Victim fails to stop 9/11 execution

A man who went on a shooting spree in revenge for the 9/11 terror attacks on New York was executed by lethal injection today - despite attempts by one of his victims to have him spared.

Mark Stroman burst into a shop in Dallas in October 2001 and fired at anyone he believed to an Arab. He claimed to have lost a sister in the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers, but prosecutors said there was no firm evidence she actually existed.

He killed 49-year-old Vasudev Patel, from India, Waqar Hasan, 46, from Pakistan, and wounded Rais Bhuiyan - who last night mounted an extraordinary last-minute bid to save Stroman.

Mr Bhuiyan, now 37, tried to stop the execution, saying his Muslim religious beliefs told him to forgive Stroman, but a court denied his request. It was the eighth execution in Texas this year.

From inside the death chamber,
Stroman, 41, looked at five friends watching through a window and told them he loved them.

"Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace," he said. He called himself "still a proud American, Texas loud, Texas proud".

"God bless America. God bless every-one," he added, then turned his head to the warden and said: "Let's do this damn thing."