At 7:59 PM on October 26, 2004, Dominique Green, 30, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas.

He was arrested back in 1992, when he was 18, and convicted of fatally shooting Andrew Lastrapes Jr. during a robbery outside a Houston convenience store. Green admitted to taking part in the robbery but insisted he did not pull the trigger. The victim's family too opposed the sentence:

"All of us have forgiven Dominique for what happened and want to give him another chance at life. Everyone deserves another chance," wrote Bernatte Luckett Lastrapes, the victim's wife, to Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Watch Green discuss his mother

Several religious leaders including Desmond Tutu and the Rev. Joseph Fiorenza, the Roman Catholic bishop of Galveston-Houston, opposed Green's sentence. Bishop Tutu visited Green on death row earlier the year he died, afterwards calling him a "good advertisement for God."

More from Bishop Tutu on justice and forgiveness

After meeting with the victim's two sons on the day he died, Green gave them his copy of Tutu's book, NO FUTURE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS, as well as his 101 bead rosary that he wore around his neck during his 11 year sentence and which stretched below his waist. In his essay, "More than just a rosary," published by THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER less than two weeks before his execution, Dominique Green discusses the true meaning of his rosary:

Each bead represents a friend, mentor or spiritual guide of mine who has died and who gave me the chance to use their knowledge and wisdom to touch other lives.

I never expected my rosary to get so long. As messed up as the Texas judicial system is, I expected the courts or the people to eventually put a stop to what was going on down here.

But they haven't. And 11 years after I was sent here, the death toll continues to rise. More than 250 people have been executed since my arrival. I've known almost all of them. I chose to stop adding beads to my rosary at 101, because by then I understood how to use what I had learned to have an impact on the lives of others and to help make a difference.

Dominique Green had more of an impact on my life than anyone else in the last 10 years. Not only because we spent so much time around each other over the years, but because he was one of the first to reach out and really help me.

He was a man who, during his time on death row, inspired countless individuals inside and outside these walls.

"I mean, a man who goes up and down death row and gets everybody to forgive and be forgiven is not somebody we have to be afraid of."

Published on December 28, 2007