HOUSTON, Jan 29, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend was put to death by lethal injection in Texas on Wednesday in the first execution in the United States this year.

Charles Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 pm Central Time (0050 GMT) at a state prison in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

Thompson was sentenced to death for the 1998 murders of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her boyfriend, Darren Cain, 30.

They were shot at Hayslip's apartment in a Houston suburb. Cain died at the scene and Hayslip succumbed to her wounds in hospital a week later.

Wade Hayslip, Hayslip's son from a previous marriage, planned to attend the execution. He was 13 when his mother was killed.

In an interview with USA Today, Hayslip said Thompson's execution will be "the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one."

"I'm looking forward to the new one," he said.

There were 47 executions in the United States last year, the most since 2009, when 52 inmates were put to death.

Florida carried out the most executions in 2025 -- 19 -- followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, where there were five each.

Thirty-nine of last year's executions were carried out by lethal injection.

Three were by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and has called for an expansion of its use "for the vilest crimes."