marcdutroux:

Ricky Ray Rector was executed in 1992 after murdering two people in Arkansas 11 years earlier. One of those who he killed was a police officer.

After killing the police officer, he placed the gun used to kill the officer to his temple and fired. He didn’t die, but the shot destroyed his frontal lobe. Rector had basically managed to successfully lobotomise himself. His defence team argued that this suicide attempt had impaired Rector intellectually, and so he was therefore not competent to stand trial for the two murders. 

The judge disagreed and this judgement led to Rector being sentenced to death on both counts of murder.

Rector became well known for his final meal. Whilst what he ordered wasn’t out of the ordinary, he left his pecan pie, telling officers he was saving it “for later”. This statement has often being used since to show his mental insufficiency and that it was immoral to execute him.

He was executed by lethal injection, and it took 50 minutes to find a vein to insert the needle in. Strangely, Rector helped the medical staff with this problem. Whether he just wanted to die, or whether it was a result of him being intellectually impaired is unknown.