HUNTSVILLE, ALA. (AP) -- A convicted rapist and suspected serial killer has been executed for strangling and robbing his stepmother in Fort Worth in 2000.
Reginald Perkins was asked by the warden if he would like to make a statement. He responded, "I already made my statement. Appreciate it. Love y'all."
Perkins, about an hour before he was executed last night, summoned a prison official to his cell and gave him a statement professing his innocence. "They didn't link me to nothing. I did not kill my stepmom. I loved her. Texas is going to kill an innocent man," he said.
Perkins was condemned for killing 64-year-old Gertie Perkins.
On the other deaths, Reginald Perkins said, "There's other suspects they questioned besides me. They let them go. I don't know what they're talking about. I can't tell you who killed them. I ain't killed nobody. I've never killed."
As the drugs were being administered, he said, "I can feel it going in." Just before the drugs took effect, he looked at the sister of his victim and told her he loved her.
The victim's sister, Barbara Ward, says she thinks he waited a little bit too late to tell her that he loved her. She said if Perkins insisted he was innocent, he should have told who did it.
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