Charles Brooks, Jr.

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This article is about the murderer, for other uses, see Charles Brooks (disambiguation).

Charles Brooks Jr. (April 1, 1942 – December 7, 1982) was a convicted murderer who was the first person executed by lethal injection in the United States. It was the first execution in Texas since 1964.

Brooks was raised in a well-off Fort Worth family and attended I.M. Terrell High School, where he played football. He had been to prison before, serving time at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth for illegal possession of firearms.

On 14 December 1976 Brooks went to a car yard saying he wanted to test drive a car. The mechanic, David Gregory, accompanied him in the car. After picking up Woody Loudres, the mechanic was put in the trunk of the car and they drove to a motel. There the mechanic was bound to a chair with coat hangers, gagged with tape and then shot once in the head. Neither Brooks nor Loudres would say who fired the shot. Because of legal complications, Lourdes received a 40 year sentence, while Brooks received the death sentence.

The Supreme Court of the United States had rejected 6-3 a petition to grant a stay of execution. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended by 2-1 that the execution should proceed.

After a last meal consisting of a T-bone steak, french fries, catsup, Worcestershire sauce, biscuits, peach cobbler and ice tea, he was rolled into the death chamber at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas. There he made his final statement. Brooks had converted to Islam while in prison and as such said a prayer to Allah.

The drugs were injected at 12:09 a.m. and Brooks was pronounced dead at 12:16 a.m. A photo of his deceased remains strapped to the gurney after the execution was published in Time the following week in an accompanying article mentioning the first ever judicial execution by lethal injection had occurred.