A Texas death row inmate who chanted the chorus to METALLICA's "No Remorse" after fatally shooting a man in the head in Corpus Christi and robbing him of $13 twenty years ago faces lethal injection Tuesday evening (Jan. 25), according to The Associated Press.

"I've completely lost all faith in the court system, not necessarily the local district attorney's office, but I'm talking about the appeals courts in all these things," says Nolan Horton, whose son was killed the evening of Aug. 11, 1984, in Corpus Christi. "I don't understand it. I don't know how some of these people got there. They just make stupid, crazy decisions."

Twice last year, Kunkle was spared from the Texas death chamber by court rulings on the day he was scheduled to die. The most recent halt came Nov. 18, when the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution about 40 minutes after Kunkle could have been strapped to the death chamber gurney for injection.

"Ecstatic," Kunkle replied when asked to describe his feeling. "Praise God."

In December, the Supreme Court lifted the order it issued the previous month, although one justice, John Paul Stevens, wrote he believed the sentence was imposed unconstitutionally. Two days later, a judge in Corpus Christi set Kunkle's new execution date.

Kunkle, 38, who has declined requests in recent weeks to speak with The Associated Press, was 2 1/2 months past his 18th birthday when he was arrested for Horton's slaying. He's spent more than half his life on death row.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week refused the halt the punishment. His attorneys Monday had new efforts in the state and federal appeals courts.

One of his lawyers, Danalynn Recer, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Kunkle is remorseful for the crime and is "anguished by the effect this is having on his family, particularly his mother."

"He's very concerned about how devastating it's going to be for her," Recer said. "And he's scared."

Troy Kunkle (photo), who has the METALLICA logo tattooed on his left arm, was first scheduled to be executed in July, but the Supreme Court issued a stay as the justices considered a writ filed by Kunkle's lawyers. The writ asked the justices to decide if Texas courts have been applying an unconstitutional standard that did not allow juries to consider mitigating circumstances, such as mental illness, during capital murder trials.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Kunkle, who was 18 at the time, and his friends, Lora Lee Zaiontz, Russell Stanley and Aaron Adkins, were visiting Corpus Christi from San Antonio in 1984. They saw Steven Horton, 31, walking along Paul Jones Avenue and offered him a ride. They demanded his wallet, which contained $13.

Kunkle, according to the state's report, then told Stanley to kill Horton. When Stanley refused, Kunkle took the .22-caliber pistol and shot Horton. At the time of the killing, Kunkle reportedly quoted lyrics from METALLICA's song "No Remorse", from the album "Kill 'em All", when he said, "Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath."

All four reportedly had taken LSD and were drinking. They were eventually convicted of murder. Besides Kunkle, only Zaiontz remains incarcerated, prison officials said. The others were released.

On legal notepads in court, Kunkle wrote METALLICA lyrics, alleging the lyrics from "No Remorse" inspired him to kill. This disturbed the band's lead singer, James Hetfield, when he learned how Kunkle reacted to the verse, according to KZTV10.

Hetfield, in 1984, said, "I guess this kid took it into his own ways. Of course, we're upset but I mean we had nothing directly to do with it."

Leslie Poynter Dixon, a former assistant district attorney in Nueces County who prosecuted the case, last week recalled a hearing about whether the METALLICA song could be used as evidence.

"As this album [METALLICA's 'Kill 'Em All'] was being played for the judge so he could make his decision on whether it would be admitted, Mr. Kunkle was playing an air guitar," said Dixon, now the district attorney in Van Zandt County in East Texas. "That really struck me. It suggested to me that Mr. Kunkle had no regard for human life — even his own — because this was his trial and the state was seeking the death penalty."