Final Meal:
Gallamore requested no last meal.

Final Words:
"I would like to apologize and say I'm sorry but words seem so hollow and cheap," Gallamore said in a handwritten statement distributed after his execution. He had declined to make a final statement from the death chamber gurney. "Their death should not have happened, but it did. I'm so sorry that all of this took place."

Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Samuel Gallamore)

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Samuel Clark Gallamore, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003.

On Feb. 3, 1994, Samuel Clark Gallamore was sentenced to death for the capital murders of Julianna Kenney, Verle Clayton Kenney and Adrienne Arnot in Kerr County, Texas, on March 29, 1992. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On the evening of March 29, 1992, Samuel Clark Gallamore and James John Steiner drove to the private residence of Verle Clayton Kenney, his wife Julianna Kenney, and their daughter Adrienne Arnot, in Kerr County, Texas, for the purpose of robbing their home. On their way to the Kenney residence, Gallamore and Steiner discussed their proposed robbery and decided that if any of the occupants of the home tried to stop them, they would kill them.

When Gallamore and Steiner arrived at the Kenney residence, they parked away from the house and walked to the door. Along the way, Gallamore picked up a cedar branch and handed it to Steiner. Steiner also carried a tire iron. Gallamore knocked on the front door while Steiner, who was known to the Kenney family, hid out of sight. After Ms. Arnot opened the door, the two men forced their way in, knocking Ms. Arnot down in the process. Gallamore and his accomplice then began beating Ms. Arnot and Mr. Kenney, who had come to her aid, with the tire iron and a wooden club. Ms. Arnot struggled for her life, sustaining 12 blunt force blows to her head and face, and 14 blunt force blows to her upper extremities, back, and right thigh. Mr. Kenney sustained six blunt force injuries to his head. These injuries were sufficient to cause the deaths of the two victims.

Gallamore then grabbed a knife from the Kenney's kitchen and began stabbing Ms. Arnot and Mr. Kenney. Ms. Arnot sustained a stab wound to her right, middle finger, consistent with a defensive laceration. In addition, Gallamore stabbed Ms. Arnot twice in the neck, creating a three-inch wound.

Gallamore proceeded further into the house, where he discovered Mrs. Kenney, partially paralyzed, immobile in a chair, and unable to defend herself. Gallamore, wielding the kitchen knife, stabbed Mrs. Kenney in the neck. The knife wound would have been sufficient to cause Mrs. Kenney's death. Gallamore, however, continued to beat Mrs. Kenney, hitting her at least five times with a blunt object. The blows were so powerful that they created a gaping hole in Mrs. Kenney's skull measuring 7 inches long by 2 inches wide. All three victims died.

After stabbing and beating all three of the residents, Gallamore and Steiner took several spoons, cash from Arnot's purse, and various small items on display in the house. They buried most of the items taken from the Kenney residence on property owned by Gallamore's parents.

Much of the detailed and graphic description of the events surrounding these murders came from Gallamore himself, in two tape-recorded confessions which were produced for the jury, and from Gallamore's testimony at trial.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Gallamore was indicted on July 22, 1993, by a Kerr County grand jury for the capital offense murdering Julianna Kenney, Verle Clayton Kenney and Adrienne Arnot in the same criminal transaction on March 29, 1992. Venue for Gallamore's trial was transferred to the 22nd Judicial District Court of Comal County, Texas. Gallamore was tried before a jury upon a plea of not guilty, and on Feb. 1, 1994, the jury found him guilty of the capital offense. On Feb. 3, 1994, following a separate punishment hearing, the jury answered special issues one and two affirmatively and special issue number three negatively. In accordance with Texas law, the trial court sentenced Gallamore to death. On March 2, 1994, Gallamore filed a motion for new trial. On April 15, 1994, a hearing was held on that motion, and at the end of that hearing, the trial court denied the motion.

Gallamore appealed his conviction and sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, which affirmed in an unpublished opinion. On Feb. 8, 1996, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Gallamore's motion for rehearing. Gallamore did not petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court.

