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      TCB gang member executed after last-minute appeal fails

      Robert Garza // File Photo


      Robert Gene Garza became the 12th prisoner executed this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state, when he was given a lethal injection Thursday evening.

      The 30-year-old Garza belonged to a Rio Grande Valley street gang called the Tri-City Bombers that authorities say was responsible for the shootings of the four women near Donna in September 2002.

      They also say the gang was responsible for the massacre of six men at a home in nearby Edinburg four months later.

      Garza insisted a confession he made to police was coerced and improperly obtained.