TEXAS LAST MEAL
Reginald Reeves
May 9, 2002

CHICK, CHICK, CHICKEN. FIFTH TEXAN IN A ROW GOES WITH POULTRY. FRANCHISE POSSIBILITIES?

Man executed for 1993 rape, murder

Last Meal: Four pieces of fried chicken and two Cokes.

The skinny: Reginald Reeves was executed Thursday night at 6:22 in the Huntsville "Walls" Unit death chamber for the 1993 murder of a 14-year-old girl.

Reeves, 28, was convicted of the rape and strangulation death of Jenny Lynn Weeks in Clarksville at the age of 19. Bite marks on her body and DNA evidence tied Reeves to her death.

LAST WORDS AND WORDS AND WORDS: In his last statement at 6:10 p.m., Reeves spoke at length of forgiveness and love.

"I pray we may all learn to love and forgive and have peace in this world," he said while strapped to the death chamber gurney. "The only way we're going to find peace in the world is to have forgiveness. If you don't learn to forgive, you're not hurting anyone but yourself."

He then addressed the victim's family saying, "I apologize for taking the life of your daughter and I know how much pain you must be in because I saw my family today."

Reeves thanked the warden and his spiritual advisor, and after a long silence, said his last words to his mother: "I love you mother."

FACTOIDS: Reeves was the 11th Texas prisoner put to death this year. No final-day appeals were filed, and the United States Supreme Court refused to review his case or stop the lethal injection Thursday.

In the final entry in her diary dated Sept. 9, 1993, Weeks (the victim) wrote of being a bit lonely but otherwise happy living at Reeves' apartment. She was killed later that day.

Reeves was on probation at least twice as a juvenile for assaults -- once at age 11 when he was accused in 1985 of sodomizing 5- and 7-year-old boys with a stick, and again in 1990 when his mother contacted authorities about his unruly behavior, including an assault on her.