Final Meal:
Four pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, two pints of ice cream, bacon cheeseburger and two vanilla cokes.

Final Words:
"I would like to say first and foremost to the Lord God Almighty that I am sorry and forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed these 35 years I have lived upon this Earth. To the Varghese family, I would ask that you forgive me because I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry. I know what you have suffered, but please grant me your forgiveness. I am truly sorry, and there is not a day that I have not prayed for you. And to my Mom, I love you. I am going to see the Lord. The Lord is my Shepherd. Let everyone know that I love them; this is not goodbye. I will see you later."

Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Keith Clay)

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Keith Bernard Clay, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, 2003.

On May 6, 1997, Keith Bernard Clay was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Melathethil Tom Varughese, which occurred in Harris County, Texas, on Jan. 4, 1994. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

In December 1993, Keith Bernard Clay, 25, bought a 9 mm "Hi-Point" handgun from his friend, Ernest Lee King. On Jan. 4, 1994, Clay spent the day at the home of Shannon Thomas along with King. Later that evening, the three left Shannon's home with King driving his grandfather's Cadillac. Around 8:00 or 8:30 p.m., the three stopped at a convenience store so King could buy cigarettes.

As King exited the store, Clay entered. Moments later, King heard gunshots, looked inside, and saw Clay holding a gun. He heard two or three more shots before he got into the car. Then, Clay came out of the store carrying a box and the three left together in the Cadillac.

Melathethil Tom Varughese, the clerk at the Texaco station who was working alone, was found lying on the floor behind the cashier's booth with Christmas tree lights wrapped around his wrists. Two $20 bills were found on the floor under the register, and eight shell casings were found scattered around the store. Varughese had been shot six times in various parts of his body. He suffered multiple lacerations on his face and forehead, and suffered extensive blunt force trauma to the head, including a fractured skull.

Items missing from the store included: most of the money in the cash register, a pistol usually kept behind the counter, and a small red cigar box kept behind the counter that occasionally had money in it. Evidence presented at trial indicated that the eight shell casings found at the scene came from the same 9 mm Hi-Point pistol. The bullets found in Varughese's body were from two different guns, one a 9 mm, and the other, a revolver like the one kept under the cash register.

Houston authorities arrested Clay the following December under suspicion for Varughese's murder and for the 1993 Christmas Eve triple murder of the Roberto Rios family that had occurred two weeks before the Varughese murder. Clay was subsequently convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role in the Varughese robbery/murder. Evidence presented during the punishment phase of Clay's capital murder trial included his admitted presence and participation in the Rios family incident.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

March 13, 1996 - Clay was indicted for capital murder in the 337th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas, for the Jan. 4, 1994 murder of Melathethil Tom Varughese, while in the course of committing and attempting to commit the offense of robbery.

April 30, 1997 - Clay was found guilty following a plea of not guilty.

May 6, 1997 - The punishment phase concluded with a sentence of death.

March 10, 1998 - The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Clay's conviction and sentence on direct appeal.

January 19, 2000 - The Court of Criminal Appeals denied Clay's state application for writ of habeas corpus.

January 18, 2002 - The Federal district court entered summary judgment denying the petition.

August 20, 2002 - The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied certificate of appealability.

November 27, 2002 - The District Court of Harris County set the date of the execution for March 20, 2003.

January 2, 2003 - Clay filed a petition for certiorari review in the United States Supreme Court.

March 10, 2003 - Clay's petition for certiorari review was denied by the United States Supreme Court.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

On Aug. 28, 1990, Clay received a sentence of two years for the offense of possession of a controlled substance.

On Dec. 24, 1993, Clay participated in the triple murder of Roberto Rios; Rios' 13-year-old son, Victor; and Rios' 10-year-old daughter, Maria, at Rios' home. Clay confessed to only "roughing up" Mr. Rios, who was found bound with duct tape, beaten with a pair of bolt cutters, stabbed in the neck, and shot three times. His two children were found shot execution style in the back of the head. Note: Shannon Thomas, present with Clay during the Varughese murder, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role as the primary actor in the Rios family murders.

ProDeathPenalty.com

A Houston jury deliberated 8 hours before deciding on the death sentence for Keith Bernard Clay, 28, in the murder of Melathethil Tom Varughese, who came to the United States from India a year earlier, in a $2,000 robbery. Clay robbed the store in Baytown on Jan. 4, 1994, shot at Varughese 10 times, hitting him 6, then beat him with a pistol, said prosecutor Marie Munier.

