Texas Executes Man Convicted of 2005 Triple Murder

Ker'Sean Ramey, 41, was executed by lethal injection in Texas on Wednesday evening for the 2005 murders of three people during a drug robbery. He was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Ramey's execution followed that of his accomplice, LeJames Norman, who was put to death for the same crimes on September 16.

In his final words, Ramey thanked God, his friends, family, and fellow death row inmates, whom he referred to as his brothers. "To the brothers on Texas death row that grew up with me, that poured into me and showed what it means to be a man, because I came in young, and didn’t understand what manhood was ... to you brothers ... I greatly appreciate you," Ramey stated.

Ramey died after the pentobarbital took effect, with officials pronouncing him dead 14 minutes after the injection began. He is the sixth inmate executed in Texas this year.

Ramey was convicted and sentenced to death in January 2007 for the August 2005 shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, at their shared home in Edna. Ramey and Norman, who lived across the street, believed drugs were present in the home. They entered the residence masked and, after finding no drugs, fatally shot Lopez. Peacock and Roberts arrived at the home later and were also killed. Court documents indicate Ramey returned to the scene and shot the victims again.

Hours before Ramey's execution, the Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. His attorneys had argued that jurors did not hear evidence of his difficult upbringing, including childhood abuse and poverty. State prosecutors countered that the appeal was meritless and that Ramey had a history of escalating criminal behavior.

Norman, who fled to Mexico after the killings, was arrested about five months later. During Ramey's 2007 trial, Norman testified that both men participated in the shootings, while Ramey's defense claimed Norman was solely responsible. Norman pleaded guilty to capital murder and received a death sentence in December 2008.

Ramey's former girlfriend testified that he confessed the crime to her and that she was with him when he disposed of handguns in a lake after the murders.