On Dec. 2, 1997, Gallamore filed his original application for writ of habeas corpus in the state trial court raising five grounds for relief. The state trial court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that relief be denied. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals deemed the trial court's findings and conclusions to be supported by the record and denied habeas corpus relief in an unpublished order.

On July 13, 1998, Gallamore filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division. The district court denied relief in a 94-page opinion, but granted Gallamore's request for a Certificate of Appealability as to all four issues.

On Jan. 18, 2001, Gallamore filed his appeal from the district court's denial of federal habeas corpus relief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals raising only two of the four issues for which he had been granted COA. On Oct. 4, 2001, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of federal habeas corpus relief. On Nov. 13, 2001, Gallamore filed a petition for rehearing. It was denied the same day.

On Jan. 31, 2002,Gallamore filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied the petition.

On July 10, 2002, Gallamore filed a second application for writ of habeas corpus in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals raising a single ground for relief. It was dismissed as an abuse of the writ.

In Dec. 2002, Gallamore filed an application/petition for a 90-day reprieve from execution and for commutation of sentence to imprisonment for life with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Gallamore's petition for reprieve and commutation remains pending before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

Gallamore's documented criminal history reflects that he had been in trouble with the law numerous times prior to the 1992 capital murders of Verle Clayton Kenney, Julianna Kenney and Adrienne Arnot that culminated in his sentence of death.

On Oct. 31, 1991, Gallamore was convicted of misdemeanor assault (family violence), fined and sentenced to four months in jail.

On Oct. 29, 1992, Gallamore was convicted of possession of marijuana and sentenced to 14 days in jail and 30 days drug counseling.

On Sept. 3, 1992, Gallamore was convicted of interfering with the duties of a police officer (resisting arrest) and sentenced to five months in jail.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Gallamore said his friend James John Steiner directed him on March 29, 1992, to the rural Kerr County home where the pair planned a robbery for drug money. Julianna Kenney and her husband, Verle Clayton Kenney, lived there with their daugher, Adrienne Arnot. "I was under the impression that people weren't supposed to be there," Gallamore said. "They were. One thing led to another. Everything happened so fast. I had a split second to react. I don't know why I made the decision that I did, but those people had a chance to live. No one had to die. I could have left."

Gallamore and Steiner, who had cared for Julianna Kenney in her home, brutally beat Kenney's husband and their daughter. Arnot was struck 12 times in the head and face and suffered 14 blows to her upper body, back and right thigh. Her father was hit 6 times in the head with a tire iron and a cedar stick. Gallamore then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Arnot and her father. "(Mrs. Kenney) literally kind-of had to watch everything that was happening to her husband and her daughter but could not move," Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said Monday. Gallamore said he killed Julianna Kenney. She was found with her throat slit and skull bashed with so much force that a gaping hole measuring 7 inches by 2 inches wide was left in her head. Hierholzer said a maid who arrived at the family's home discovered the gruesome scene.

"You walk into any crime scene that is as brutal and gory as that one was and it definitely changes you," Hierholzer said. "It is the type of crime you never forget. It was just so senseless. It is so hard to understand. She couldn't even defend herself if she wanted to." It took 18 months for police to track down Gallamore and Steiner. Gallamore had moved to Chicago, where he was working as a home repairman. "After the crime happened I wasn't running from it," Gallamore said. "I wasn't going to turn myself in, but if I got caught, I got caught. It wasn't something I was proud of." Heirholzer said had it not been for the bloody cedar stick found with a partial fingerprint from Gallamore in the brush outside the Kenneys' home, police officers might not have ever suspected the young man who had previously been in trouble for marijuana possession, resisting arrest and misdemeanor assault.

"We had handled him for some minor offenses, but nothing anywhere like this crime," said Heirholzer, who was the case's lead investigator back in 1992. "It was a nightmare. It was one of the worst crimes we have ever had around here." Kerr County prosecutor Ronald Sutton said Gallamore confessed to the crime shortly after his arrest. Jurors heard a poem Gallamore wrote from his jail cell during his trial in which he described the begging and pleading of "the people I sat and watched bleed. I say I am guilty and that is true. Now I ask mercy from all twelve of you."

