Inmate executed for convenience store murder

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- An inmate was executed by injection Wednesday for gunning down a convenience store manager during a robbery that netted $23.

Kia Levoy Johnson's lawyers contended he was mentally retarded. But lower courts rejected his appeals, and late Wednesday afternoon the U.S. Supreme Court, which has barred execution of the mentally retarded, refused to delay the execution. Johnson, 38, was condemned for the 1983 slaying of William Matthew Rains, 32. The killing was captured by a surveillance camera in the San Antonio store.

Johnson, the 16th inmate executed in Texas this year, maintained his innocence despite the videotape.

"I told them that they had the wrong person and that I did not kill anybody," Johnson said on a Web site devoted to his case.

Johnson, a high school graduate who worked as a cook, had a juvenile record that included seven arrests. As an adult, he was arrested four more times and was convicted of burglary twice.