A Texas death row inmate was executed Tuesday evening for the appalling rape and murder of his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago.
Travis Mullis, 38, was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. at the state penitentiary in Huntsville after a delay of about 20 minutes caused by technicians’ failure to find a suitable vein in his left arm.
Ultimately, the needle carrying the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was inserted into Mullis’ right arm while the second needle was inserted in his left foot, rather than his left arm.
Mullis took seven barely audible breaths before he stopped breathing. He was declared dead 20 minutes later.
Before the execution began, Mullis waived his right to appeal his death sentence. His attorney said Texas would be executing a “redeemed man” who had long accepted responsibility for “an awful crime.”
Mullis was convicted of strangling and stomping his 3-month-old son to death after raping him in Galveston, Texas following a fight with the boy’s mother.
The father then left the infant’s body on the roadside and fled to Philadelphia where he surrendered to police.
“I do regret the decision to take the life of my son,” Mullis said before the execution. “It was my decision that put me here.”
