DEATH ROW

Texas Executes Man Who Killed Neighbors 13 Years Ago

After he dropped all appeals to expedite his own execution.

A 58-year-old Texas man who killed two of his neighbors 13 years ago has been put to death by lethal injection. Barney Fuller Jr. became the seventh death row inmate to be executed in Texas this year. Fuller had asked that all his appeals to be dropped so that he could expedite his own execution, and a federal judge ruled earlier this year that he was competent to make that decision. Ahead of his execution on Wednesday night, prison officials said Fuller seemed adamant about getting it over with and did not want to talk to his lawyer. He pleaded guilty to the May 2003 fatal shootings of 43-year-old Nathan Copeland and Copeland's 39-year-old wife, Annette, about 100 miles north of Houston.