The state of Texas was set to reach a milestone last night with the scheduled execution of Johnny Ray Conner for a murder he committed nearly 10 years ago. He would be the 400th person to be executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, a figure that is considerably higher than in other US states with capital punishment.

Twenty prisoners have been executed this year in Texas, and three more are scheduled to die by lethal injection next week. Five further executions are scheduled for September. Since 1976, 1,091 prisoners have been executed in the US. Last year, 53 people were executed in the country, putting it behind China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan in a ranking of countries with the most executions.

The grisly milestone prompted the EU, which has banned the death penalty, to appeal to the Texas governor, Rick Perry, "to exercise all powers vested in his office to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the state."

The request met with a blunt response. "Two hundred and thirty years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination," said the governor's spokesman. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."

Conner was convicted of killing a shopkeeper, Kathyanna Nguyen, during a robbery in 1998. Witnesses identified him as the man seen running from the scene, but a federal court ruled that he should have a new trial because evidence that he had a leg injury which would have prevented him from running was not presented at his original trial. That ruling, however, was reversed by the 5th US circuit court.

Conner's trial lawyers said the injury never was an issue because he told them his broken leg had healed. The appeals court said there was no testimony at his trial about his limp and none of his lawyers ever noticed one. Conner's lawyers have asked the supreme court to stop the execution. On an anti-death penalty website, Conner called his conviction an "atrocious act of barbarity against the law and mankind".