Edward Ellies was executed by injection for strangling an elderly woman at a Houston apartment complex where he had been dismissed as a maintenance worker. The 38-year-old prisoner, Edward Ellis, was put to death after the United States Supreme Court refused to grant a stay based on his lawyers' claim of new evidence that another man, who died a year ago, was the killer. The victim of the slaying was Bertie Elizabeth Eakens, 74, who was found strangled in her bathtub at a complex where Mr. Ellis had earlier been dischared on suspicion of stealing from apartments. Mrs. Eakens's killing was one of three in 1983 that became known as the Houston bathtub slayings.
Ellis became the 46th person executed in Texas since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed the resumption of capital punishment. The total is the highest of any state.