Gallmore was sentenced to death on Feb. 3, 1994. Steiner received a life sentence. "My life is worthless since I've done this," said Gallamore, who says he began using marijuana when he was 5, dropped out of school as a teenager and often fought to protect his older brother who was in a gang. "When it comes to having a life, you can pretty much say mine was a failure," he said. "I was just a mixed-up, confused kid. A lot of it had to do with the drugs. ... If it wasn't for me shooting the bathtub crank we were making, I wouldn't be (on death row.)"

Gallamore said he and Steiner had been on a 2-week drug binge the night of the killings and both were high on methamphetamines. "If I could, I would take it back, not just to save my own life, but to save everybody," Gallamore said. "I have got people I don't even know who are crying because of me, because they feel for me or they feel for the victims. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think this would cause so much pain to so many people."

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.

Samuel Clark Gallamore, 31, was executed by lethal injection on 14 January 2003 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of three people in their home.

On 29 March 1992, Gallamore, then 21, and James Steiner, 19, drove to the home of Clayton Kenney, 83; his wife, Juliana, 74; and Mrs. Kenny's daughter, Adrienne Arnot, 44. Steiner, who had once cared for Mrs. Kenney at an area nursing home, was carrying a tire iron and a cedar tree branch. He hid while Gallamore knocked on the door. After Arnot opened the door, the two men knocked her down and forced their way inside. Mr. Kenney came to Arnot's aid, but the intruders beat both of them with the tire iron and the tree branch. Gallamore then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began stabbing them. Next, Gallamore proceeded further into the house, finding Mrs. Kenney, who was partially paralyzed, seated in a chair and unable to move. Gallamore stabbed her in the neck and beat her. After killing all of the residents, Gallamore and Steiner stole some silverware, cash, and figurines.

Adrienne Arnot suffered 26 blunt force blows all over her body, two stab wounds to her neck, and a slashed finger. Clayton Kenney suffered six blunt force blows to his head. Juliana Kenney had a large stab wound to her neck and five blows to her head. The blows created a 7-inch by 2-inch hole in her skull.

Sheriff's investigators found the bloody tree branch hidden in the brush outside the Kenneys' home. A partial fingerprint pointed them to Gallamore, who had a prior arrest record for minor offenses. Eighteen months later, Gallamore was arrested in Chicago. In his confession, he said that he and Steiner had been taking crack cocaine and decided to rob the Kenneys to buy more drugs. Most of the stolen property was discovered buried on some land owned by Gallamore's parents.

Gallamore had no prior felony convictions, but he had misdemeanor convictions for domestic assault, possession of marijuana, and resisting arrest.

A jury convicted Gallamore in February 1994 of the capital murder of Mr. and Mrs. Kenney and Adrienne Arnot and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in February 1996. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied. James John Steiner was convicted in December 1994 of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.

"Things went wrong, terribly wrong," Gallamore said of the triple murder in an interview the week before his execution. "I was under the impression that people weren't supposed to be there. They were. One thing led to another. Everything happened so fast. I had a split second to react. I don't know why I made the decision that I did, but those people had a chance to live. No one had to die ... I am sorry. I have no problem giving my life in payment." "When it comes to having a life, you can pretty much say mine was a failure," Gallamore said.

Gallamore declined to make a spoken last statement at his execution. He was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. His written last statement was issued after the execution was over. "I would like to apologize and say I'm sorry, but words seem so hollow and cheap," he wrote. He also thanked his victim's family for their forgiveness. "Thank you. You have given me more hope than I have had in a long time ... If I could change things I would, not for my sake but for all those who have loved me over the years and for those who have forgiven me."

"We forgave him," said Kristin Huffman, Arnot's cousin, who witnessed the execution. "My heart goes out to Gallamore's family," she said. "They've lost a son, a loved one, and we know what that feels like."

TheDeathHouse.Com

"Murderous Home Invader Is First Executed in 2003," by Robert Anthony Phillips. (January 14, 2003)

A man who bludgeoned and stabbed to death a family of three - including a partially paralyzed woman - was executed by lethal injection tonight, becoming the first condemned killer put to death in the United States in 2003. Samuel Clark Gallamore, 31, went to the death house here for the bloody and brutal home invasion murders in March 1992 in Kerr County. He confessed and, before being executed, apologized.

