Texas man executed for 9/11 revenge killing of store clerk, despite plea from surviving victim

(CBS/KTVT/AP) HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Convicted killer Mark Anthony Stroman was executed for the murder of a Dallas-area convenience store clerk during a shooting spree of hate crimes following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The 41-year-old said hate in the world needed to end and asked for God's grace shortly before the fatal drugs began flowing into his arms Wednesday at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.

Stroman claimed the shooting spree that killed two men and injured a third in late 2001 targeted people from the Middle East, though all three victims were from South Asia. It was the death of 49-year-old Vasudev Patel, from India, that landed him on death row.

One of Stroman's surviving victims, Rais Bhuiyan, unsuccessfully sued to stop the execution, saying his religious beliefs as a Muslim told him to forgive the Texan, according to CBS affiliate KTVT. The courts denied his requests.

Stroman's execution was the eighth this year in Texas. At least eight other inmates in the nation's busiest death penalty state have execution dates in the coming weeks.

From inside the death chamber, Stroman looked at five friends watching through a window and told them he loved them.

"God bless America. God bless everyone," he said, then turned his head to the warden and said: "Let's do this damn thing."

Feeling the drugs beginning to take effect, he said, he began a countdown. "One, two," he said, slightly gasping. "There it goes."

Eleven minutes later, he was dead.

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July 18, 2011 - Shooting survivor wants Texas execution for 9/11-inspired hate crimes stopped