Mississippi executes man who killed wife, terrorized family

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi has executed a man who pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife and terrorizing their family. Wednesday night’s lethal injection of 50-year-old David Neal Cox was the state’s first execution in nine years. Cox pleaded guilty in 2012 to the shooting death of his estranged wife two years earlier. He also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his 12-year-old stepdaughter in front of her dying mother. Cox abandoned all appeals and filed court papers calling himself “worthy of death.” In his final words, Cox told his children he loved them. He appeared calm as the lethal chemicals flowed into his body.