A man is scheduled to be executed this week for his conviction in the slaying of a game warden in El Campo during a chase by law-enforcement officials. The chase and shootout happened in 2007 in Southeast Texas, the busy death penalty state in the United States.
James Freeman, 34, was suspected for illegally hunting at night from his truck in Wharton County, Southeast Texas. According to ABC News, the execution will be carry out on Wednesday in Huntsville. Freeman's execution is also the second one this year.
Justin Hurst, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden saw him while doing the illegal activity. Freeman drove off from the area where the authorities started to chase him for 90 minutes. The chase ended near a cemetery where Freeman stepped out of his flat tired truck and began shooting the law enforcers.
Using his 357-caliber handgun, Freeman continued to shoot out the police officers until he switched his weapon into an AK-47 assault rifle with a 30-round clip. When shootout was cleared, Freeman sustained four gunshot wounds while Justin Hurst was fatally shot at the scene.
Prosecutors also convinced jurors that Freeman had an uncontrollable and unpredictable temper. A psychologist also testified at the trial. He told him he was drank that night and decided to drive to hunt snake and birds.
Both Freeman's and Hurst's parents were present at the court trial while he was sentenced on Friday, Chron reported. His mother and father cried and consoled Hurst's parents by hugging them. Pat Hurst of El Campo, Justin Hurst's mother said, "They expressed to us how sorry they were for all of this. It was a sharing of the grief," she said. Hurst was married and had a 4-month-old child, had been with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for 12 years.
Freeman's case was also the first death penalty trial in Wharton since 1979. The state of Texas executions is carried out through intravenous lethal injections as capital punishment. The state had also executed 13 convicted prisoners last year.
