Revealed: Last Words of Death Row Inmate Who Choked a Houston Woman Before Leaving Her For Dead in 4-Foot Hole

Texas death row inmate Arthur Lee Burton was executed using lethal injection on Wednesday, August 7, for the murder and rape of a Houston woman in 1997.

Knewz.com has learned that moments before his death, Burton apologized for his crimes and hoped that the family members of the victims could “find peace.”

The 54-year-old condemned was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas , according to Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

It has been reported that Burton was visibly nervous as he lay strapped to the death chamber gurney, waiting for his impending death .

In his final moments, he said:

“I want to say thank you to all the people who support me and pray for me… For those of you I know and do not know, thank you for your support and prayers … And a full circle to all the guys at the Polunsky Unit (prison), I love you guys.”

“Bird is going home.”

Burton also apologized for his crimes in his last words, saying, “To all the people I have hurt and caused pain, I wish we didn’t have to be here at this moment, but I want you to know that I am sorry for putting y’all through this and my family.”

“I’m not better than anyone. I hope that I find peace and y’all can, too,” he added.

According to reports, Burton’s voice repeatedly cracked with a sharp breath as he uttered his last words.

He nodded to his brother Michael through the glass window of the death chamber and took four gasps as the drug pentobarbital began taking effect. He passed away 24 minutes after the lethal injection was administered.

Burton was on death row for the murder of Nancy Adleman, a 48-year-old mother of three, in July 1997—whose battered body was found by Harris County sheriff’s deputies in a 4-foot hole in a heavily wooded area along the Brays Bayou area of Houston .

Adleman was jogging alone in the Bayou area when she was attacked by Burton, and according to a 2004 court filing, he admitted to dragging her into the woods and choking her unconscious.

Per his own written statement, he then removed her clothing and proceeded to sexually assault 48-year-old Adleman. When the victim regained consciousness and began screaming, Burton choked her unconscious again and dragged her into the hole where her lifeless body was later discovered by authorities.

However, Burton had not killed her yet.

As he was about to leave, he noticed another person walking by, which prompted him to return to the ditch and strangle Adleman to death with her own shoelace.

Josh Reiss, chief of the Post-Conviction Writ Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said in a recent statement to USA Today , “For any woman who has ever exercised alone, or walked to their car alone at night, this case is their worst nightmare.”

“[Adleman] asked me why was I doing it and that I didn’t have to do it,” Burton said in his confession to the police, which he withdrew during trial.

It has been reported that according to Adleman’s daughter Sarah, who was 16 at the time of her mother’s murder, her last words were, “God forgives you and I do, too.”

Notably, Burton raised claims of an intellectual disability around eight days before his execution in a bid to get his death penalty ruling overturned.

However, an expert for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office stated in an August 1 report that Burton was not found to be lacking in intellectual or mental capabilities, it was reported by The Associated Press .

Burton was the third individual in Texas, and the 11th in the United States, to have been put to death in 2024.