Texas executed an inmate convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago after a high-speed chase. Wesley Ruiz, 43, received a lethal injection at the Huntsville state penitentiary for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix, reports the Associated Press. “I would like to apologize to Mark and the Nix family for taking him away from you,” Ruiz said as he was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber. “I hope this brings you closure.”
A spiritual adviser standing near Ruiz offered a brief prayer. Outside the brick walls, a dozen pro-police motorcyclists sat on their bikes in a cold drizzle, revving their engines and nearly drowning out her words for those inside. Ruiz was the second inmate put to death this year in Texas and the fourth in the U.S. Seven other executions are scheduled in Texas for this year, including one next week. InR 2007, uiz led officers on a high-speed chase after being spotted driving a car that matched the description of one used by a murder suspect. Authorities said Ruiz fired one shot at Nix, 33, when the officer tried to break the vehicle’s passenger window after the chase. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier Wednesday declined an appeal from Ruiz’s attorneys to halt the execution. The defense argued that jurors relied on “overtly racist” and “blatant anti-Hispanic stereotypes” in appraising whether Ruiz posed a future danger, an element needed to secure a death sentence in Texas.