Death row prisoner Brent Ray Brewer uses final words to tell victim's family 'I hope you find peace'

A Texas man who spent more than 30 years on death row for a murder he committed when he was 19 was executed on Thursday, telling the victim's family in his final words: 'I hope you find peace, and I mean it.'

Brent Ray Brewer, 53, was put to death by lethal injection at 6.38pm Central Time at the Texas State Penitentiary in the town of Huntsville, prison officials said, as the family of his victim watched on.

'Brent Ray Brewer was in prison more than 33 years,' Debra Corbin, whose father was killed in the attack, said after watching Brewer die. 'Our mom says our family has been in prison 33 years. We have been released today.'

Brewer was sentenced to death in 1991 for fatally stabbing 66-year-old Robert Laminack the previous year, in a robbery that netted $140 in cash. Laminack had picked up Brewer and his girlfriend, Krystie Lynn Nystrom, offering a lift to a Salvation Army hub in Amarillo when he was attacked. Nystrom was sentenced to life in prison.

Brewer appealed for a stay of execution this week to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles but was unanimously denied. A motion filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was also rejected.

In his last statement, released by the prison authorities, Brewer said: '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. I hope you find peace, and I mean it.'

Brent Brewer, 53, is to be executed in Texas for a murder he committed during a robbery when he was 19 years old

Brewer was sentenced to death in 1991 for fatally stabbing 66-year-old Robert Laminack the previous year, in a robbery that netted $140 in cash. 

A file photo of the execution chamber in Huntsville, Texas

As the drugs took effect, Brewer gasped twice, snored several times and then took a few quiet breaths. Within 30 seconds, all movement stopped.

The execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to step in over the inmate's claims that prosecutors had relied on false and discredited expert testimony at his 2009 resentencing trial. 

Brewer's lawyers had alleged that a prosecution expert, Richard Coons, falsely claimed Brewer would be a future danger - a legal finding needed to impose a death sentence. 

'The Brent that Texas wished to execute is long gone,' said defense attorney Shawn Nolan after the final appeal was rejected.

'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.'

But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday dismissed an appeal without reviewing the merits of the argument, saying the claim should have been raised previously. 

'We are deeply disturbed that the (appeals court) refuses to address the injustice of allowing Brent Brewer to be executed without an opportunity to challenge Dr. Coon's false and unscientific testimony,' one of Brewer's attorneys, Shawn Nolan, said afterward.

Nolan said allowing the execution to go ahead 'without an opportunity to challenge Dr Coons's false and unscientific testimony' was an injustice.

Brewer was abused as a child and suffered from mental illness, factors jurors were not allowed to consider, his lawyers argued. 

Brewer's lawyers also filed a petition for clemency on the grounds that a juror in his 2009 resentencing trial misunderstood the jury instructions and wanted to impose a life sentence.

The juror ended up voting for the death penalty because she was under the mistaken impression that at least 10 other votes were needed to deliver a life sentence.

Brewer had said he has been a model prisoner with no history of violence and has tried to become a better person by participating in a faith-based program for death row inmates. 

He had long expressed remorse for the killing and a desire to apologize to Laminack's family.

Brewer's 1991 death sentence was reviewed in 2009 and a jury sentenced him to death once again after hearing Coons' expert testimony.

Coons, who had never interviewed Brewer, testified that he had 'no conscience' and would commit violent acts in the future.

Brent Ray Brewer, 53, who claimed his sentence was based on false testimony is set to be executed Thursday evening

Brewer stabbed the victim in neck during the ride. He and his then-girlfriend, Krystie Lynn Nystrom, took Laminack's wallet with $140 and fled the scene, prosecutors said

'The 53-year-old guy you're looking at now is not the 19-year-old I was in April of 90 - I don't even know that kid,' he said in his bid for clemency. Pictured: Brewer as a child

In a video released by his lawyers, Brewer apologized to the family of his victim.

'I am sorry for what I did,' he said. 'Even if it doesn't change the outcome at least they get to hear it before I go.

'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 said. '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,' he said. 'And I just have had to live with that every day.'

There have been six other executions in Texas this year and 20 in the United States.

According to a Gallup Poll released this week, 53 percent of Americans support the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, the lowest level since 1972.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have observed a moratorium on its use.

The death penalty has been primarily carried out by lethal injection in recent years, but the southern state of Alabama intends to execute an inmate next year using nitrogen gas.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey this week set January 25 as the execution date for Kenneth Smith, 58, who was sentenced to death for a 1988 murder.

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