Texas man executed for strangling his mother and burying her body in her backyard
CBSN
A man who killed his mother and buried her body in her backyard was executed Wednesday in Texas despite his lawyers' appeals that he should not be put to death because he had a history of mental illness.
Tracy Beatty, 61, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. CST after a fatal dose of pentobarbital began flowing through needles inserted into veins in his wrists. He was condemned for strangling his mother, Carolyn Click, after they argued in her East Texas home in November 2003.
Immediately before the procedure started, a prison chaplain placed his right hand on Beatty's chest and said a brief prayer. Then asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Beatty, who was strapped to the death chamber gurney, choked up and sobbed as he began speaking to his wife who was looking through a window a few feet from him.
