A crime 30 years old… The execution of the killer of two brothers in America

Texas authorities have executed a man who murdered two brothers in their home 30 years ago.

Rick Rodes, 57 years old, received a lethal injection at Huntsville Prison in Texas, state prison authorities said.

Rodes was imprisoned several times for repeated robbery and, after his parole on September 13, 1991, entered the home of Charles Allen, who was housing his brother Bradley in the suburbs of Houston.

Prison authorities explained that Rodes killed the brothers in their sleep before stealing money from them.

But his arrest took place only a month later, while he was robbing a school.

During his arrest, he confessed to the double murder, claiming to have done so during a fight with Charles Allen that started outside the house.

In 1992, he was sentenced to death by a popular jury.

Although Rick Rodes is white and his white victims, his lawyers accused the plaintiffs of deliberately excluding black jurors, as the prohibited measure could have led to the invalidation of the verdict, the US Supreme Court rejected their appeal on Tuesday evening.

Rick Rodes has become the sixth prisoner to be executed since January in the US, where the number of executions has dropped dramatically in recent years, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.