Mississippi executions resuming; man killed estranged wife

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) — A man who killed his estranged wife and terrorized their family is set to become the first person executed in in Mississippi since 2012. The state is planning a lethal injection Wednesday evening for 50-year-old David Neal Cox at the state penitentiary in Parchman. He pleaded guilty to killing his wife and sexually assaulting his stepdaughter. Cox relinquished all appeals and filed court papers calling himself “worthy of death.” States have had difficulty finding lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies began blocking their use for carrying out death sentences. A court filing this year showed Mississippi had acquired three drugs for its lethal injection protocol.