William Burns was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Johnny Lynn Hamlett
According to court documents William Burns was fired from his job and promised revenge. Two months later William would return to the job site where he would shoot eighteen year old Johnny Lynn Hamlett multiple times causing his death. Johnny Lynn Hamlett was working the same shift Burns was fired from months before
William Burns would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
William Burns would be executed by lethal injection on April 11 2002
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When Was William Burns Executed
William Burns was executed on April 11 2002
William Burns Case
A boiler operator fired at a Texas wood preserving plant was executed Thursday for the murder and robbery of an 18-year-old night shift worker at the plant more than 21 years ago.
William Burns, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. CDT after receiving a lethal injection for the March 28, 1981 murder of Johnny Lynn Hamlett, who was working the same job at the Texarkana plant that Burns had been fired from two months earlier.
In his final statement, Burns apologized to his family.
“I just want to tell my Mom that I am sorry that I caused her so much pain and my family and stuff,” he said. “I love them and I hurt for the fact that they are going to be hurting. I really hate that; and that I’m hoping they are going to be OK.”
Burns had gone to the plant about midnight with his brother, Victor, and a friend, Danny Harris. When Burns was fired, he had told a supervisor that he would get even someday, according to court records.
In a statement to police, Burns said they had a .22 caliber rifle and a .22 caliber pistol and he fired at Hamlett with the pistol. Hamlett was hit 14 times in the head, chest and neck. He was robbed of about $110.
Burns directed police to a coffee can where they found Hamlett’s wallet and other identification and a traffic ticket issued to Burns.
Burns’s brother, Victor, is serving a life sentence for murder in the case. The charge against Harris was eventually dropped.
The Burns brothers were facing charges in another slaying and a kidnapping in connection with a 1980 case when they shot Hamlett.
Williams Burns was the eighth convicted killer executed this year in Texas and the second this week. Fourteen more executions are scheduled before September. A total of 264 killers have been executed in Texas since the death penalty was restored in 1982
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2002/04/11/Former-worker-executed-for-plant-murder/54041018572912/
