JACKSON, Ga. (AP) – A death row inmate apologized “for everything I did” before he was put to death Thursday for slitting a woman’s throat in 1985.
The slaying occurred nine months after Robert K. Hicks was released from prison on a rape conviction.
“I would like to apologize for everything I did. I’m sorry. God forgive me,” the 47-year-old Hicks said moments before the lethal injection was administered.
His last words were, “Come get me,” after a clergyman said a short prayer.
The Georgia Supreme Court had put the execution on hold for a day, then decided 5-2 Thursday to allow it to proceed. Also Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court without comment denied a final appeal.
Hicks stabbed Toni Strickland Rivers, 28, eight times with a pocket knife, slit her throat and left her body – nude from the waist down – in a field near Griffin, about 35 miles south of Atlanta. Hicks did not know the woman and had followed her from a rural grocery store where she was using a pay phone.
At trial, Hicks unsuccessfully pleaded insanity.
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