Texas inmate, 67, executed for slayings 31 years ago

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A 67-year-old man convicted of killing four men more than three decades ago was executed Wednesday, making him the oldest of the 526 Texas prisoners put to death since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.

Lester Bower Jr. was convicted of the October 1983 fatal shootings at an airplane hangar on a ranch near Sherman, about 60 miles north of Dallas.

Prosecutors say he killed the four after stealing an airplane he'd been trying to buy from one of his victims.

Bower, strapped to the death-chamber gurney, said: "Much has been said about this case. Much has been written about this case. Not all of it has been the truth. But the time for discerning truth is over, and it's time to move on."

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital took effect, he snored quietly about six times, then stopped moving. He was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m., 18 minutes later.

The execution came about 3 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal from Bower's lawyers arguing trial jurors didn't have the opportunity in their punishment deliberations to consider Bower had no previous criminal record. Attorneys also contended the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal used an incorrect legal standard when it denied an appeal for Bower a decade ago.

"This is not a typical death-penalty case," his lead lawyer, Peter Buscemi, told the justices, urging a reprieve so the court "has sufficient time" to evaluate the appeal.