Texas Inmate Executed by Lethal Injection for Stabbing Stepsons

A Texas inmate on death row for killing his wife and two stepsons was executed Wednesday night, marking the seventh execution in Texas this year. Robert Sparks received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the scheduled execution. Sparks, who said he was intellectually disabled, fatally stabbed 9-year-old Harold Sublet and 10-year-old Raekwon Agnew during an attack in their home in 2007. He also confessed to raping his 12- and 14-year-old stepdaughters. The Texas Tribune reports that he told investigators he thought his family had been poisoning him, and that a voice told him to kill his family. “I am sorry for the hard times and what hurts me is that I hurt y’all,” Sparks told his family in his final statement. “I love y’all. I am ready.”