Executed By Lethal Injection

A woman was convicted of the 2004 starving to death of a nine-year-old boy has been executed by lethal injection at a Texas state prison.
Lisa Ann Coleman's execution means she is just the 15th woman to be executed since the high court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976.

 The 38-year-old smiled and nodded to several friends and a relative who watched through a window.

 She thanked them and said she loved the other women on death row in Texas and urged them to "keep their heads up".

 "I'm all right," she said. "Tell them I finished strong ... God is good."

 She mouthed an audible kiss, laughed and nodded to her witnesses in the seconds before the lethal drug took effect.

 Coleman was convicted over the death of Davontae Williams, whose emaciated body was found in July 2004 at the North Texas apartment she shared with his mother, Marcella Williams.

 Paramedics who found him dead said they were shocked to learn his age.

 He weighed just 35lb (16kg) - about half that of a normal nine-year-old.

 A paediatrician testified at the trial that Davontae had more than 250 distinct injuries, including burns from cigarettes or cigars and scars from ligatures, and that a lack of food made him stop growing. 

 "There was not an inch on his body that had not been bruised or scarred or injured," said a prosecutor.