A Texas man who spent more than three decades on death row uttered his final words to his victim's family.
On Thursday (November 9), Brent Ray Brewer, 53, was put to death by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in the town of Huntsville, prison officials confirmed.
He was convicted in 1991 for the killing of 66-year-old Robert Laminack in April 1990. The victim offered to give Brewer and his then-girlfriend, Krystie Lynn Nystrom, a lift to a Salvation Army hub in Amarillo, however, he was fatally stabbed in the neck by the couple, who then robbed him of $140.
Nystrom was sentenced to life in prison while Brewer was sentenced to death.
The inmate appealed for a stay of execution to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles but was unanimously denied. He was killed by lethal injection at 6:38PM Central Time last week.
But before he met his fate, Brewer sent a final message to Laminack's family - who were present for the execution - and it was delivered by the prison warden.
According to The Mirror, the prisoner said: "I hope you find peace, and I mean it," and added, "I would like to tell the family of the victim that I could never figure out the words to fix what I have broken."
"I just want you to know that this 53-year-old is not the same reckless 19-year-old kid from 1990," he concluded.
As the drugs took effect in Brewer's body, he gasped twice, snored several times, and then took a few quiet breaths. Within 30 seconds, all movement stopped, per Daily Mail.
Laminack's daughter, Debra Corbin, also offered some words after watching her father's killer being put to death, sharing: "Brent Ray Brewer was in prison more than 33 years. Our mom says our family has been in prison 33 years. We have been released today."
The execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to step in over the inmate's claims that prosecutors had depended on false and discredited expert testimony at his 2009 resentencing trial.
Brewer's lawyers had argued that a prosecution expert, Richard Coons, falsely claimed that the prisoner would be a threat in society - a legal finding required to impose a death sentence.
"The Brent that Texas wished to execute is long gone," defense attorney Shawn Nolan said after the final appeal was rejected, via Daily Mail. "The Brent they are killing tonight is a kind, generous, peaceful, and thoughtful man who spent the vast majority of his time repenting and in religious studies."
"He is profoundly remorseful for his crime, committed when he was just nineteen, and he would have done anything to take back the pain he caused the victim's family," he added.
Brewer also apologized to Laminack's family in a video released by his lawyers. "I am sorry for what I did. Even if it doesn't change the outcome at least they get to hear it before I go," he said.
"When you're 19 or 20 and you're confused, or you're on drugs and drinking, or you're hanging around the wrong people, you have no real value system," he continued. "I guess you'd call it a moral compass."
"I sobered up in the county jail and realized that I had done something I can't undo. And I just have had to live with that every day," he concluded.
