Mississippi executes man who killed wife, terrorised family, pleaded guilty

PARCHMAN, (PTI): A man who pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife and terrorising their family has become the first person executed in Mississippi since 2012.

David Neal Cox received a lethal injection Wednesday night at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Authorities said he was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. CST.

Cox pleaded guilty in 2012 to the shooting to death of his estranged wife two years earlier. He also had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his 12-year-old stepdaughter in front of her dying mother.

Cox abandoned all appeals and filed court papers calling himself “worthy of death.” 

Mississippi carried out six executions in 2012. The state does not have any any other executions scheduled after Cox’s. The state has more than 30 people on death row. (PTI)