47-Year-Old Man Executed For Stabbing 4 Of His Nieces And Nephews To Death

 A Mississippi man convicted of killing his four young nieces and nephews in a 1990 stabbing rampage was executed Tuesday, despite pleas from his two sisters to spare the brother who killed their children.

Henry "Curtis" Jackson Jr. was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. CDT (7:13 p.m. ET) Tuesday after receiving an injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, officials said.

Clad in a red prison jumpsuit as he lay strapped to a gurney, Jackson was asked if he wanted to make a statement.

"No, I don't," he responded as family members sat somberly in a nearby witness room.

Jackson's sister, Glenda Kuyoro, stifled a sob when she walked into the witness room earlier and saw her brother on the gurney. Jackson's eyes were closed when the witnesses arrived and he never looked in the direction of his family.

Earlier, the 47-year-old inmate had spent the day receiving relatives, including one of the sisters whose two children were slain and who survived the stabbing attack. The slain children ranged from 2 to 5 and were killed as Jackson reportedly was trying to steal his mother's safe while she was away at church, court records showed.

Jackson was the fourth person executed this year in the state and the 19th person executed in the nation. 

He did not request a last meal and ate none of the standard dinner offered to him, corrections officials said. He also declined a sedative ahead of the execution. 

Clemency denied

 Late Tuesday afternoon, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant declined to stop the execution though he said he was "deeply touched" by requests for clemency from the sisters and his brother-in-law.

In Mississippi, the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency and can also commute death sentences to life in prison.

"There is no question that Mr. Jackson committed these heinous crimes, and there is no clear and convincing evidence that compels me to grant clemency," Bryant said.