Convicted Killers Executed in Mo., Texas

Protesters gather outside the prison where Missouri's first execution in nearly four years is...

Protesters gather outside the prison where Missouri's first execution in nearly four years is scheduled to be held Tuesday, May 19, 2009, in Bonne Terre, Mo. Dennis Skillicorn, one of three men convicted of killing Excelsior Springs businessman Richard Drummond in 1994, is scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the prison.

(Jeff Roberson/AP Photo)

Two death row inmates spent some of their last moments apologizing for their crimes before they were put to death six hours apart in Texas and Missouri, which executed its first convict in four years.

In a lengthy, written final statement, Dennis Skillicorn expressed sorrow for the 1994 murder of a Richard Drummond, who stopped to offer help after a car carrying Skillicorn and two other men stalled along Interstate 70.

"The last 15 years I've lived daily with the remorse of my actions," Skillicorn wrote. "And I am deeply sorry for all the Drummond family has been forced to endure."

Early Wednesday, Skillicorn mouthed words to his wife and two spiritual advisers as the first drug was administered to him. Soon, he appeared unconscious. He was pronounced dead at 12:34 a.m., 11 minutes after the procedure began.

His execution was the first in Missouri since Marlin Gray was put to death in October 2005.

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Supporters wanted Skillicorn's sentence commuted to life in prison, calling him a role model for other inmates. Skillicorn chaired a prison hospice program, co-founded a program that teaches inmates to be better parents, and compiled a book aimed at persuading juvenile offenders to turn their lives around.

But in deciding against clemency, Gov. Jay Nixon noted Skillicorn was on parole for another murder at the time Drummond was kidnapped, robbed and killed. Nixon also noted that Skillicorn, 49, was convicted of two subsequent murders in Arizona.

"The jury that convicted Dennis Skillicorn determined that he deserved the most severe punishment under Missouri law, and my decision on clemency upholds the jury's action," Nixon said in a statement.

In Huntsville, Texas, meanwhile, Michael Lynn Riley apologized repeatedly in the moments before he received lethal injection Tuesday evening and became the 15th condemned prisoner executed in the nation's busiest death penalty state.

"I know I hurt you very bad," the 51-year-old told relatives of Wynona Harris, the woman stabbed and slashed in February 1986 at a store in Quitman as she was robbed of about $1,000. "I truly am sorry for the hurt and pain I caused you."