Sometime between 8 and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 4, 1994, Clay and 2 friends entered the store so one of them could buy cigarettes. After his friends left the store, Clay attacked Varughese and shot him several times. An autopsy on the Indian immigrant, who had been the United States less than a year, determined he had been shot six times with two different guns and suffered a fractured skull from blunt force trauma. One of the guns used to shoot Varughese was a pistol kept in the story for security; the other, a 9-millimeter pistol, was later found in Clay's possession. When Varughese's body was found, his hands were bound by a string of Christmas lights. Nearly $2,000 had been taken from the store's cash register.

Clay was not arrested for nearly a year, but when he was taken into custody, he was suspected of playing a role in three other murders. While Clay did not stand trial for the other murders, he was indicted for Varughese's murder in March 1996. He was found guilty of capital murder in April 1997, and sentenced to death later that month. In the sentencing phase, the jury also heard about the unrelated crime Clay allegedly was involved in just a week before the robbery -- the Christmas Eve 1993 murders of a Baytown man and his 2 young children. Clay's co-defendant in that case, Shannon Thomas, is already on death row for those murders.

At about 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 24, 1993, Jose Rios walked into his brother's Baytown home when no one answered his knock on the door. He and his mother, wife and children were visiting the brother's family, bearing Christmas gifts. "I opened the door and saw the Christmas tree with gifts," Rios said. "I opened the door a little more and saw my brother lying on the floor with blood on him." Rios found his brother, Robert Rios, shot to death on the floor, with a knife in his throat. He called 911, and his wife screamed from upstairs that the children, Maria Elda Isabell Rios, 10, and Victor Roberto Rios, 11, also were dead. Hours before, Thomas, 24, and Clay, 27, burst into the Rios home and bound Roberto Rios with duct tape before stabbing him and shooting him twice in the head. Then the two men went upstairs to the children's bedroom, made them lie face-down on the floor and shot each of them once in the back of the head. Police speculated at the time that that the killings were drug-related. Rios was a drug dealer who mostly sold marijuana. Thomas and Clay apparently had bought drugs from Rios and assumed he would have money in the house. The children probably were killed because they were potential witnesses, according to police. The children's mother was divorced from Rios and lived in Mexico at the time of the killing. The triple murder was unsolved for two years before authorities received a tip after the pair had bragged to friends about the murders. When Thomas and Clay gave statements to police, each admitted having been at the scene but each denied that he was the shooter. Prosecutor Munier said that Thomas did the shooting, but that Clay may have held the children down.

In the convenience store robbery and murder, there was witness. Clay went in the store about 8:30 pm. looking more to kill than to rob, Munier said, adding that "it was a vicious, brutal murder, I think not so much for the money, but to prove that he was a killer to his friend." The jury agreed with the prosecution that Clay constituted a future threat to society, and, rejecting the defense's call for a life sentence, returned with a verdict of death. Regarding any appellate issues, Roe Wilson, who handles capital murder appeals in the Harris County District Attorney's office, said "It's certainly not a good case to try to grasp on to any mental retardation, the evidence against him was real strong, there's no DNA, and the eyewitness identification is from a guy that knows him and was with him." Clay said he was outside the Baytown store where Varughese worked and in a car when the clerk was gunned down Jan. 4, 1994. "I was just an innocent bystander," he said. "I didn't have any knowledge the store was going to be robbed."

UPDATE: "I've been praying for the victim's family, for my family," Clay said from death row. "With regard to me being down here, if there's one thing I could put my finger on, it would be decisions were made that bring about consequences, whether good or bad. What you do or say not only affects your life but others as well." Marie Munier, the Harris County district attorney who prosecuted Clay said, "I'm not happy to see someone put to death, but I know that the trial was a fair trial, he was represented by good counsel and it was a horrible crime. I think it's justice. It's not that it makes me happy at all, but it's just the price he will pay for his actions." Before the execution, Clay looked at 3 members of his victim's family, who were watching through a nearby window, and asked them for forgiveness. "I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry. ...There is not a day that I have not prayed for you," he said. Clay then turned to his mother, watching through an adjacent window. He told her he loved her and said "The Lord is my shepherd. Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye. I will see you later." His mother, Cynthia Smith, smiled and flashed 2 thumbs up to him.

