A Texas man convicted of beating and suffocating a Dallas-area pastor in his church during a robbery was put to death Wednesday evening, the second execution in the US this year and the first of four scheduled in Texas over the next three months, the AP reports. Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:50pm CST at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was convicted of the 2011 killing of the Rev. Clint Dobson, a 28-year-old pastor who was beaten, strangled, and suffocated with a plastic bag inside NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington. The church's secretary, Judy Elliott, 67, was severely beaten but survived.
Shortly before the injection began, the inmate repeatedly told his wife, who watched through a window a short distance from him, that he loved her and that he was thankful and grateful. "I'm not scared. I'm at peace," Nelson added. "Let's ride, Warden." As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began to be administered, he told his wife, who married him recently while he was in prison, "Let me go to sleep." The drug appeared to take effect as he said the word, "Love," the he gasped twice and appeared to try to hold his breath. His head, shoulders and arms trembled for a few seconds before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 24 minutes later. Three more executions are scheduled in Texas before the end of April.
(More
Texas stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
