James Jackson was executed in Texas by lethal injection on Feb. 7, 2007 for the 1997 strangling murders of his wife and two stepdaughters. James Jackson thanked his family and said he loved them. "See you all on the other side," he told witnesses that included a brother and sister. Jackson then told the warden standing over him, "Warden, murder me ... I'm ready to roll. Time to get this party started."
Seven minutes later, at 6:18 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
The 6-foot-7 Jackson, known to fellow death row inmates as "Big Jack," insisted he wasn't responsible for the April 9, 1997 slayings of Sonceria "Sonnie" Mayes, 19, and her sister Ericka, 18, at the apartment they shared with Jackson and his wife, Sharon, 39. Sharon Jackson, the girls' mother, also was murdered. Prosecutor Julian Ramirez called it "an open-and-shut case." In a confession introduced into evidence, Jackson said he killed the women, and a note left at the crime scene said he "gave them back to God." Evidence showed Jackson pawned the woman's sewing machine and used the money to buy drugs.