Huntsville Item

"Inmate Set to be 300th Executed in the State," by Mark Passwaters. (03/20/03)

The case of Keith Clay, a Harris County man sentenced to death for a 1994 murder in Baytown, has received relatively little attention. Suddenly, after nearly six years on death row, Clay finds himself in the spotlight. It's not because new information proving his guilt or innocence has surfaced, but because he now stands to be the 300th person executed in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982. Delma Banks, who has had his execution stayed 16 different times, last week was scheduled to be the 300th person executed. The death sentence was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court 10 minutes before it was to be carried out.

Clay was convicted of murdering Melathethil Tom Varughese, a clerk at a Texaco convenience store. Sometime between 8 and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 4, 1994, Clay and two friends entered the store so one of them could buy cigarettes. After his friends left the store, Clay attacked Varughese and shot him several times.

An autopsy on the Indian immigrant, who had been the United States less than a year, determined he had been shot six times with two different guns and suffered a fractured skull from blunt force trauma. One of the guns used to shoot Varughese was a pistol kept in the story for security; the other, a 9-millimeter pistol, was later found in Clay's possession. When Varughese's body was found, his hands were bound by a string of Christmas lights. Nearly $2,000 had been taken from the store's cash register.

Clay was not arrested for nearly a year, but when he was taken into custody, he was suspected of playing a role in four other murders. Authorities believed Clay helped his friend Shannon Thomas kill Roberto Rios of Baytown and his two children on Christmas Eve in 1993. Rios was bound with duct tape, beaten with a pair of bolt cutters, stabbed and shot three times. His daughters, ages 10 and 13, were shot execution-style in the back of the head. Clay later confessed to "roughing up" Rios, but did not take responsibility for any of the murders. Thomas was tried on three counts of capital murder for the Rios murders and currently is on death row.

While Clay did not stand trial for the Rios murders, he was indicted for Varughese's murder in March 1996. He was found guilty of capital murder in April 1997, and sentenced to death later that month. He continues to protest his innocence, but says he is prepared for his execution. "The decisions you make, what you say and do, whether good or bad, have consequences. It affects the lives of others," he told The Houston Chronicle. "Everyone has an execution date, no matter who you are. You can face it with uncertainty, or face it with hope. I have a sense of hope."

If Clay does not receive a stay, he will be executed sometime after 6 p.m. at the Huntsville "Walls" Unit.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.

Keith Bernard Clay, 35, was executed by lethal injection on 20 March 2003 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a convenience store clerk.

On 4 January 1994, Melathethil Varughese was murdered during a robbery of the store where he was working. His body was found lying on the floor behind the cashier's booth. His hands were bound with a string of Christmas lights. Eight 9 mm shell casings were found scattered around the store. He had been shot six times. Some of the gunshots were from a 9 mm pistol, and some were from a revolver which was kept in the store, under the cash register. He also had a fractured skull resulting from being beaten with a blunt object. He also had multiple lacerations on his face and forehead. The money from the cash register had been stolen, along with another box containing money.

Two men -- Keith Clay, then 25, and Shannon Thomas, 22 -- were arrested on suspicion of a triple homicide in Baytown which occurred two weeks earlier. Further investigation connected them to the Varughese murder. A third man, Ernest King, testified that he, Clay, and Thomas drove to the convenience store on 4 January so he could buy some cigarettes. King testified that as he left the store, Clay entered. King heard gunshots, looked inside, and saw Clay holding a gun. After more gunshots, Clay came out of the store carrying a box and the three left in their car. The 9mm pistol used in the robbery belonged to Clay. He had bought it from King a month earlier.

Clay had a prior conviction for possession of cocaine. He received a two-year prison sentence in August 1990. (Information on time served was not available for this report.) Clay also confessed in writing to being involved in the December 1993 murder of Roberto Rios and his two daughters in their home. He was charged, but not tried, in that case.

A jury convicted Clay of capital murder in April 1997 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in March 1998. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied, including a last-minute appeal claiming that Clay, who graduated from high school, was retarded. Shannon Charles Thomas was convicted of capital murder in the Rios case and is on death row. He was charged, but not tried, in the Varughese case.

In a death-row interview, Clay denied that he participated in either murder. He said that he "never set foot" in Rios' house, and that he waited in the car at the convenience store while King and Thomas went inside. "Whatever God's will is for my life, I'm going to accept, Clay said. "Lord Jesus, He was wrongly convicted for something He didn't do, and paid the price."

