Texas death row inmate No. 999086 was born on June 12, 1973, as Willie Marcel Shannon.

Shannon grew up in Columbus, Texas, with his mother, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, and an absentee father. He was surrounded, he says, by strong women, and he learned early that making women laugh, talking to them, charming them, gave him strength.

But respecting them and learning to love them was something he figured out later, he says.

In school, Shannon played football and ran track. He dreamed of being in the NFL. At home, the environment was tense. "Me and my mom, we weren't seeing eye-to-eye," Shannon recalls.

At age 14, he moved in with his grandmother, and realized that as long as he worked to make a living, he could "do what I want, when I want and however I want it."

Shannon moved around, sometimes living on the streets, and attended several schools: Columbus Junior High in Columbus, Texas, and Spring Woods and Smiley High Schools in Houston.

He also got into trouble.

He was arrested three times as a juvenile for stealing. At 16, he was "sent away to kid prison," as he puts it. So, he dropped out of school, earned his G.E.D., got a Playboy bunny tattooed on his right bicep, and got his own apartment in Houston after he was released.

On his 18th birthday, he was arrested for assault while walking home from the store. Police accused him of breaking a man's jaw in a fight. He denied it, but accepted a plea bargain, he says, so he could be out of jail by Christmas and spend the holidays with his sister and her newborn twins.

The following summer, Shannon was dealing drugs and spending his time between family in Texas and friends in Louisiana.

He got his girlfriend pregnant, but was not around to see the birth: On July 19, 1992, he was arrested for the murder of Benjamin Garza.

Shannon's girlfriend gave birth to their daughter, Chasady, while he was in prison.