Manuel Martínez Coronado (1964 or 1965 – 10 February 1998) was a

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

mass murderer Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

, convicted for the killing of seven people on 17 May 1995. Coronado was sentenced to

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

for the murders, and was

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in 1998, the first execution by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

in Guatemala.

Background

Manuel Martínez Coronado was a member of the Chortí ethnic group who worked as a peasant farmer.AI Index: AMR 34/23/00
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Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. Retrieved on 3 March 2016.

Murders

Coronado murdered seven members of the same family on 17 May 1995 over a land dispute. He was aided by his stepfather, Daniel Arias. The victims were Juan Bautista Arias, 58, his wife Rosalbina Miguel, their children Francias, 12, Jovita, 8, Arnoldo, 5, and Aníbal, 2, and his sister, Emilia Arias, 68.

Arrest and execution

Coronado was arrested and charged with multiple counts of

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

. Following a brief trial, he became the first Guatemalan to be sentenced to

by means of

(which had recently been legalized by the government). Too old to be executed, Arias, who was in his mid 60s, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

attempted to suggest that Arias had been the triggerman in the murders. Despite pleas from Amnesty International to overturn the verdict, the Guatemalan authorities ruled that his sentence would be upheld.The execution took place at 6 a.m. (12:00 – GMT) on 10 February 1998, and was broadcast live as a national television event. It took eighteen minutes for him to die from the onset of drug administration; the sounds of his wife and children crying could be heard by the television audience throughout the ordeal. Coronado's mother claimed that he converted to Christianity on death row and had asked God for forgiveness.

Criticism

Amnesty International, which had protested his death sentence, complained that doctors carrying out the execution was a "breach of medical ethics" and that Guatemalan authorities refused to release the identities of the healthcare workers who carried out the execution.

References

External links

Photos: Execution of Manuel Martinez Coronado, Roberto Giron and Pedro Castillo

Guatemala: First Ever Execution By Lethal Injection Carried Out - 1998
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Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

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Guatemala - Man executed by lethal injection
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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Coronado, Manuel Martinez 1960s births 1998 deaths 20th-century executions by Guatemala Executed Guatemalan people Executed mass murderers Family murders Filmed executions Guatemalan mass murderers Guatemalan Maya people Guatemalan murderers of children Guatemalan people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Guatemala People executed by Guatemala by lethal injection