Texas executes 400th inmate since 1982

Critics blast milestone
The prospect of Conner becoming Texas' 400th executed prisoner prompted an outcry from death penalty opponents.

"Johnny Conner's execution represents 400 instances of failed public policy for Texans," the Austin-based Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said.

The European Union, which opposes capital punishment and bans it in its 27 nations, urged Gov. Rick Perry to stop Conner's execution and impose a death penalty moratorium.

Perry spokesman Robert Black brushed aside the criticism.

"Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens," he said.

Julian Gutierrez, a customer walking inside the store to pay for gasoline, interrupted the holdup, tried to run back outside and was shot in the shoulder. Nguyen was shot in the head.

"The clerk was in one of those cubicles where they have this bulletproof glass," McClellan said. "He was able to get his gun in there and it was kind of like being in a shooting gallery. After she complied and gave him money, he wasn't satisfied and he shot and killed her when she was in the cubicle that was supposed to protect her, preventing her from running out of the store and living."

Gutierrez survived and was among at least three people to identify Conner, whose fingerprint also was found on a bottle at the shooting scene.

Violent history
Conner, a Shreveport, La., native, had a history of assaults and drug offenses starting at age 12.

At his capital murder trial, a Harris County jury took less than an hour to convict him, then deliberated about five hours before returning with the death sentence.

Scheduled to die next is DaRoyce Mosley, set for lethal injection Tuesday for his part in the slayings of four people in the robbery of a bar in Kilgore in East Texas in 1994.

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