Texas on Wednesday in the first execution in the United States this year. Charles Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 pm Central Time (0050 GMT) at a state prison in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. Thompson was sentenced to death for the 1998 murders of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her boyfriend, Darren Cain, 30. They were shot at Hayslip's apartment in a Houston suburb. Cain died at the scene and Hayslip succumbed to her wounds in hospital a week later.

Wade Hayslip, Hayslip's son from a previous marriage, planned to attend the execution. He was 13 when his mother was killed. In an interview with USA Today, Hayslip said Thompson's execution will be "the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one." "I'm looking forward to the new one," he said. There were 47 executions in the United States last year, the most since 2009, when 52 inmates were put to death. (Bssnews)