Washington - The US state of Texas executed a man on Thursday for killing a woman while breaking into her home a decade ago, authorities said.
Mario Swain, 33, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6.39pm (00.39 GMT on Friday), according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He had no final statement.
Swain's death brought to 37 the number of executions in the United States this year.
Swain, an African American, was sentenced to death in 2004 for the murder two years earlier of Lola Nixon. While breaking into her home, he hit her on the head with a tool and then placed her body in the trunk of his car before dumping it, according to legal documents.
His execution was the 490th in Texas since capital punishment was reinstated there in 1976.
Swain was the thirteenth person put to death so far this year alone in the state responsible for a third of the country's executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. - Sapa-AFP