Convicted Murderer Executed In Texas

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A man convicted of killing four people in Houston 14 years ago was put to death Wednesday, hours after the Supreme Court rejected a request to spare him.

Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, Marion Dudley did not respond and kept his eyes closed. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., eight minutes after lethal drugs were administered.

Prison officials said that though Dudley wasn't combative, he had to be carried to the chamber after he refused to leave a death house cell voluntarily.

The execution was the first in Texas this year.

Dudley, 33, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., had said he wasn't at a house the night where six people were shot in 1992.

The two survivors of the attack identified Dudley, then 20, as one of three men who barged into the home of Jose Tovar, 32, and his wife Rachel. Tovar was killed along with his wife's son, the son's pregnant girlfriend and a neighbor.

Police said the three killers had been at the house previously to buy drugs and knew drugs and money were there. One killer ran a ring that moved drugs from Houston to Tuscaloosa, authorities said.

Dudley's lawyer appealed unsuccessfully to the Supreme Court to stop the execution, claiming prosecutors had withheld evidence.

After watching Dudley die, Rachel Tovar, 48, said she "can be at peace, knowing that I represent my family, my children, my husband."

Arthur "Squirt" Brown of Tuscaloosa was convicted of capital murder and remains on death row. A third Alabama man, Tony Dunson, received a life sentence.