When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the New Orleans' court ruling, it cleared the way for Green to become the 18th Texas inmate executed this year and the fifth this month.

The punishment had been opposed by relatives of Andrew Lastrapes Jr., the man Green was convicted of killing, and by religious leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu. Tutu was listed by Green to be among his execution witnesses but did not attend.

"I felt it was dirty," Andre Lastrapes-Luckett, whose father was killed in the October 1992 attack, said outside the Huntsville prison where he stood with about three dozen protesters as Green was being executed.

He, his brother and mother all opposed the execution and said they forgave Green.

"They'll have their chance to face a higher authority and that is God," he said of Texas officials. "The hell with Texas and the justice system...

"I know God's got a place for him in heaven," he said of Green.

In a rare face-to-face session in a Texas prison between a death row inmate and a relative of a murder victim, Lastrapes-Luckett met for 90 minutes Monday with Green, then returned for another session Tuesday morning.

In his final statement, Green briefly referred to Lastrapes-Luckett.

"Tell Andre and them that I didn't get a chance to reach my full potential, but you can help them reach theirs," he said.

Lastrape's widow, Bernatte Luckett Lastrapes, also filed an affidavit asking that Green's life be spared.

"I forgave that child a long time ago," she said.

"That's just a very personal thing," Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney in Harris County who handles capital murder appeals, said Tuesday. "Legally, it doesn't mean anything."

Green acknowledged being at the scene where Lastrapes was fatally shot and robbed of $50 but insisted he wasn't the gunman.

Two companions, who like Green were black, testified against him at his trial and received lesser sentences for robbery. A fourth person at the scene, a white man, never was indicted, spurring complaints of racial bias from Green's appeals lawyers and Lastrapes' family.

Harris County prosecutors denied any bias, saying the case against the fourth person went to a grand jury but the panel refused to indict.