Prosecutors said Gallamore and another man, James John Steiner, used a tree branch, tire iron and a knife to murder the victims. The victims were Verle Clayton Kenney, 83, his wife, Julianna, 74, and their daughter, Adrienne Arnot, 44. "I would like to apologize and say im sorry, but words seem so hollow and cheap," Gallamore said in a handwritten statement released following his execution. "Their deaths should not have happened...I'm so sorry that all of this took place."

Gallamore said the murders he committed "devastated" his family. "If I could change things, I would," Gallamore wrote. "Not for my sake, but for all those who have loved me over the years and for those who have forgiven me."

A relative of the Kenney family was the only person from the victims' side that witnessed the execution, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The lethal dose of chemicals began at 6:07 p.m. and Gallamore was declared dead at 6:14 p.m. Gallamore requested no last meal and apparently spent his last few hours writing out his last statement, Lyons said. On the execution gurney, Gallamore kept his eyes closed and head pointed toward the ceiling.

For the murder and robbery that cost him his life, Gallamore stole several spoons, a purse, cash and several small household items, prosecutors said. Steiner received life in prison for the murders. Gallamore and Steiner were on a drug binge at the times of the slayings. In an interview with the Associated Press before his execution, Gallamore admitted the murders and said he was ready to give his life in return. "Things went wrong, terribly wrong," Gallamore said. "I am sorry. I have no problem giving my life in payment, but I only have one life and I take responsibility for all three."

Steiner Knew Victim

Prosecutors said Gallamore and Steiner discussed the robbery and decided that if the victims were home and tried to stop them, they would kill them. Steiner knew Julianna Kenney, having worked at a nursing home she was once hospitalized. After arriving at the Kenney home, Gallamore and Steiner parked away from the house and walked to the door. Along the way, Gallamore picked up a cedar branch and handed it to Steiner. Steiner also carried a tire iron. Gallamore knocked on the front door while Steiner hid.

After Arnot opened the door, Steiner and Gallamore forced their way in and began beating her and Verle Kenney with the tire iron and the tree branch, authorities said, and then stabbed them with a knife. Meanwhile, Julianna Kenney was in another room. She was partially paralyzed and immobile in a chair. "Gallamore, wielding the kitchen knife, stabbed Mrs. Kenney in the neck," the Texas Attorney General's office said in a prepared summary of the case. "This would have been sufficient to cause Mrs. Kenney's death. Gallamore, however, continued to beat Mrs. Kenney, hitting her at least five times with a blunt object. The blows were so powerful that they created a gaping hole in Mrs. Kenney's skull..."

Gallamore gave authorities two tape-recorded confessions, describing what happened at the Kenney home, the Texas AG's office stated. At Gallamore's trial, jurors heard a poem in which Gallamore admitted his guilt. The poem also desribing the victims' begging and pleading.

Gallamore had previously been convicted of misdemeanor assault, possession of marijuana and interfering with an officer. After the murders, he fled to Chicago and was arrested 18 months later.

Texas has now executed 290 condemned killers since 1982 - the highest in the nation. In 2002, Texas led death penalty states with 33 executions.

The Huntsville Item

"First Execution of 2003 Carried Out Tuesday," by Mark Passwaters. (January 14, 2003)

Samuel Clark Gallamore became the first man to die in the death chamber in Texas this year when his sentence for three 1992 murders was carried out Tuesday night at the Huntsville "Walls" Unit.

Gallamore, 31, looked vastly different from his mug shots taken a decade ago as he lay on the death chamber gurney. With his head shaved and sporting a goatee, Gallamore declined to make a last statement before the lethal dose of chemicals was started at 6:07 p.m. He snorted and gasped twice as the dose took effect and was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m.

In written final statement, Gallamore -- who was described by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials as "very emotional" and "remorseful" -- apologized to the family of Clayton and Julianna Kenney and Mrs. Kenney's daughter, Adrienne Arnot, who he beat to death with a tire iron on the night of March 29, 1992.

