Abel R. Ochoa (B. 1973)
EXECUTED: FEBRuary 6, 2020
Allan B. Polunsky Unit
Livingston, TeXas

“It’s very lonely here, especially at Christmas. I don’t get a lot of visits. Solitary confinement is designed to break you down, emotionally and mentally. If you don’t keep your mind working you’ll lose your sanity. I do the same things everyday. I read my Bible, pray, listen to pastors and music on the radio. Crack cocaine made me do things I would have never done. You know anybody on drugs? Tell them to get away. It’ll get them nowhere but in prison.”

- Abel R. Ochoa

Read the bible verses referenced above
Matthew 25: 31-46
Hebrews 13:3

In 2002, Abel R. Ochoa, while high on crack, fatally shot his wife, his two daughters, his father-in-law and his sister-in-law.

Ochoa, 47, was executed at 6:48 p.m. on February 6, 2020, by lethal injection. "I want to apologize to my in-laws for causing all this emotional pain," Ochoa said, strapped to the death chamber gurney and looking at several of his victims' relatives. "I love y'all and consider y'all my sisters I never had. I want to thank you for forgiving me." Ochoa was the second inmate put to death this year in Texas and the third in the U.S. Seven other executions are scheduled in the next few months in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. The execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request by Ochoa's attorneys to halt it. They wanted a review of whether his rights were violated because he initially wasn't allowed to film a prison interview with his legal team for his state clemency petition. Ochoa's attorneys said in court documents that his death sentence should be commuted to a life sentence because of "his deep and sincere remorse." Source: cbsnews.com

We told his story in The New York Times’ graphic journalism series Inside Death Row