"I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry," Clay told the victim's family at his execution. He also asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed these 35 years I have lived upon the earth." Finally, Clay told his mother, "Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye. I will see you later." He began praying softly as the lethal injection was administered. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

TheDeathouse.Com (March 20, 2003)

"Texas Conducts 300th Execution since 1982," by Robert Anthony Phillips.

HUNTSVILLE, Tex. - Keith Clay, sentenced to death for killing a convenience store clerk and also implicated in the murders of a father and his two children, has become the 300th condemned murderer executed in Texas since 1982. Clay was executed by lethal injection at the Walls Unit of the Texas prison system Thursday night. Clay now has became a historic footnote in a stunning string of executions that began on Dec. 7, 1982 when condemned killer Charlie Brooks became the first man executed by Texas in the modern era of the death penalty - and the first put to death by the state by lethal injection.

Asks Forgiveness For Sins

Before he was executed, Clay asked God's forgiveness for "every single solitary sin I have committed these 35 years I have lived upon this Earth." He then asked three of the victim's relatives, who had gathered to watch him die, to forgive him. "... I am truly, truly sorry...., he said Clay's mother also watched him die. He told her, "This is not goodbye. I will see you later." The lethal drugs began flowing into him at 6:15 and he was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

Texas: More Than One-Third Of Executions

Since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976, 839 condemned murderers have been executed. This means that Texas has accounted for 36 percent of executions in the United States since that time. The state with the next highest number of executions in the moderN era of capital punishment is Virginia with 87, followed by Missouri with 60.

Held Down Children As They Were Shot

Clay was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of a Houston convenience store clerk, Melathethil Tom Varughese, who was shot six times and beaten. The murder occurred Jan. 4, 1994. However, prosecutors said that Clay also participated in the Christmas Eve 1993 murders of a man and his two children. Prosecutors say that Clay and Shannon Thomas entered the home of Robert Rios, a small-time marijuana dealer, shot him twice in the head, stabbed him and then killed his two children, ages 10 and 11. The children were shot in the head. Prosecutors contend that while Thomas did the shooting, Clay may have held the children while Thomas shot them. Thomas was sentenced to death in that case. Clay was charged with but never tried for the murders of Rios and the children.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Clay claimed he was innocent of the murders and blamed his path to death row on Thomas, a man he described as always being "trouble." Although he denied the Rios slayings, prosecutors said Clay signed a confession admitting to roughing up Rios prior to the murders, the newspaper reported. Prosecutors also say Clay and Thomas told friends of their involvement in the case.

In the convenience store robbery and murder, Clay went in the store about 8:30 p.m. looking more to kill than to rob, a prosecutor said. Clay, the prosecutor indicated, wanted to "prove" that he was a killer to Thomas. Clay had served a previous prison term on a cocaine related charge. Key testimony was given by another man accompanying the duo, Earnest Lee King, who said he sold Clay the pistol used in the crime and drove them to the store. No money was taken from the sore after Varughese was shot to death.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Keith Clay (TX) - March 20, 2003 - 6:00 CST, 7:00 EST

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Keith Clay, a black man, March 20 for the 1994 murder of Melathethil Tom Varughese in Houston. Clay allegedly attacked Varughese, a convenience store clerk, amidst a robbery. According to the state, he shot him 10 times and then beat him with his pistol.

Unfortunately, despite a decline in executions from 2001 to 2002 in the other 37 states with death penalty statutes, Texas nearly doubled its own total from the previous year, recording 33 executions. Early projections indicate that those numbers will only increase in 2003, as Texas accounted for eight of the first 10 executions in the United States this year.

Clay allegedly felt pressured into committing the Varughese murder by his co-defendant, Shannon Thomas, who is currently on death row in Texas for a murder in 1993. Police speculated that this pair’s crimes were drug-related and money-driven, and prosecutors convinced Clay’s jury that he constituted a future threat to society. Not surprisingly, the two men, both black, stood trial in Harris County – the leading death penalty jurisdiction in the state of Texas.

This scheduled execution – involving a black man in a system plagued by racial discrimination and a jurisdiction known for its excessive application of the death penalty – epitomizes the arbitrary nature of the capital punishment process. Please write Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and protest the execution of Keith Clay.

