A death row inmate executed in the US for a double killing begged for his victim's family to forgive him moments before he was put to death.
Gary Green, 51, received a lethal injection for the September 2009 deaths of Lovetta Armstead, 32, and her daughter, Jazzmen Montgomery, at their home in Dallas.
Authorities said Green killed the two after Ms Armstead sought to annul their marriage.
He was executed shortly after 1am UK-time on Wednesday.
A Buddhist spiritual adviser chosen by Green stood beside the death chamber gurney at the inmate's feet and said a brief prayer. Green then apologized profusely when asked by the warden if he had a final statement.
"I apologize for all the harm I have caused you and your family," Green said, looking at relatives of his victims who watched through a window close by. "We ate together, we laughed and cried together as a family. I'm sorry I failed you."
He said he took "two people that we all loved, and I had to live that while I was here."
"We were all one and I broke that bond," he continued. "I ask that you forgive me, not for me but for y'all. I'm fixing to go home and y'all are going to be here. I want to make sure you don't suffer. You have to forgive me and heal and move on. ... I'm not the man I used to be."
Instead of inserting the IV needles in each arm, prison technicians had to use a vein in Green's right arm and a vein on the top of his left hand, delaying the injection briefly for Green, who was listed on prison records as weighing 365 pounds (165 kilograms).
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began, Green was thanking prison administrators, chaplains and "all the beautiful human beings at the Polunsky Unit," the prison that houses Texas' condemned men. Then he took several quick breaths, which evolved into snores. After nine snores, all movement ceased. Several of the victims' relatives hugged and briefly cried.
He was pronounced dead 33 minutes later, at 7:07 p.m local time.
He was not offered a final meal as Texas has banned the tradition ordinarily offered to inmates who are about to be put to death.
On the day of the killings, Ms Armstead had written two letters to Green, telling him that although she loved him, she had “to do what’s best for me.”
In his own letter, which was angry and rambling, Green expressed the belief that Ms Armstead and her children were involved in a plot against him.
“You asked to see the monster so here he is the monster you made me ... They will be 5 lives taken today me being the 5th,” Green wrote.
Ms Armstead was stabbed more than two dozen times while Green drowned Jazzmen in the home’s bathtub.
Authorities said Green also intended to kill Ms Armstead’s two other children, then 9-year-old Jerrett and 12-year-old Jerome. Green stabbed the younger boy but both survived.
"Told (Green) because we’re too little to die and we won’t tell anybody about it,” the 9-year-old told jurors in testimony about how he convinced Green to spare their lives.
Josh Healy, one of the prosecutors with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office that convicted Green, said the boys were incredibly brave.
Green "was an evil guy. It was one of the worst cases I’ve ever been a part of," said Healy, who is now a defence attorney in Dallas.
