Texas on Wednesday executed a man who killed his mother and buried her body in his backyard despite appeals from his lawyers that he had a history of mental illness.
Tracy Beatty, 61, was executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Penitentiary. She was pronounced dead at 6:39 pm local time.
His death came nearly two decades after he strangled his mother, Carolyn Click, to death following an argument at their East Texas home in November 2003. Asked if he had any last words, Beatty choked and he sobbed as he was strapped to a stretcher in the execution chamber. and began to talk to his wife who was looking through a window a few meters from him.
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“I just want to thank…” she said, her voice cracking. “I don’t want to leave you, baby. See you when you get there. I love you.” He mouthed a kiss to her.
He also thanked several of his fellow prisoners sentenced to death.
“I love you brothers. See you on the other side,” she said.
On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by his lawyers. They argued that he had undergone an examination to determine whether he had an intellectual disability and possibly did not meet the requirements to be sentenced to death.
Prosecutors said Beatty buried her 62-year-old mother’s body next to her mobile home in Whitehouse, about 115 miles southeast of Dallas, and then spent her money on drugs and alcohol. The couple argued daily and he had assaulted his mother several times before, a neighbor told authorities.
“Several times (Beatty) had said that he just wanted to shut her up, that he just wanted to strangle her and shut her up,” neighbor Lieanna Wilkerson testified.
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Beatty was the fourth Texas inmate executed this year.
The next Texas inmate scheduled for execution is Stephen Barbee on Nov. 16, the last for 2022. Authorities said Barbee killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her 7-year-old son in 2005.
Associated Press contributed to this report.