Execution Report: Ricky McGinn

Ricky Nolen McGinn, 43, was executed by lethal injection on 27 September in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of his stepdaughter.

In May 1993, McGinn's wife left her 12-year-old daughter, Stephanie Rae Flanary, in his care for the day. According to McGinn, then 36, they drank beer together and dozed off. After she woke up, she went for a nighttime walk and never returned. McGinn said he looked for her and then called the police.

The following day, police found blood splatters and hair around the back of McGinn's car, a blood stain on the back of the driver's seat, and more blood on McGinn's clothing and shoes. Under the seat of a broken truck in McGinn's yard, officers found a bloody axe. Two days later, Flanary's body was found dumped in a culvert. She had been raped and beaten and had a fractured skull. She died of multiple head injuries.

According to DNA tests, the blood from the axe matched Flanary. DNA tests also showed that semen and pubic hair taken from Flanary's body and underwear matched McGinn. A jury, who also heard three other females testify that McGinn had sexually assaulted them, convicted McGinn of capital murder and gave him the death sentence. Afterward, McGinn was connected to the 1992 rape-murder of 19-year-old Christi Jo Eggers. DNA testing showed that semen found in her body matched McGinn, but McGinn was not tried for Eggers' killing because he was already on death row. In addition, Brown County officials suspected McGinn in the rape-murder of 12-year-old Sherri Newman.

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