Georgia Executes Man for Killing Homeowner, 2 Kids

He apologizes to mother who found bodies
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 28, 2016 12:22 AM CDT
Georgia Executes Man for Killing Homeowner, 2 Kids
Death row inmate Daniel Anthony Lucas is seen in this photo released by the Georgia Department of Corrections.   (Georgia Department of Corrections.)

Georgia executed a man Wednesday who was convicted in the 1998 killings of a central Georgia trucking company owner and his two children during a home burglary. Daniel Anthony Lucas became the fifth person the state has executed this year. He was put to death by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson, the AP reports. The 37-year-old inmate was sentenced to death for the April 1998 killings of 37-year-old Steven Moss, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin, who interrupted a burglary at their home near Macon in central Georgia. Gerri Ann Moss, the victims' wife and mother, found their bodies when she arrived at home.

"I would like to say I'm sorry to Mrs. Moss and the family," Lucas said when given a chance to make a final statement. He added that he loves his friends and family and then said a short prayer: "All beings are basically good. All beings are basically kind. All beings are basically strong. All beings are basically wise." The State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday had declined to spare Lucas' life after holding a clemency hearing. His lawyers had asked the board to intervene, citing a childhood plagued by drugs and violence and saying he'd been reformed in prison. Brandon Rhode, who was also convicted for the killings, was executed in September 2010, several days after he tried to kill himself. (More execution stories.)

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