A US police officer was charged with hiring a hitman to kill his wife around 30 years ago. After a massive legal fight that ranged for the longest time, he has finally been executed as of today, the 10th of January, 2023.
The Complete History
The former public safety officer for Missouri city goes by the name Robert Fratta who was 65 years old at the time of his death. He has been serving his time in jail since 1994 for having his wife killed. They were going through a rough divorce and fighting over who gets custody of their three children. Reportedly, Robert had gone around asking his acquaintances about a possible way to get his ex-wife murdered.
Some of them came ahead and confessed that even though they initially thought he was only trying to make a filthy joke about his divorce, they eventually realized it was more than just that. Robert finally befriended a man from his gym who then hired a hitman for the job for which he got paid a whopping $ 1000. Having been sentenced to death first in 1996, then in 2007, and last in 2009, his hearings were constantly overturned until yesterday. Prosecutors went ahead and proved that Robert had organized this hired murder with his acquaintance Joseph Prystash who in turn hired the actual shooter named Howard Guidry. Farah, Robert’s ex-wife who was just 33 years old at the time of the murder, was shot twice in the head by Guidry in her garage.
The Prosecutors had charged Fratta by saying that he had time and again shown his intense desire to get his wife killed and they had enough proof to back up their charge. One of Robert’s friends had come up to the stand and told the court how Robert Fratta had told him that he’ll kill his wife, serve his time in jail, and once he comes out, he’ll get his kids with him.
The Final Show
With a massive amount of evidence against him, Robert was finally scheduled to be put to death on Tuesday evening. Nonetheless, a District Judge named Catherine Mauzy said that officials weren’t supposed to use the intended drug as an injection for the execution of inmates because it was expired.
Robert was actually one of the many inmates who had filed for an appeal at the very last minute stating that using expired pentobarbital was brutal and should be hence banned. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had put limits on judges halting executions, so on Tuesday it actually overturned Judge Catherine Mauzy’s ruling. With the Defense always lacking a solid authentication of their client’s innocence, the Prosecution had been clear in their display of gathering eyewitnesses who had quite a few things to say about their deranged friend, Robert.
Finally, a statement came out by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice which said that Robert had been pronounced dead at 19:49. Officials said that he didn’t have any final words to say, as such.
