s spiritual guide and was present in the death chamber, said it felt like it “took forever” for Nelson to be declared dead. He also mentioned in a news conference that “he fought to the very end.”
Hood said that Nelson protested his execution by refusing to walk to the van that transferred him to the Huntsville Unit, where the state’s execution chamber is housed. Hood noticed that there were bandages on Nelson’s arms that weren’t there when he saw him earlier that day.
Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which handles executions, said she didn’t have details about Nelson’s fight but mentioned that he walked into the chamber. She didn’t answer right away when asked about the bandages.
Nelson has admitted to robbing NorthPointe Baptist Church, but he insists that he didn’t kill Dobson. He claims that two other people were responsible for the murder.
The Dobson family told USA TODAY, “Today, we want to remember the good times we had with Clint instead of thinking about his killer.” “Steven Nelson forever changed our lives, but he has never occupied our minds.”
Nelson’s execution is the second one in the U.S. this year and the first in Texas for 2025. The state plans to execute a guy next week on February 13, which is also the date of another execution in Florida.
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