Jesse De La Rosa was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of store clerk during a robbery. According to court documents Jesse De La Rose would fatally shoot Masaoud Ghazali during a robbery. Jesse De La Rosa would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jesse De La Rosa would be executed by lethal injection on May 15 1985
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PRISONER IN TEXAS DIES FOR MURDER
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PRISONER IN TEXAS DIES FOR MURDER
AP
- May 16, 1985
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May 16, 1985, Section A, Page 20Buy ReprintsNew York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared.SUBSCRIBE*Does not include Crossword-only or Cooking-only subscribers.About the ArchiveThis is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Jesse de la Rosa, telling his stepmother he loved her and asking forgiveness for his sins, was executed by lethal injection early today for killing a convenience store clerk for six cans of beer in 1979.
Mr. de la Rosa, 24 years old, was pronounced dead at 12:17 A.M., four minutes after injections in both arms. He was the 11th person executed in this country this year and the 43d put to death since the Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976.
Mr. de la Rosa was executed for the slaying of Masaoud Ghazali, a former Iranian Air Force captain who was shot twice in the head in a robbery of a San Antonio 7-Eleven store.
He made his final statement staring at the ceiling, telling his stepmother, Carmen, who was in the death chamber, ”I love you.’
”God forgive my brothers and sisters for sins I have committed,” Mr. de la Rosa said in Spanish.
They Both Speak to Him
Mr. de la Rosa’s stepmother, who was accompanied by the condemned man’s father, Luciano, replied in English, ”You’ll never die because you’ll always be in my memories.”
His father added, in Spanish, ”God forgive my son.”
Mr. de la Rosa then added, ”God, I give my life for my brothers and sisters.”
When he gasped and buckled, his stepmother began sobbing. She was comforted by his father, who was also in tears. The couple left the prison without further comment.
The execution, the third carried out this year by the Texas Department of Corrections, came after two days of unsuccessful appeals. Late Tuesday the Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 to deny him new hearings. Then Gov. Mark White, as he in previous death sentences, refused to grant a 30-day reprieve.
He Receives Communion
After a steak dinner, Jesse de la Rosa spoke by telephone for 20 minutes to a longtime friend, Margie Garcia of San Antonio, and shortly after 8 P.M. he received communion from a prison priest, the Rev. Stephen Walsh.
It was the second death date for Mr. de la Rosa, who said in an interview a week ago that he had been coerced into confessing the slaying. He refused, however, to identify another killer.
A store clerk shot earlier the same night in a $40 robbery identified Mr. de la Rosa, who was 18 at the time. Mr. de la Rosa has said he had been drinking and smoking marijuana that night but was at a friend’s house when Mr. Ghazali was walked to the back of the store to a cooler and was shot twice in the head.
Asked if the execution relieved her, Mr. Ghazali’s wife, Gloria, replied, ”It does,” then hung up the telephone.
A second man involved in the crime spree, Alejandro Alcorta Garcia, 28, is serving a life sentence for aggravated robbery
