He's dead Jim ping
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/13408407.htm
Convicted hitman Nixon executed in Mississippi for 1985 murder
HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press
PARCHMAN, Miss. - Hired killer John B. Nixon Sr. was executed Wednesday by lethal injection, but not before he claimed one of his sons carried out the 1985 murder of a Mississippi woman.
"I did not kill Virginia Tucker," said Nixon, strapped to the death chamber gurney. "I know within my heart, and it hurts to acknowledge, that it was a son of mine and a Spanish friend and another man from Jackson."
Nixon, 77, did not identify which of his sons he was blaming, but said he believed his oldest son, John B. Nixon Jr., did not know murder was the reason the group entered Tucker's home in Brandon on Jan. 2, 1985.
Two of Nixon's sons - Nixon Jr. and Henry Leon Nixon - along with Gilbert Jimenez were convicted in the killing but were given lesser sentences. Corrections officials said the two sons, now out of prison, had not been in contact with their father, and Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps said he did not know where the two sons are now.
A third son, Charles Lee Nixon, 37, of Davenport, Iowa, was found dead near Mount Vernon, Ill., on Nov. 26. His death was ruled a homicide.
Nixon Sr., the oldest person in the nation to be executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. nearly three decades ago, appeared to die quietly. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m.
Just before the fatal chemicals were injected, Nixon - wearing red pants, a white T-shirt and white sneakers - said in a lengthy but coherent statement: "Friends, I pray for everybody."
Nixon's execution on a rainy night at the sprawling state penitentiary in the rural Mississippi Delta came after a final steak-and-potato meal and visits with family. Prison officials said he appeared more withdrawn as the time for his death approached, but as Nixon puffed on a last cigarette before the execution, he joked that smoking kills.
Virginia Tucker's husband, Thomas Tucker, who was also shot during the attack, watched stoically with Virginia Tucker's son, Joey Ponthieux, as Nixon's chest began to heave, the convict's face reddened and his eyes closed.
Elester Joseph Ponthieux of Raymond - who is Virginia Tucker's ex-husband and father of Joey Ponthieux - is serving a life sentence for hiring Nixon for $1,000 to carry out the murder.
Tucker's family did not speak to reporters after the execution, but Joey Ponthieux issued a written statement thanking "God for the opportunity to have lived long enough to witness this day."
"She was made to know fear and horror as her last conscious thoughts before a bullet permanently destroyed her brain tissue at the command of her assassin," the statement said.
Nixon, a one-time car mechanic, died near the death row building where he had spent almost 20 years while appealing his conviction.
Epps said Nixon on the eve of the execution had denied committing the murder, but expressed remorse shortly before his own death.
Nixon's last chance for a reprieve ended Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Gov. Haley Barbour earlier had refused a request for clemency.
Before his death Nixon issued a statement quoting the Mother Goose poem "Katy Cruel."
"If that I was where would I be, then should I be where I am not," he said. "Here am I where I must be and where I would be, I cannot."
One of Nixon's daughters, Dorothy Nixon-Clark, remained at her home in Texas on Wednesday but said in a news release that her father's execution "is just and called for."
"My sympathies go with the remaining family of the victim," said Nixon-Clark, who also wrote about her father's "violent outbursts towards anyone in his path."
After Nixon and his companions entered the Virginia Tucker's home on Jan. 2, 1985, her husband, Thomas, apparently figured out the four attackers had been hired by Virginia Tucker's former husband. Thomas Tucker tried to bargain with them, but Nixon said the "deal's already been made."
Nixon pointed the .22 caliber pistol at Thomas Tucker but it misfired, allowing Tucker to escape outside. One of Nixon's accomplices then wrestled Virginia Tucker to the ground, and Nixon put the gun behind her head and pulled the trigger, according to the court records. She died the next day.
Nixon's attorneys had claimed a 1958 statutory rape conviction in Texas should not have been admitted as a mitigating circumstance in arguing for the death penalty, and Nixon reiterated the claim just before his death.
Nixon's attorney Brian Toohey said: "Stepping back from this whole process, if John had been adequately represented, I think it's reasonably clear he would not have been sentenced to death."
"One of Nixon's daughters, Dorothy Nixon-Clark, remained at her home in Texas on Wednesday but said in a news release that her father's execution "is just and called for."
"My sympathies go with the remaining family of the victim," said Nixon-Clark, who also wrote about her father's "violent outbursts towards anyone in his path."
How horrible this all must have been for her.
THAT is NOT the statement read on Channel 3 news tonight, which was a real nice apology (as far as apologies go).
Watched the news --- he was defiant -- blamed a son of his and said we (MS) are doing worse to him than he ever did.
*SIGH*
Tucker's family member said he hopes Nixon "rots in hell."