Texas executes white supremacist who went on post-9/11 shooting spree

The state of Texas executed Mark Stroman yesterday evening for the murder of two men during a spree of would-be revenge killings for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Stroman had shot both of his victims under the mistaken belief that they were of Middle Eastern descent.

"Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace," Stroman said, according to The New York Daily News, adding that he was "still a proud American, Texas loud, Texas proud."

"God bless America. God bless everyone. Let's do this damn thing," he said to the warden.

The only survivor of Stroman's rampage, Rais Bhuyian, spent much of the past 10 years pleading for Stroman's life, arguing that he should spend his life in prison instead.

"I forgave Mark Stroman many years ago," Bhuyian writes on his blog. "I believe he was ignorant, and not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, otherwise he wouldn't have done what he did."

Bhuyian was only 26 years old and working at a convenience story when Stroman asked him where he was from and then shot him in the face with a shotgun, leaving him blind in one eye. Stroman told the BBC that Bhuyian was a "cool dude" for forgiving him.