Texas executes man for 1998 rape, murder

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - Texas on Wednesday put to death by lethal injection a convicted murderer and rapist who had threatened to harm prison officials in the weeks leading up to his execution.

Kenneth Parr, 27, was the 20th man executed in Texas this year and the 399th since the state resumed the practice in 1982 after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a moratorium.

Parr, who had just turned 18 at the time of the crime, first threatened to harm female prison staff members and then broadened his threats to include others working at the facility, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

But Parr went to the death chamber without incident, she said.

According to prosecutors, in 1998 Parr and another man robbed, raped and shot to death 30-year-old Linda Malek in Bay City, 90 miles southwest of Houston.

Parr and the other man, who were masked and armed with handguns, burst into Malek's home and sexually assaulted her before shooting her once in the head. Her two small children were at home at the time of the attack.

Because of the threats Parr had made to prison staff, Texas took the rare step of banning him from conducting death-row media interviews.

Parr made no request for a last meal.

In his last statement, he sent his love to his family. His mother and sister were witnesses at the execution.