Raphael Holiday, the man convicted of killing his daughter and two stepdaughters in a mobile home fire in 2000, was executed in a Texas prison Wednesday evening.
Holiday, 36, was put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville and pronounced dead at 8:30 p.m., reported the Associated Press. It came after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Holiday's new lawyer who had argued that his client had acted against his wishes and abandoned various court filings to spare his life.
He becomes the 13th convicted killer to be put to death so far this year in Texas, as well as the 531st inmate to executed in Texas overall since SCOTUS reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Holiday was convicted and placed on death row for the September 2000 killings of Tierra Lynch, 7, Jasmine DuPaul, 5, and Justice Holiday, 1, in a mobile home in Madison County, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, according to Reuters.
He insisted he had no idea how the home caught fire, however testimony and evidence showed Holiday, angered by a protective order filed by his estranged common-law wife against him, ordered the children's grandmother at gunpoint to pour gasoline throughout the home, reported KBTX. The home soon caught fire, killing the girls.
Holiday fled the scene in a vehicle after watching the fire and was caught after a high-speed chase with police. The bodies of all three girls were later discovered huddled together by police in the charred remains of the home.
Before being executed, he had some parting words for those who supported him since his conviction.
"Yes, I would like to thank all of my supporters and loved ones," Holiday said. "I live you, Love y'all, always going to be with y'all. Thank you warden."
