Texas Executes Former Houston Police Officer Who Hired 2 Hitmen to Kill Wife

Texas has executed a former Houston police officer by lethal injection for hiring two hitmen to kill his estranged wife amid their divorce and custody battle nearly 30 years ago.

Robert Fratta, the 65-year-old Houston police officer, received the lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the shooting of his wife, Farah, in November 1994.

Fratta was then pronounced dead at 7:49 p.m. on Thursday, or 24 minutes after the lethal dose of the powerful injection.

Fratta's spiritual adviser prayed over the inmate, who was strapped to the death chamber gurney with intravenous needles in each arm.

Fratta was asked if he had any final statement, to which he replied, "No." All movement stopped after Fratta closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and snored loudly six times.

The punishment was delayed for a little more than an hour until the last of final day appeals.

The former Houston police officer was one of four Texas death row inmates who filed a lawsuit against the state to block Texas's prison system from using what they claimed are "expired and unsafe execution drugs."

Texas Inmate Robert Fratta Hiring Hitmen

Prosecutors argued that Robert Fratta organized a murder-for-hire plot wherein middleman Joseph Prystash hired a shooter identified as Howard Guidry.

Farah, the 33-year-old wife of the former Houston police officer, was shot twice in the head in her mother's garage in the Houston suburb of Atascocita. Fratta had long claimed he was innocent.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined an appeal from his lawyers to stop the execution. They argued that the prosecutors withheld evidence that the investigators had hypnotized a trial witness.

The alleged hypnosis then led her to change her initial recollection that she saw two men at the murder scene and a getaway driver.

Prosecutors then argued that the hypnosis produced no new information or identification.

They added that Fratta had repeatedly expressed his desire to see his wife dead and asked several acquaintances if they knew anyone who would kill her.

Fratta reportedly told one friend that he would kill his wife and get his kids after he did his time. The hitmen were also sent to death row for the killing.

Texas Death Row

An inmate on Texas death row was granted an appeal to overturn the conviction against him based on faulty DNA evidence.

The Supreme Court justice agreed to take up the case and rescinded the lower court's decision. Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst, noted that the state confessed to an error in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

A state judge earlier ruled in favor of the inmate, Areli Carbajal Escobar, finding "evidence handling issues" in the lab used in the case.

It rendered all DNA evidence found at the scene "unreliable." Escobar was initially convicted of murdering Bianca Maldonado Hernandez, 17.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Cop-turned-killer Robert Fratta Executed for Hiring Teenage Hitman to Kill His Wife in 1994 - From KHOU 11