By Kristin Edwards
A 28-year-old man convicted of the 1998 murder of his adoptive parents was executed Thursday shortly after 6 p.m.
Carlton Akee Turner, the first of three death row inmates scheduled for execution this month, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection administered seven minutes earlier.
“Carlton Turner was executed at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Walls Unit Thursday night, marking the second execution to take place in Texas this year,” said Michelle Lyons, TDCJ public information officer. “Turner’s was the first of three executions scheduled in July.”
In the hours before his execution, Lyons said Turner was very quiet and did not display significant emotion.
During his last statement, Turner apologized directly to his uncle, Henry Kyle Johnson, the brother of his adoptive mother, Tonya Turner.
No immediate family members of Turner’s adoptive father, Carlton Turner, were present.
“First of all, I’d like to tell my uncle Kyle that I’m sorry, and I’ve been sorry for the last 10 years,” Turner said. “I wish you could accept my apology, but I know I can’t even ask for your forgiveness.
“I take this penalty as a man, but this doesn’t solve anything. I’ve done what I could to help the rest of the family. I was wrong, but I am still your nephew no matter what you believe, and I love you.”
Following the execution, Johnson held a small press conference where he discussed his feelings about the execution and the effect the event would have on the remainder of his family.
“I wanted to see this through — I needed to see this through,” he said. “I mean, I can’t speak for my sister or my brother-in-law because they’re gone, but for me and the remaining members of the family who are still feeling pain every day of their absence, I needed to be here.”
Johnson said there were signs during Turner’s childhood which might have indicated that he would misbehave, but none which would indicate the capability to commit the crimes he did.
“As he neared about 12-years-old, we thought he was just going through the average growing pains, and nobody knew how serious it was going to become,” he said. “His whole demeanor changed over the last few years before he committed the crime.”
Johnson described his deceased sister as an angel, and he said she was instrumental in helping to raise him.
Turner’s apology, nonetheless, was meaningful to Johnson.
“I do accept his apology,” he said. “It took a long time coming, and this is the first time he’s ever apologized. I didn’t think he was ever going to.
“I mean, he could have chosen not to say anything, so it makes it easier. It does.”
Turner was convicted in 1999 for shooting his adoptive parents in the head.
According to a press release from the Texas attorney general’s office, Turner put the bodies of his parents in their garage after the shootings, took their credit cards and cash and went shopping.
The next scheduled execution, that of 40-year-old Derrick Sonnier, will take place July 23.