"I would like to apologize and say I'm sorry, but words seem so hollow and cheap," he wrote. "Their death should not have happened, but it did. I'm so sorry that all of this took place." Gallamore also wrote that his "heart had grown" with the knowledge the victims' relatives had forgiven him. "Thank you. You have given me more hope than I have had in a long time," he stated. "If I could change things I would, not for my sake but for all those who have loved me over the years and for those who have forgiven me."

Kristin Huffman, Arnot's cousin and Julianna Kenney's niece, witnessed the execution and said her family had indeed forgiven Gallamore. "We all believe Jesus died for us and died for him," she said after the execution. "We forgave him. He's been reconciled with God now, and you can't ask for any more than that."

Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who worked on the case, said he thought of the murder and the ensuing investigation as Gallamore's sentence was carried out. "I came mainly to support the family, but yes, when it came back up, you do relive it," he said. "It's a crime you could never forget."

Gallamore and his accomplice James John Steiner, were on a two-week-long drug binge when they forced their way past Arnot and into the Kinney household on March 29, 1992. Armed with the tire iron and a large cedar tree branch, the two attacked Arnot and 83-year-old Clayton Kinney and beat the two severely in the living room. Gallamore then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the two several times, making sure they were dead.

Gallamore then attacked Julianna Kenney, who was paralyzed and restricted to a wheelchair. Gallamore stabbed her several times and struck her with a blunt object, believed to be the tire iron, with such force that it opened a seven-inch long gash in her skull.

Gallamore and Steiner stole some belongings from the Kenney house and fled, using the proceeds from their robbery to buy more drugs. The two were then able to make good their escape for nearly 18 months, until Gallamore was arrested in Chicago. He was sentenced to death by a jury in Comal County -- where the trial was moved on a change of venue -- in 1994.

In spite of the brutality of the killings, Hierholzer said he was pleased that Gallamore had been granted forgiveness. "Seeing this statement now, that he's acknowledged he's sorry, I'm pleased that he's been forgiven," he said. "We have some sadness that (the Kenneys and Arnot) were killed in a horrific way, but my heart goes out to Gallamore's family," Huffman said. "They've lost a son, a loved one, and we know what that feels like."

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Samuel Gallamore (TX) - Jan. 14, 2003

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Samuel Gallamore Jan. 14 for three murders in 1992. Gallamore, a white man, and an accomplice allegedly broke into the home of Clayton and Juliana Kenney, an elderly couple in Kerrville, and stabbed them to death with a butcher knife while stealing their valuables for money to buy cocaine. They also killed Juliana’s daughter, Adrienne Arnot, in the process.

This is one of several pending executions this month involving murder connected to substance addiction, and death penalty proponents continue to ignore the fact that executing offenders for drug-related crimes fails to address the root of the problem. In December, the state of North Carolina executed Desmond Carter, whose grandmother tried to admit him to a mental health facility for his struggles with drug abuse. The hospital refused, deeming her health care plan insufficient, and Carter committed a murder for money to buy cocaine just a few weeks later.

As for Gallamore, he had no prior record and no history of violence. His addiction to cocaine got the better of him on one night in 1992, and now he is awaiting execution. He deserves strict punishment for the murders, but he also needs serious medical attention. If the states begin treating people for these problems instead of violently retaliating for their effects, the future link between drug abuse and crime will likely subside. As it is now, the drug crisis is plowing full speed ahead, and the solution in many of these cases – the death penalty – is only contributing to the cycle of violence that accompanies it.

Gallamore admitted that he and his co-defendant were strung out on crack cocaine at the time of the murders, but somehow they left little hard evidence behind. Sixteen months passed before police investigators, with the help of two Crime Stopper tips, matched Gallamore’s fingerprints to the murder weapon. They found him near Chicago a few days later, and after returning to Texas to stand trial, he received a capital murder conviction and a death sentence.

In an era defined by senseless violence, the United States should aim to treat its citizens’ drug problems instead of sweeping the crisis under the carpet with executions. Please write the state of Texas and request clemency for Samuel Gallamore.

