TEXAS HAS EXCUTED a man who shot dead five people in a 1997 gun rampage, with his ex-wife among his victims.

Coy Wesbrook, 58, a former security guard, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 8.04pm local time (2.04am GMT), a spokesman for the local prison administration told AFP.

He is the eighth person put to death since the beginning of the year in the US and the fourth in Texas.

Wesbrook said in his final statement:

First off, I want to say that I am sorry for the pain that I have caused you people. I am sorry that I cannot bring everybody back. I wish it could be different.

I know it would be hard for you to understand what went on that night, I can’t bring them back as much as I would like to.

In November 1997 Wesbrook went to see his ex-wife at her invitation for what he believed might be a reconciliation, only to find her with several men and women at what was painted as a wild party of drink and sex.

During the evening, Wesbrook says he became enraged and felt humiliated when his former wife had sex with two of the men.

An angry Wesbrook, who has a low IQ that his attorneys tried to use in his defence, collected his rifle and opened fire, killing all those present at the apartment, including his ex-wife.

The US executed 28 people in 2015, the lowest figure since 1991, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

- © AFP, 2016

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