Robert Fratta long maintained his innocence, but was executed on Tuesday (Picture: YouTube)

A Texas police officer was executed for hiring two hitman to kill his wife 30 years ago after a contentious divorce.

Robert Fratta, 65, refused to make his last statement before being given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Tuesday.

He was pronounced dead at 7.49pm, 24 minutes after the dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing into his arms.

The court was told he set up the murder-for-hire plot in February 1944, which saw his 33-year-old wife shot twice in the head in her home’s garage in the suburb of Atascocita.

Her death followed a long custody battle over their three children.

Prosecutors said Fratta had repeatedly expressed his desire to see his wife dead and asked several acquaintances if they knew anyone who would kill her.

Fratta was a former suburban Houston police officer (Picture: AP)

According to court records, he told one friend: ‘I’ll just kill her, and I’ll do my time and when I get out, I’ll have my kids.’

But Fratta, who was a public safety officer for Missouri City, had long claimed he was innocent.

His execution comes despite a judge issuing a temporary injunction against Texas Department of Criminal Justice intended to prevent them from injecting prisoners with expired and unsafe rugs.

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Fratta was one of four death row inmates who launched a lawsuit against the state but without success.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles last week also unanimously declined to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty or to grant a 60-day reprieve.

He was the first inmate put to death this year in the state and the second in the US.

Eight other executions are scheduled in Texas for later this year.

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He was the first inmate put to death in 2023 in Texas.