Texas has applied the death penalty to a 70-year-old man, the oldest to be executed in that state

A 70-year-old murderer sentenced to death on Thursday has become the oldest man to be executed in Texas since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States.

The department of Criminal Justice of the state confirmed the execution of Billie Wayne Coble, convicted of the murder of three people in 1989: the parents and the brother of his wife, who had filed for divorce.

He died by lethal injection Thursday night in the Texas death chamber at Huntsvillejust hours after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal.

Coble is the third inmate executed this year in the United States and the second in Texas, the state that inflicts the most capital punishment.

Last year, there were 25 executions in the United States, including more than half in Texas.

He is the oldest man to be executed in Texas since the country's Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The country's oldest run is Walter Moody, who was executed at the age of 83 in Alabama for placing bombs in series.

Prisoners are likely to remain in the death row for decades, their case before several courts. There are about 30 people sentenced to death in Texas who have been in prison for more than 25 years, according to the newspaper Texas Tribune.