TEXAS LAST MEAL
RICKY EUGENE MORROW
October 20, 2004

...he was paroled 1 year before the murder of the victim...

Last Meal: A cheeseburger, French fries, onion rings and iced tea.

The skinny: Morrow, 53, was executed for the slaying of a savings and loan office worker during a robbery 22 years ago.

More skinny: Morrow and his girlfriend drove to the Metropolitan Savings and Loan in Dallas. Armed with a .38 caliber revolver and a .25 caliber automatic, Morrow entered the savings and loan and robbed the institution.

Thirty minutes later, they went to First Texas Savings, also in Dallas. Morrow approached one of the teller windows with one pistol aimed at the head of a bank employee and the other pistol aimed at a bank teller. Morrow ordered the teller to place all of her money inside a bank bag and she complied. After receiving the bag from the teller, Morrow fired a single shot into the head of the victim, another bank employee, who died instantly. The couple fled with $5,000 to a nearby hotel, where they were tracked by police officers and FBI agents, who surrounded the room. Morrow pushed his girlfriend from the room and she was arrested. When the officers asked Morrow to surrender, he threatened to kill the officers. After an exchange of gunfire, Morrow surrendered.

Morrow, 53, acknowledged firing the shot that killed the 26-year-old victim. But the former welder, who carried a gun in each hand during the $5,500 holdup in 1982, said he shouldn't have been sentenced to death because the shooting was an accident.

Morrow testified at his trial. "It was something I never ever intended would happen." Morrow said that day he'd consumed a bottle of vodka and also had taken cocaine and heroin, with the combination leaving him irrational and paranoid.

Love: Morrow later married his girlfriend in crime.

Priors: Morrow was previously convicted Aggravated Robbery and Aggravated Robbery, Burglary, Theft, and Possession of a Dangerous Drug and was sentenced to 25 years. He was paroled after five years in 1975. He was again convicted of Aggravated Robbery in 1976 and again sentenced to 25 years. He was paroled in 1981, 1 year before the murder of the victim.

Last words and such: "I am so sorry you are going through what you are now," he told three sisters who watched from a few feet away. "But we are both headed to a better place." He listed a number of people by their first names and said he loved them all. Addressing his sisters again, he said, "Thank you for having been there for me - and our father and mother. Give them a hug and give them my love." As the drugs began taking effect, he sputtered and gasped several times.

Factoids: Morrow was the...

51st murderer executed in U.S. in 2004
936th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
17th murderer executed in Texas in 2004
330th murderer executed in Texas since 1976

NORTH CAROLINA MEAL
CHARLES WESLEY ROACHE
October 22, 2004

...perhaps Lippard should not be driving...

Last Meal: A sirloin steak, popcorn shrimp, salad with bleu cheese dressing, a honeybun and vanilla Coke.

The skinny: Roache, 30, was executed for his part in a killing spree that claimed six lives.

More skinny: Roache and Chris Lippard were on the run from a 48 hour crime spree that included the killing of the first victim. Attempting to leave the state, Lippard drove their vehicle into a ditch, disabling it.

Roache and Lippard walked towards the nearest house in order to steal a car. This house was the home of an elderly couple. Lippard and Roache entered and held them at gunpoint. Roache then took guns from the house, bound the couple's hands with duct tape, then fled with Lippard in their 1986 Ford pickup truck. Driving away, Lippard overturned the truck.

Lippard returned to the house. Roache stayed behind to gather their items from the truck. Lippard then yelled for help and Roache saw Lippard fighting with a man, later determined to be the couple's son, Eddie. Roache shot him once in the chest with the shotgun. Roache then reloaded the gun and went to the house with Lippard. They were confronted by the dead man's wife. Roache broke open the door and shot her once in the face. Roache then followed their 14 year old daughter into the bathroom and shot her once in the side of the head. Lippard and Roache then went to the living room and shot both of the elderly couple in the head. Three generations of a family were eliminated without provocation and without mercy.

Roache was arrested later near the home, and immediately confessed to the murders. He later waived all appeals. Accomplice Lippard received a life sentence.

Priors: Roache was previously convicted and sentenced for Possession of Controlled Substance (1996), Breaking and Entering (1995), Larceny (1992), Breaking and Entering (1991), Larceny (1991), Breaking and Entering (1990), and misdemeanor assault and communicating threats.

A bad childhood: Witnesses testified during Roache's sentencing hearing about his family's long history of violence and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Roache's maternal grandmother died in front of her daughter in 1958 after her husband doused her with gasoline and set her on fire.

Roache's mother once made him pet a litter of kittens and then watch as she killed them one by one. She set puppies on fire in a barrel and once told Roache that if he went to church something might happen to another of his dogs. The puppy was dead on the doorstep when he returned home. Three of Roache's teachers testified at his sentencing hearing that Roache was a quiet child who was teased about his stuttering and his last name. He abused alcohol and drugs, and was high and drunk during the slayings.

Last words and such: Visiting hours ended at 11 p.m. for Charles Wesley Roache. His last visitor was his mother.

Roache appeared calm and contrite at the end. He had instructed his lawyers to drop all the legal maneuvering that could have given him five more years to live. He embraced Christianity in prison and said he believed it was more important to offer survivors of his six victims certainty and peace rather than stretch his own life.

``I can only hope and pray the pain and hurt I caused you will be healed as I give my life as a key to forgiveness,'' Roache wrote in his final statement. ``May God's love shine on you.''

The procedure: In 1998, North Carolina made lethal injection its only method of execution. In preparation for the execution, the inmate is secured with lined ankle and wrist restraints to a gurney. Cardiac monitor leads and a stethoscope are attached. Two saline intravenous lines are started, one in each arm, and the inmate is covered with a sheet.

The inmate is given the opportunity to speak and pray with the chaplain. The warden then gives the condemned an opportunity to record a final statement that will be made public. After the witnesses are in place, the inmate's gurney is taken into the chamber by correctional officers who draw the curtain and exit. Appropriately trained personnel then enter behind the curtain and connect the cardiac monitor leads, the injection devices and the stethoscope to the appropriate leads. The warden informs the witnesses that the execution is about to begin. He returns to the chamber and gives the order to proceed.

The lethal injection process involves the simultaneous slow pushing into two intravenous lines of chemicals contained in two separate sets of syringes. The syringes are prepared in advance and each contains only one drug. The first syringes contain no less than 3000 milligrams of sodium pentothal, an ultra short acting barbiturate that quickly puts the inmate to sleep. The second syringes contain saline to flush the IV line clean. The third syringes contain no less than 40 milligrams of pancuronium bromide (Pavulon), which is a chemical paralytic agent. The fourth syringes contain no less than 160 millequivalents of potassium chloride, which at this high dosage interrupts nerve impulses to the heart, causing it to stop beating. The fifth syringes contain saline to flush the IV lines clean.

After a flat line displays on the EKG monitor for five minutes, the warden pronounces the inmate dead and a physician certifies that death has occurred. The witnesses are escorted to the elevators and the body is released to the medical examiner.

Factoids: Roache was the...

52nd murderer executed in U.S. in 2004
937th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
3rd murderer executed in North Carolina in 2004
33rd murderer executed in North Carolina since 1976

The final meal request for Dominique Jerome Green, October 26, 2004.

Green had no final meal request.