McALESTER, Okla. - An inmate who recently attempted suicide was put to death Thursday evening for killing a man during a knife fight nearly two decades ago, marking the nation's first execution this year.
Gary Roland Welch, 49, was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester for fatally stabbing Robert Hardcastle, 35, in Miami, Okla. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.
Minutes before the drugs were administered, other death-row inmates could be heard banging on their cell walls, and Welch paid tribute to them during his final statement.
"I was just going to ask everybody if they could hear my brothers out there," he said. "I know it's kind of quiet now, but I want to acknowledge that my brothers are here with me to send me off on my journey. They are here on my behalf. They've already given me my little send-off. So let's get it on because that's what we're here for."
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Welch's execution came nearly three weeks after he tried to kill himself by slitting his throat with a smuggled shaving razor. Prison officials and Welch's own court-appointed attorney insisted he was sane and understood his fate.
Welch said he killed Hardcastle in self-defense.
He remained defiant at a hearing last month before the state parole board, telling the board he wasn't "here today crying, begging or sniveling for my life."
"I did what I had to do," Welch told the panel. "I didn't intend to kill him, but I certainly didn't intend for him to kill me, either." The board voted 3-2 to deny clemency.
