Marion Butler Dudley was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 murderer who was executed by lethal injection

Lethal injection

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...

 in Huntsville

Huntsville, Texas

Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. The population was 35,508 at the 2010 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area....

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 for a robbery and shooting that resulted in the deaths of four people. He was born in Tuscaloosa County

Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

Tuscaloosa County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama.It is named in honor of the pre-Choctaw chief Tuskaloosa. In 2010, the population was 194,656...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

.

The crime

Dudley was convicted in the murders of four people shot during a drug buy at a Houston

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

 residence on June 20, 1992. Dudley and two accomplices had gone to the home of Jose and Rachel Tovar to buy three kilograms of cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 when they decided to rob them of their drugs and money. Six people were bound and shot by Dudley and his accomplices. By the time police arrived, three of the victims were dead: Jose Tovar, Jessica Quinones (who was seven months pregnant), and Frank Farias. Of the three survivors, one, Audrey Brown, later died in a hospital, making the total number of murder victims four. The remaining two survivors identified Dudley and his accomplices as their attackers.

Accomplices

Arthur "Squirt" Brown, Jr. (not related to victim Audrey Brown) was convicted of capital murder sentenced to death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. , he was still on death row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

.

Antonio Lamone Dunson was convicted of capital murder and given a life sentence

Life imprisonment

Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

. , he is still in prison and eligible for parole

Parole

Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

 in 2027.

Execution

Dudley was executed by lethal injection on January 25, 2006 in Huntsville, Texas. He became the first person to be executed by the state of Texas in 2006.

When asked if he had a final statement to make, he ignored the warden and kept his eyes shut. Taken as a decline, the drugs were administered and eight minutes later at 6:16 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

See also

• List of individuals executed in Texas
• Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
  
  

Sources

• Offender information from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
  Texas Department of Criminal Justice
  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is a department of the government of the state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails and private correctional facilities, funding and certain...
  
  
• Texas Execution Information Center
• Clark Prosecutor
• Marion Butler Dudley Scheduled For Execution. Attorney General of Texas (2006-01-19). Retrieved on 2007-11-17.