Hugo Solano was killed by a violent teenager. Left behind were his wife Ana Solano and their two children. When the teenager, Juan Martin Garcia, was on trial Ana Solano was asked what sentence she thought he should get.

She didn’t know what to say. She said she felt bad for Garcia. “But to forgive your enemies is very difficult. I can’t say. That is why the jury is here and there is established law. All I know is that my husband is not coming back here.”

They probably asked her that because she and her late husband were Christian missionaries.

Juan Martin Garcia

Garcia was with three other guys when they approached Solano as he headed out to work. Later Garcia said it was another guy’s idea to rob Solano. He also said that Solano resisted. “He punches me. First thing that came through my mind is that the dude is going to try to kill me. He grabbed the gun with both of his hands and it discharged.”

It “discharged” 4 times. The robbers got $8 from his wallet and fled. Eleven days later, Garcia was pulled over for a broken headlight. When he got out of the car, he dropped a gun. The police let him go (taking the gun), but arrested him when they found it was the gun that killed Solano.

Hugo Solano died in 1998. Juan Martin Garcia was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2000. Of the other three guys, one got 55 years for aggravated robbery, one got 30 years for aggravated robbery, and one got a life sentence for capital murder.

The State of Texas killed Garcia last month, by which time he was 35 years old. He had fought his sentence on various grounds, but had no luck with his appeals or with his final clemency petition.

A New York Times story put it this way: “Over the years, Garcia had refused to apologize and had mounted legal appeals hinging on flimsy excuses, saying he was high on drugs at the time of the crime and, in his stupor, had thought Hugo Solano was going to kill him.”

“Flimsy excuses.” “Discharged.” “Aggravated.” There are a lot of interesting word choices in this story. “Refused” is another one, since there’s no evidence anyone asked him to apologize. And perhaps, like so many people and business entities, Garcia didn’t apologize because he feared it would hurt his case.

At any rate, he apologized before his execution. He apologized to Ana Solano and her daughter, in Spanish. We’re told he cried and said:

That harm that I did to your dad and husband … I hope this brings you closure. I never wanted to hurt any of you all.

Ana Solano and her daughter cried too. Ana Solano accepted Garcia’s apology because it came “from his heart.” She has come to believe the death penalty is wrong. She told an Associated Press reporter that murderers should live so they can teach others to avoid their mistakes. “It’s about God. It’s about Jesus,” she said.

It sounds like he apologized for what he did, to the living people most directly hurt. He acknowledged the impact.

I wish we had more of the text of Garcia’s (translated) apology. But I think it’s a good one.