A Texas man convicted of beating and suffocating a Dallas area pastor in his church during a robbery was put to death Wednesday evening, the second execution in the U.S. this year and the first of four scheduled in Texas over the next three months.

The State of Texas executed a Black man convicted of killing a pastor during a robbery in 2011, despite his claims that while he was present during the crime he was not responsible for the murder.

The execution Steven Nelson for the 2011 murder of Rev. Clint Dobson is tonight. His wife and a death penalty activist will be witnesses.

The Rev. Clint Dobson had a dream for his Texas church: to fill it with young families and children and spread the gospel that had changed the course of his own life at the age of 8. But Dobson never really got that chance.