Last night, February 29, 2012, the State of Texas executed George Rivas. It was the second execution of the year in Texas and the sixth nationwide.
Rivas was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins on Christmas Eve in 2000. The shooting occurred while Rivas and six other prisoners who had escaped from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Connally Unit on December 13 attempted to rob a sporting goods store. The group was known as the “Texas 7.” One of the escapees committed suicide; the other six were sentenced to death. Rivas was the second person to be executed for this crime.
Read more in the Houston Chronicle.
Texas has two scheduled executions in March; Keith Thurmond is scheduled to be executed on March 7, 2012.