Texas executes man in Houston officer's slaying

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A 61-year-old Texas inmate has been executed for killing a Houston police officer more than three decades ago.

Robert Jennings received lethal injection Wednesday evening for the July 1988 fatal shooting of Officer Elston Howard during a robbery at an adult bookstore.

Authorities say the 24-year-old Howard was killed during a crime spree by Jennings.

Jennings became the first inmate executed this year both in the U.S. and in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Jennings' attorneys had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution, arguing his trial attorneys failed to ask jurors to fully consider evidence — including details of his remorse for the officer's shooting and possible brain damage — that might have spared him a death sentence.

The high court rejected the appeal early Wednesday evening.