Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:


HUNTSVILLE, Texas, April 29 (UPI) _ Texas prison officials have carried
out the state's sixth
execution of the year, putting Frank B. McFarland to death by injection
for the rape and murder of
a north Texas woman in 1988. 

McFarland was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. CDT. 

McFarland's final statement was: ``I owe no apologies for a crime I did
not commit. Those who lied
and fabricated evidence against me will have to answer for what they
have done. I know in my heart
what I did. I call upon the spirits of my ancestors to clear a path. I'm
coming home.'' 

McFarland was condemned for the Feb. 1, 1988, murder of Terry Lynn
Hokanson in Hurst, a
suburb of Fort Worth. Hokanson was sexually assaulted and stabbed 25
times, but still managed to
stumble out of some woods and seek help from three teenage boys. 

A second man allegedly involved in the crime turned up dead later in
another Texas city. The
accomplice's girlfriend told police he had confessed to the crime before
his death and told her he
had acted with McFarland. 

At McFarland's sentencing, state prosecutors offered evidence of his
violent history, including an
attempted sexual assault with a knife. 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block the execution.
McFarland had contended
that he was denied effective counsel at trial and on appeal. 

McFarland was the 150th Texas inmate put to death since capital
punishment resumed in 1982. A
small group of protestors gathered outside the prison to mark the
milestone and call for an end to
capital punishment
-- 
Two rules in life:

1.  Don't tell people everything you know.
2.

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