Four men convicted of murder will face execution in Texas this year, with dates scheduled between January and May.<\/p>\n
The executions mark<\/a> the continuation of capital punishment in Texas, which leads the nation in carrying out death sentences, as the state prepares to execute inmates convicted of particularly heinous crimes committed over the past two decades.<\/p>\n Charles Victor Thompson, 55, faces execution first on January 28. Thompson killed his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, during a 1999 break-in at their Houston apartment following an argument.<\/p>\n Thompson made national headlines in 2005 after escaping from a Houston jail. Authorities found him days later at a Louisiana liquor store, drunk and talking on a payphone 200 miles from where he\u2019d fled.<\/p>\n Cedric Allen Ricks, 51, will die on March 11 for stabbing to death Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa, in 2013. Her 12-year-old son, Marcus, survived 25 stab wounds and testified at trial about faking death sounds to make Ricks stop attacking him.<\/p>\n James Garfield Broadnax, 37, faces execution on April 30 for the 2008 murders of Christian singer Matthew Butler and his employee Stephen Swan outside Butler\u2019s Garland recording studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Dwight Cummings, took the DART train to target \u201crich white folks,\u201d according to a Fox 4 KDFW interview, but netted only $2 from the robbery.<\/p>\n When asked what he would say to the victims\u2019 families in that interview, Broadnax replied, \u201cf\u2014 \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n Edward Lee Busby Jr., 53, will be executed on May 14 for the 2004 murder of retired TCU professor Laura Lee Crane, 77. Busby abducted Crane from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot, robbed her of $775, then drove to Oklahoma with her in the trunk, where she died of asphyxiation after he taped her nose and mouth closed.<\/p>\n