A man from Texas was executed on Wednesday for killing a game warden in 2005 during a shootout following an arduous 90-minute chase that took place after he was suspected of animal poaching.
"No, I do not," was the response of 35-year-old, James Freeman, when asked if he had any final statements before getting executed on Wednesday night. Texas prison officials then began injecting Freeman with pentobarbital and 16 minutes later, he was pronounced dead at exactly 6:30 in the evening.
Texas, among all the other states, is where capital punishment is carried out more. Freeman's case was denied review by the United States Supreme Court earlier this month. No appeals were filed to stop the execution as well.
On Monday, Freeman submitted a clemency petition, but was denied by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Freeman's case originated in March 2007, in Wharton County, Southeast Texas, where he was suspected of illegal night hunting when a game warden saw him. Freeman got on his car and drove away, which prompted a chase that went as fast as 130 miles per hour. Freeman stopped near his home in Lissie, where he picked up his guns and fired at officers.
The suspect took out his 11shot .537-caliber handgun and then took out his AK-47 rifle that had 30 rounds of clip. By the end of the shootout, Freeman had taken four shots while Justin Hurst became fatally wounded. Hurst was a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden.
"He was very passionate in his role concerning the state's resources and protecting those resources," said Steve Lightfoot, a spokesman of the agency that thought highly of Hurst.
In a report by ABC, Lightfoot added that Hurst represented "the very essence of what this agency is about and what game wardens are about."
"Justin was very loved and respected, as is his family who remains in Wharton. It was a great loss," said Wharton County District Attorney Ross Kurtz, in a report by Texas Tribune.
