John Allen Rubio, 46, has been executed by lethal injection in Texas for the murders of three young children whom he claimed were possessed by evil spirits. He was pronounced dead at 6:47pm local time at the state prison in Huntsville. Rubio, who spent more than two decades on death row, also believed he was the "chosen one" intended to save the world.

Rubio and his girlfriend, Angela Camacho, were charged with the murders of three-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio and two-month-old Mary Jane Rubio in the windowless flat they shared in Brownsville, on Texas' border with Mexico. Rubio beheaded all three children, while Camacho helped restrain one of them. Camacho pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.S1S2

Rubio's first capital murder conviction was overturned by an appeals court, which found that statements made by Camacho had been wrongly admitted as evidence at his trial. At his retrial he again pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but was convicted a second time and sentenced to death. Court records show Rubio was not the biological father of the two older children, though he raised them as his own.S1S2

According to court records, Rubio first attacked his only biological child, Mary Jane, then had Camacho restrain Julissa while he beheaded her, and finally killed John when the baby woke crying. Defence experts diagnosed Rubio with paranoid schizophrenia, a finding disputed by prosecution experts. Defence witnesses testified that his upbringing, marked by domestic violence, "toxic" parents, substance abuse and prostitution, had severely impaired his development. Rubio was known to inhale paint fumes.S1S2

The flat where the children were killed was later demolished, and the land was turned into a park and community garden. Rubio's execution was the second carried out that day, following the earlier execution of Oklahoma inmate James Dwight Pavatt, who was put to death for his role in helping his lover murder her estranged husband.S1S2