Houston Chronicle

"Clay execution No. 300 in Texas." (Associated Press March 20, 2003)

HUNTSVILLE -- An apologetic Keith Clay was executed tonight, becoming the 300th inmate put to death in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago. In a brief statement, Clay asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed these 35 years I have lived upon this Earth."

Then Clay looked at three members of his victim's family, who were watching through a nearby window, and asked them for forgiveness. "I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry. ...There is not a day that I have not prayed for you," he said. Clay then turned to his mother, watching through an adjacent window. He told her he loved her and said "The Lord is my shepherd. Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye. I will see you later." His mother, Cynthia Smith, smiled and flashed two thumbs up to him.

He began praying softly to himself as the drugs began taking effect. He gasped three times. His eyes briefly widened and rolled back before his eyes closed. Eight minutes later at 6:23 p.m., he was pronounced dead. Clay's execution, the 11th this year in the nation's most active execution state, came a week after another inmate, Delma Banks, avoided lethal injection and the notoriety of No. 300 when he won a last-minute reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Clay, 35, was condemned for fatally shooting a convenience store clerk during a 1994 robbery in Baytown, just east of Houston. The Supreme Court last week refused to review his case and the state parole board refused to consider a clemency petition because it was filed 15 days too late. "Whatever God's will is for my life I'm going to accept," Clay said from death row last week. "I refer to my faith. Lord Jesus, he was wrongly convicted for something he didn't do and paid the price."

Clay's injection keeps Texas on a pace to surpass the record 40 lethal injections carried out in 2000. Another is scheduled for next week and three more are scheduled for April. Texas accounts for more than one-third of the 838 executions in the United States since 1976 when the death penalty resumed under a Supreme Court ruling. Virginia is second with 87. It took nearly 13 years for Texas to reach 100 executions, four years get to No. 200 and now, as the appeals process has become more streamlined, just over three to reach the 300th.

Clay's case failed to generate the kind of attention paid last week to Banks, who contended he was wrongly convicted of a 1980 slaying near Texarkana. Banks' appeals were bolstered by the backing of three former federal judges, including former FBI director William Sessions. Clay, an acknowledged former drug dealer who authorities said also was involved in a triple slaying in 1993, attracted no similar support.

Clay was convicted of killing store clerk Melathethil Tom Varughese, who came to the United States from India a year earlier, in a $2,000 robbery. "I'm not happy to see someone put to death, but I know that the trial was a fair trial, he was represented by good counsel and it was a horrible crime," said Marie Munier, the Harris County district attorney who prosecuted Clay. "I think it's justice. It's not that it makes me happy at all, but it's just the price he will pay for his actions."

Clay denied participating in the Varughese killing and denied any role in the Christmas Eve 1993 fatal shootings of three people, including two children, at a Baytown home. He was not tried for the triple slayings although a companion was sent to death row. Clay said he was outside the Baytown store where Varughese worked and in a car when the clerk was gunned down Jan. 4, 1994. A witness, however, identified Clay as the gunman. Evidence showed his gun was one of the two used in the shooting.

"I've been praying for the victim's family, for my family," Clay said from death row. "With regard to me being down here, if there's one thing I could put my finger on, it would be decisions were made that bring about consequences, whether good or bad. What you do or say not only affects your life but others as well."

Baytown Sun

"Execution of Baytown Man No. 300 in Texas," by Timothy Williams. (March 21, 2003)

HUNTSVILLE — Sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of a Baytown convenience store clerk, Keith Bernard Clay apologized to family members of his victim before he became the 300th Texas prisoner put to death Wednesday. Strapped to the table, Clay, also from Baytown, turned his head toward family members of Melathethil Tom Varughese and asked for forgiveness. “To the Varughese family, I would ask that you forgive me because I know you have suffered a great loss, and I am truly, truly sorry,” Clay said. “I know what you have suffered but please grant me your forgiveness.”

Clay was convicted in 1997 for the shooting death of Varughese during a robbery at the Airwood Grocery Store on Park Street. Continuing his statement, Clay told his mother, Cynthia Smith, that he loved her and would see her again. “Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye,” he said. “I will see you later.” Smith smiled and gave him two thumbs up.

Clay was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal dose began. He is the 300th prisoner executed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the death penalty could be reinstated. The Supreme Court last week refused to review his case and the state parole board refused to consider a clemency petition because it was filed 15 days too late. About six protesters, holding signs advocating an end to the death penalty, stood outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville as reporters were led inside to witness the execution.

