Death row inmate's last words as dog watched his execution

Credit: Instagram / @justice_for_steven_nelson)

A death row inmate spoke his final words with his girlfriend and dog watching on earlier this year.

Steven Lawayne Nelson was executed via lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas back in February, having spent 13 years incarcerated on death row after being found guilty of murdering a pastor.

According to reports, Nelson was responsible for the beating, strangling, and suffocation of 28-year-old Reverend Clinton Dobson during a robbery at NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas in 2011. Dobson’s secretary, Judy Elliot, survived the ordeal but was badly beaten.

Nelson refused to admit killing the pastor, claiming that he was serving as a lookout while the robbery took place. In his version of events, Dobson and Elliot were both lying on the floor, incapacitated but still breathing, when he arrived.

According to the Texas Tribune, Nelson was arrested two days later when he was found driving Elliot’s car. In 2012, a little over a year after the murder of Dobson, he was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death.

Each of Nelson’s appeals were denied by state and federal courts, and though a clemency campaign was launched for the 37-year-old – spearheaded by death row spiritual adviser and anti-death penalty activist Reverend Jeff Hood – he was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, February 5.

As per AP, Nelson made a number of remarks as his execution got underway, most of which were aimed at his wife, Helene Noa Dubois, to whom he got married two weeks before his death.

Nelson’s white dog was also present in the witness area, which Dubois lifted up to the window to watch as Nelson was executed. “Give Monkey a hug for me,” Nelson told her.

In his final words, Nelson expressed to Dubois that he was not afraid to die, saying: “It is what it is.”

“I’m not scared, it’s cold s**t in here,” he added. “But I’m at peace, I’m ready to be at home. Let’s ride, Warden.”

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered, Nelson is said to have told Dubois to ‘let him go to sleep’.

The aforementioned Reverend Jeff Hood, serving as Nelson’s spiritual advisor, told USA Today: “It took them forever to declare that he had passed. He fought to the very end.”

Reports claim that Nelson had left it up to his girlfriend whether or not she wanted to attend his execution. Their relationship began during his incarceration, with Nelson having told AFP: “I’ve never had human contact with her, it’s always been behind glass.

“When someone can love you behind glass and not touch you, or see what your scent smells like, none of that, and still love you deeply, unconditionally, that is something wonderful.”

He had previously stated that he didn’t want Dubois, a French native, to watch him being executed.

“I really don’t want her to see that, me getting pumped full of drugs and being overdosed with drugs to kill me, to make my heart stop,” he said.

“I think that would leave a bad impression. That would override the good memories we’ve had over the years, to always close her eyes and see that. But if she makes that choice to be there then that’s her choice.”