TEXAS LAST MEAL
JAMES POWELL
October 1, 2002

All that caffeine would keep me up.

Last Meal: One pot of coffee.

The skinny: On October 6th, 1990, 10-year Falyssa Van Winkle was abducted from a Beaumont flea market where her mother and step father sold goods. James Rexford Powell was also a flea market vendor. The former Merryville resident had even visited with Falyssa and her step father at their booth the same morning she was killed. Falyssa was last seen going to buy peanuts at the flea market.

Prior court: Although Powell had no previous convictions, he was arrested in 1984 in Beauregard Parish, La., on charges of attempted murder, attempted aggravated rape and aggravated burglary for beating and shooting a woman at her home in Merryville, just east of the Sabine River in Louisiana.

A Louisiana jury acquitted him in that case.

Final statement: Powell, 56, said nothing to the family of Falyssa Van Winkle's family. "I'm ready for the final blessing," was all Powell said. He smiled to friends and family and mouthed, "I love you." They then read the Litany of the Passion. Ed. Note: Click here to see this Litany

Johnny Cash Moment: As Warden Neill Hodges of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit pulled the white sheet over Powell's lifeless body, a long train whistle blew on a nearby track.

Factoid: Powell was the 29th condemned Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the fifth inmate in the past three weeks. At least six more executions are scheduled through the end of the year.