Clay was linked to the murder with the testimony of Ernest Lee King. Clay had purchased the 9 mm “Hi-Point” handgun used in the crime from King, who witnessed Clay in the store holding a gun after several gunshots had been fired. Varughese was found by two Baytown women about 20 minutes later at 8:50 p.m. He had been shot six times in various parts of his body, suffered multiple lacerations and extensive blunt face trauma that fractured his skull. His wrists were bound with Christmas tree lights.

Prosecutors also linked Clay to the 1993 Christmas Eve robbery and triple-murder of Roberto Rios and his two children, 10-year-old Maria and 13-year-old Victor. Clay confessed, but was never tried for “roughing up” Roberto, who was bound with duct tape, beaten with bolt cutters, stabbed in the neck and shot three times. Shannon Charles Thomas, a friend of Clay’s, was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death row. His case is on appeal.

CNN Law Center

"Texas Executes 300th Inmate Since Resuming Death Penalty." (AP March 21, 2003)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- An apologetic killer Thursday became the 300th inmate put to death in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago. Keith Clay, 35, who gunned down a convenience store clerk during a 1994 robbery, prayed softly to himself as he was executed by injection. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

Clay asked for forgiveness from three members of his victim's family, who watched through a nearby window. "I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry," he told the family of Melathethil Tom Varughese. Clay also asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed." Turning to his mother, he said, "Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye. I will see you later." Cynthia Smith smiled and flashed two thumbs up to him.

Clay was the 11th inmate executed this year in Texas, which is on a pace to surpass the record 40 lethal injections it carried out in 2000. Another execution is scheduled for next week. It took nearly 13 years for Texas to reach 100 executions, four years get to No. 200 and now just over three to reach the 300th. The state accounts for more than one-third of the 839 executions in the United States since 1976, when the death penalty resumed under a Supreme Court ruling. Virginia is second with 87.

Clay was convicted of killing Varughese during a $2,000 robbery in Baytown, near Houston. Varughese had come to the United States from India a year earlier. Clay had said he was outside the store in a car when Varughese was killed, but a witness identified Clay as the gunman and evidence showed his gun was one of the two used in the shooting.

"I'm not happy to see someone put to death, but I know that the trial was a fair trial," said Marie Munier, who prosecuted Clay. "I think it's justice." Prosecutors also linked Clay to the fatal shootings of three people, including two children, on Christmas Eve in 1993. He denied any role in the killings and was not tried, but a companion was sent to death row for the crime.

The Supreme Court refused to review Clay's case last week. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to consider a clemency request because it was filed late.

ABOLISH Archives

A man convicted of murdering a convenience store clerk has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. The Houston jury deliberated 8 hours before deciding on the death sentence for Keith Bernard Clay, 28, in the murder of Melathethil Tom Varughese.

Clay robbed the store in Baytown on Jan. 4, 1994, shot at Varughese 10 times, hitting him 6, then beat him with a pistol, said prosecutor Marie Munier. The jury also heard about an unrelated crime Clay alleged was involved in just a week before the robbery -- the Christmas Eve 1993 murders of a Baytown man and his 2 young children. Clay's co-defendant in that case, Shannon Thomas, is already on death row for those murders.

Police say the 2, looking for money, entered Robert Rios' home on Dec. 24, shot him twice in the head, stabbed him in the neck, then shot his children, Maria Elda Isabell Rios, 10, and Victor Roberto Rios, 11. The bodies were found by elatives who came to the house that night with Christmas presents; the children's bodies were upstairs, face down on the floor with gunshot wounds to the head. Police at the time thought the killings were drug-related because Rios was aknown small-time marijuana dealer.

Though both Clay and Thomas said they were at the house, both denied shooting the 3 victims. Later, however, they bragged to their friends about the killings, police say. Prosecutor Munier said that Thomas did the shooting, but that Clay may have held the children down.

In the convenience store robbery and murder, there was a witness. Clay went in the store about 8:30 pm. looking more to kill than to rob, Munier said, adding that "it was a vicious, brutal murder fork I think, not so much for the money, but to prove that he was a killer to his friend." The jury agreed with the prosecution that Clay constituted a future threat to society, and, rejecting the defense's call for a life sentence, returned with a verdict of death.