A 64-year-old Dallas man on death row for the 1999 slaying of his ex-girlfriend while he was out on parole for killing his estranged wife has been executed in Texas.
William Rayford became the nation's second inmate put to death this year, both in Texas.
Rayford received lethal injection Tuesday night for beating, stabbing and strangling 44-year-old Carol Lynn Thomas Hall. Her body was found inside a drainage pipe behind her South Dallas home. Hall's 11-year-old son also was stabbed in the attack but survived. He testified against Rayford.
The punishment was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court refused last-day appeals.
Rayford was convicted in 1986 of fatally stabbing his estranged wife. He received 23 years in prison for murder but was paroled after eight years.
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