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First Texas inmate put to death this year
An Alabama man who was part of a ring that shuttled drugs from Texas to his home state was executed today for the slayings of four people in Houston nearly 14 years ago. When asked by a warden if he had any final statement, Marion Dudley did not respond, kept his eyes closed and never turned his head toward witnesses in the chamber, which included one of his survivors and relatives of one of the people killed. Eight minutes later at 6:16 p.m. CST, he was pronounced dead. Dudley, who had record in his home state for burglary, assault, receiving stolen property and violating probation, was the first Texas inmate put to death this year.
Woman to watch family members' killer be executed
A Houston woman has been granted permission to watch Wednesday night's execution of a man who killed her husband and son. But Rachel Tovar says the execution won't end her nightmare. Marion Dudley is scheduled to be executed in Huntsville for the 1992 murders of four people, including Tovar's husband and son. But even though she'll be there to watch him die, she says it won't end her life of fear and remorse. "When you go through a big ordeal like this, you're not normal no more," she told us. Tovar says she's lived a life of fear, nightmares, and even shame since two family members and two friends were shot to death right in front of her during a drug deal in 1992. "Fourteen years, I've been blamed for this and carried this cause of death of my family," she said. Some still blame Tovar because she helped her husband, Jose, deal cocaine. Dudley was one of their buyers until he decided to eliminate the middleman, who was Jose. But Dudley and two other men ended up killing Tovar's husband, son, her other's son's pregnant girlfriend, and a family friend. "After I heard that gun go off, it went off again and I heard the screams and I knew they were killing my babies," said Tovar.
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