Houston Chronicle

"Man Who Killed Three is First 2003 Execution." (January 14, 2003)

HUNTSVILLE -- Convicted killer Samuel Gallamore, who beat and stabbed to death a partially paralyzed woman, her husband and their daughter, was executed Tuesday night.

"I would like to apologize and say I'm sorry but words seem so hollow and cheap," Gallamore said in a handwritten statement distributed after his execution. He had declined to make a final statement from the death chamber gurney. "Their death should not have happened, but it did. I'm so sorry that all of this took place."

Gallamore was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m., seven minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Gallamore was the first to be executed in Texas this year. Six others also are set to die in January, including John Baltazar, whose execution is scheduled tonight for the 1997 shooting death of a 5-year-old Corpus Christi girl.

From staff and wire reports.

UPI International

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- A Texas killer apologized to the family of his three victims Tuesday before he was executed by lethal injection for their murders.

Samuel Gallamore was sentenced to death for the 1992 murders of Clayton Kenney, 83; his partially-paralyzed wife, Juliana, 74, and their daughter, Adrienne Arnot, 44, at their rural home near Kerrville in central Texas.

In a written statement Gallamore prepared before the execution the condemned man apologized for the murders to a relative of the victims who was a witness. "I would like to apologize and say how sorry I am but words seem so hollow and cheap," he said. "Their death should not have happened, but it did. I'm so sorry that all of this took place." Gallamore, 31, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m.

Gallamore and an accomplice were on crack cocaine the night of March 29, 1992, when they went to the Kenney house looking for drug money. His partner had once cared for Mrs. Kenney at an area nursing home. Gallamore and his accomplice forced their way into the country home and beat and stabbed all the victims. After killing them, they fled with cash and valuables, including silver servings and a rare spoon collection.

Gallamore gave two tape-recorded confessions to police and they were played for the jury that sentenced him to death in February 1994.

Gallamore was the first of 18 convicted killers currently scheduled for execution in Texas this year. Thirty-three were executed last year by the state and 290 have been put to death since the state restored the death penalty in 1982.

Deathrow.at

Samuel Clark Gallamore - Executed on January 14, 2003

"I would like to apologize and say I'm sorry but words seem so hollow and cheap," Gallamore said in a handwritten statement distributed after his execution. He had declined to make a final statement from the death chamber gurney. "Their death should not have happened, but it did. I'm so sorry that all of this took place."

Gallamore also said that in the last hour of his life, his heart grew because relatives of the slain victims said they forgave him.

"You have given me more hope than I have had in a long time," he said in his note. "If I could change things I would, not for my sake but for all those who have loved me over the years and for those who have forgiven me."

Gallamore did not look at any of the witnesses, instead waiting with his eyes closed until the drugs took effect. He took two deep breaths and his body began to shake before his head turned to one side and he stopped moving. Gallamore was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m., seven minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

The niece of the slain couple, Kristin Huffman, attended the execution along with Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer. Huffman wiped tears from her eyes after Gallamore took his final breath.

"There's sadness that they were killed in a horrific way, yet I think my heart just goes out now to Gallamore's family," Huffman said. "Now they are grieving over the loss of their son and we know what that feels like."

Gallamore's mother, sister, brother-in-law and two friends came to Huntsville to witness his execution, but he asked that they not attend. Prison officials described Gallamore as very emotional in the hours leading up to his execution.

Gallamore had said last week from death row that the 1992 slayings didn't have to happen.

"Things went wrong, terribly wrong," Gallamore said then. "I am sorry. I have no problem giving my life in payment, but I only have one life and I take responsibility for all three." "My life is worthless since I've done this," said Gallamore, who says he began using marijuana when he was 5, dropped out of school as a teenager and often fought to protect his older brother who was in a gang.

"When it comes to having a life, you can pretty much say mine was a failure," he said.

On the night of the killings, Gallamore said he and Steiner were on a two-week drug binge.

"If I could, I would take it back, not just to save my own life, but to save everybody," Gallamore said. "Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think this would cause so much pain to so many people."