Doyle Skillern was executed by the State of Texas for killing an undercover police officer. According to court documents Doyle Skillern and Charles Sanne believed that a man they were dealing with in their drug trade was a police informant. Doyle Skillern and Charles Sanne would shoot and kill Patrick Randel who was an undercover State Narcotics agent. Doyle Skillern and Charles Sanne would be arrested. Charles Sanne would be sentenced to life in prison. Doyle Skillern would be convicted and sentenced to death. Doyle Skillern would be put to death by lethal injection on January 16 1985
Doyle Skillern More News
Doyle Skillern, convicted as an accomplice in a murder in which the man who confessed to the slaying may soon go free, was executed early today by lethal injection.
He was pronounced dead at 12:23 A.M., central standard time, according to Phil Guthrie, spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections.
His last words were, ”I pray my family will rejoice and forgive,” according to Attorney General Jim Mattox, a witness to the execution.
Mr. Skillern, 48 years old, died for the Oct. 24, 1974, slaying of Patrick Randel, an undercover narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
He had lost bids for a reprieve Tuesday from the United States Supreme Court and Gov. Mark White of Texas.
Fourth Execution in 1985
The fifth Texas inmate to be executed since 1982 and the 36th person nationwide since 1976, Mr. Skillern was the fourth person to be executed since the first of this year.
A spokesman for the state prisons, Phil Guthrie, said Mr. Skillern showed no emotion Tuesday when told of the Governor’s decision, but remarked, ”A lot of people will still have their troubles tomorrow and mine will be over.”
Governor White, who could have granted a 30-day reprieve, had previously refused reprieves for three other condemned men.
Mr. Skillern’s attorney, Shannon Salyer, had appealed for a stay from the United States Supreme Court, but late Tuesday afternoon the court voted 6 to 2 not to postpone the execution.
Father Cornelius Ryan brought Mr. Skillern holy communion Tuesday night, and the prison chaplain, Carroll Pickett, visited him.
Mr. Skillern did not shoot Mr. Randel, according to court testimony, but waited in a car nearby when Mr. Randel was shot six times by Charles Sanne, 51. Mr. Sanne also was convicted in the slaying, but received a life prison term and could be paroled soon.
Doyle Skillern was judged as guilty of the murder as Mr. Sanne under Texas’s ”law of parties,” which says accomplices can be found guilty of the most serious offense that occurs in a crime. Mr. Skillern had earlier been sentenced to five years in jail for killing his brother.