The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has updated their Scheduled Executions web site. The updated site lists 8 upcoming executions.

Derick J. Sonnier is scheduled for execution on June 3. He will be the first inmate executed in Texas since Michael Wayne Richards was put to death on Sept. 25, 2007.

Sonnier is being put to death for raping, stabbing, strangling, and beating to death Melody Flowers. He also stabbed and beat to death her 2-year old son, Patrick.

Also scheduled:

• Karl Eugene Chamberlain — June 11 — On 08/02/91 in Dallas, Texas Chamberlain fatally shot the victim, a 30-year old white female. Chamberlain was a resident of the same apartment complex and had gone to the victim’s apartment under the pretense of borrowing sugar. Chamberlain left the apartment and returned minutes later with duct tape and a rifle. Chamberlain entered the apartment and forced the victim into a bedroom. He then taped her hands and feet and raped her. Chamberlain took then took her into the bathroom and shot her one time in the head with a .30 caliber rifle.
• Charles Dean Hood — June 27 — Hood is being executed for the 1989 murders of Ronald Williamson and Traci Lynn Wallace.
• Carlton Aker Turner — July 10 — On 08/08/98 in Irving, Texas, Turner fatally shot his adoptive parents. The victim’ co-workers became alarmed when they had not seen or heard from the victims in several days. Irving Police obtained a search warrant for the victim’s residence and they discovered both victims in the garage where they had been shot to death.
• Lester Leroy Bower — July 22 — In October of 1983, he shot 4 men to death at an ultralight airplane hangar near Sherman, TX during a robbery. One of those men was Philip Good, a 29-year old sheriff’s deputy.
• Larry Donell Davis — July 31 — On 08/28/95, in Amarillo, Texas, Davis and co-defendants, Raydon Drew, Donald Drew, Jr. and Christie Castillo stabbed to death a man as part of a gang initiation. According to Amarillo Law Enforcement, the offense was a committed to earn co-defendant Raydon Drew a tear drop from the Crips. The Drew brothers were familiar with the victim. They entered the home under the pretense of visiting. Lookouts were parked in vehicles at each end of the street. The victim was stabbed numerous times with knives and an ice pick. The victim was also beaten with a pipe.
• Michael Anthony Rodgriquez — August 14 — While on escape from TDCJ (for a prior life sentence for capital murder), Rivas and 6 co-defendants robbed a sporting goods store at gunpoint. An Irving police officer, Aubrey Hawkins, was murdered outside the store as Rivas and co-defendants left the scene.
• Denard Manns — August 20 — On 11/18/1998 in Killeen, Manns entered the home of a 26-year old white female. He raped her and then shot her in the head and chest. Manns was on parole from prison after his second conviction for armed robbery.

These are all executions that are long, long overdue.

Some people are just no damned good, and the world is a better place without them in it. All of these men are such people.