TEXAS inmate Quintin Jones was executed by lethal injection on May 19, 2021.
The death row inmate was convicted of killing his great-aunt in 1999 when he was 20-years-old.
Who is Quintin Jones?
Jones, 41, was arrested in 1999 for beating his great-aunt Berthena Bryant, 83, to death and stealing $30 to pay for drugs.
He was allegedly also involved in two other murders, however, he has never been charged.
Jones beat his great-aunt to death with a baseball bat she kept for her own protection.
His great-aunt Mattie Long – the victim's sister – said she has forgiven Jones.
"I love him very much," she told CBS News.
Long said she and Bryant were extremely close and does not believe Jones should die.
Why is he on death row?
During the penalty phase, the prosecution argued that Jones was beyond redemption and that he would continue to be a mortal threat and therefore sentenced him to death.
Jones was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on May 19. He asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott for clemency.
In a four-minute video published in the opinion section of the New York Times, the death row prisoner stares into the camera from behind bullet-proof glass, and with a pained expression delivers a message to Abbott.
“I know you don’t know me. I’m writing this letter to ask you if you could find it in your heart to grant me clemency, so I don’t get executed on 19 May. I got two weeks to live, starting today,” Jones says.
Texas leads the nation in executions each year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Five of the six people expected to be put to death in 2021 are in Texas.
"All I'm asking you to do, Governor Abbott, is give me a second chance at life," Jones said in the video.
As a reporter asks Jones how he is different from the person who was put on death row in 2000, Jones paused for a moment and simply explained, "More thoughtful".
"More thoughtful, love myself more," he answered, his voice cracking with emotion.
In his six years in office, Abbott has only granted clemency once, to a white inmate, Thomas Whitaker.
He talks about how he grew up “in the hood as a Black male” and was taught “to be tough and hard, macho."
"So yeah I had a messed-up childhood. Yeah, I had drug addiction, alcohol addiction. Yeah I hated myself,” Jones said in the video.
Jones tells the Texas governor he is not the person he was at 20 when he killed his great-aunt, a crime he has admitted.
“I’m nothing like that person,” he says. “I became a man on death row, so now you killing the man, and not the child.”
Was Quintin Jones executed?
On Wednesday, May 19, Jones received lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.
He was 571st inmate in Texas to receive the lethal injection.
He was Texas' first execution of the year.
The Supreme Court denied an appeal from Jones.
Jones previously sought clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which advised against clemency on Tuesday, May 18.
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What did his great-aunt Mattie Long say about his upcoming execution?
Long supported Jones' clemency and does not believe he should die.
"I think the governor should spare him because he has changed and he's a different person than he used to be," she told CBS.
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