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Adam Ward Texas Execution

Adam Ward was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of a code enforcement officer. According to court documents Adam Ward would fatally shoot code enforcement officer Michael Walker as he was taking photos of garbage surrounding Ward residence. Adam Ward would be executed by lethal injection on March 22, 2016

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The U.S. Supreme Court was considering whether a Texas man who killed a city worker in 2005 should be spared from a lethal injection, as his lawyers argue that a ban on executing mentally impaired prisoners should be extended to him.

Adam Ward’s attorneys say he’s delusional and should not be put to death because of his mental illness. His execution is set for Tuesday evening and would be the fifth this year in Texas and ninth nationally.

Ward, 33, insists he was defending himself when he killed code enforcement officer Michael Walker, who was taking photos of junk piled outside the Ward family home in Commerce, about 65 miles northeast of Dallas.

“Only time any shots were fired on my behalf was when I was matching force with force,” Ward told The Associated Press last month from a visiting cage outside death row. “I wish it never happened but it did, and I have to live with what it is.”

Evidence showed the 44-year-old Walker had a camera and cellphone but no weapon.

In a videotaped statement to police following his arrest, Ward said he believed Commerce officials long conspired against him and his father, described in court filings as a hoarder who had been in conflict with the city for years. Evidence showed the Ward family had been cited repeatedly for violating housing and zoning codes.

In their appeal to the high court, Ward’s attorneys renewed arguments that he is mentally ill and contended his execution would be unconstitutional because of evolving sentiment against executing the mentally ill.

The justices have ruled that mentally impaired people, generally those with an IQ below 70, may not be executed. However, the court has said mentally ill prisoners may be executed if they understand they are about to be put to death and why they face the punishment.

State attorneys, who said evidence showed Ward’s IQ as high as 123, said the late appeal did not raise a new issue, meaning it was improper and without merit. They also disputed claims of changing attitudes about executing the mentally ill.

Evidence of Ward’s delusions, paranoia and bipolar disorder was presented at his 2007 trial and resurfaced in earlier unsuccessful appeals. The Supreme Court last October refused to review Ward’s case.

“It’s frustrating, tormenting, it’s depressing,” Dick Walker, the father of the man killed, said Monday. “I believe in appeals. I really do. … It shouldn’t drag on for almost 11 years.”

Witnesses said Michael Walker was taking photos of the Ward property on June 13, 2005, when he and Ward got into an argument.

Walker told Ward he was calling for assistance. Ward thought that meant police were on their way to kill him, Ward’s lead trial attorney, Dennis Davis, said last week.

“Mr. Walker walked into a hornet’s nest and didn’t know it,” Davis said.

Walker made the call and waited near the back of his truck. Ward went inside the house, emerged with a .45-caliber pistol and started firing. Walker was shot nine times.

“I think the only thing he was there for was harassment,” Ward said from prison.

Dick Walker, an emergency medical technician when the shooting happened, was the first medic to arrive at the Ward property. He said he “had to intubate my own son on scene to save his life.”

He said he’s spent years “getting rid of my anger” and in the last year prayed to forgive Ward for the slaying. Still, he believes the punishment is justified.

“I do want him to get the sentence he was given by the jury, and he definitely deserves it,” said Dick Walker, who planned to witness Ward’s execution.

https://www.al.com/news/2016/03/texas_to_execute_adam_ward_unl.html

Coy Wesbrook Texas Execution

Coy Wesbrook was executed by the State of Texas for the murders of five people. According to court documents Coy Wesbrook would murder his ex wife and her boyfriend before murdering three more men. Coy Wesbrook would be sentenced to death and would be executed by lethal injection on March 10, 2016

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A man convicted of killing five people including his ex-wife in a 1997 shooting rampage near Houston was put to death Wednesday.

Coy Wesbrook’s lethal injection was the eighth this year nationally and fourth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any state. Two Georgia inmates have been executed so far in 2016, plus one each in Alabama and Florida.

Before being executed, the 58-year-old Coy Wesbrook apologized profusely to some of his victims’ relatives who witnessed the punishment.

“I want to say that I’m sorry for the pain that I have caused you people,” he said. “I’m sorry I can’t bring everybody back. I wish things could have been a lot different.”

Wesbrook said he loved his daughter and all his supporters. “I pray that the Lord take care of me and all of you,” he said.

He concluded by telling relatives of his victims that he “can understand your outrage and why you are mad at me. God be with all of us.”

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital took effect, he took two deep breaths, then began snoring. A few seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m. CST.

The execution was delayed about 90 minutes. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said prison officials had anticipated an additional appeal would be filed by a death penalty opponent whose appeal hours earlier was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court.

That appeal sought another review of claims that Wesbrook was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we waited, and when nothing was filed, we went forward (with the execution),” Clark said.

Coy Wesbrook killed his ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32; her roommate, Diana Ruth Money, 43; and three men: Antonio Cruz, 35, Anthony Ray Rogers, 41, and Kelly Hazlip, 28.

Wesbrook, a former security guard and delivery driver, married Coons in 1995. They divorced the following year but continued seeing each other. They had lunch Nov. 12, 1997, and talked about reconciling. That was on his mind when he showed up that night at her apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. Instead, he found people partying.

He testified at his 1998 trial that Coons humiliated him by having sex with two of the men at the party while he was there. He said when he tried to leave, Cruz grabbed the keys to his truck and joined others in taunting him. He said he “lost it,” walked out, grabbed a rifle he kept in the truck and returned, shooting each person once. Coons was the final victim.

Court records show the five shots were fired within 40 seconds. Each victim was shot at close range.

Neighbors who heard the gunfire and called police saw Wesbrook emerge from the apartment, place the rifle inside his truck and stand calmly by the tailgate of the pickup to wait for sheriff’s deputies to arrive.

“If I could change things and turn back time and bring all these people back and I could be in my right mind and not under the influence of any alcohol, none of this would have taken place,” Wesbrook said recently from death row.

At least 10 other Texas inmates are scheduled to be executed in the coming months, including two later this month

https://www.al.com/news/2016/03/texas_executes_coy_wesbrook_in.html

Travis Hittson Georgia Execution

Travis Hittson was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of another sailor. According to court documents Travis Hittson and Edward Vollmer would murder fellow Navy sailor Conway Utterbeck whose body was dismembered and spread over two states. Travis Hittson would be convicted and sentenced to death. Travis Hittson would be executed February 18, 2016

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A former Navy crewman was executed Wednesday in Georgia for killing a fellow sailor whose remains were found buried in two states.

Travis Hittson, 45, was declared dead at 8:14 p.m. by Warden Bruce Chatman after receiving an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the April 1992 killing of Conway Utterbeck.

When Chatman asked if he wanted to make a final statement in front of witnesses, Hittson said, “No, sir. I’m alright.” He then agreed to have a prayer read.

Georgia doesn’t announce exactly when the lethal drugs begin flowing, and the injection isn’t visible to observers. But the warden left the execution chamber at 8:04 p.m., and records from past executions show the lethal drug generally begins to flow within a minute or two of the warden’s departure.

Hittson blinked repeatedly for several minutes and then appeared to take several deep breaths before becoming still about four minutes after the warden left the execution chamber.

Hittson’s lawyers had said he was mistreated and neglected as a child and constantly craved the approval of others. That, they said, combined with alcoholism and relatively low intelligence, made it easy for his direct supervisor in the Navy, Edward Vollmer, to manipulate him into killing Utterbeck.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, on Tuesday denied Hittson’s request for clemency. The board didn’t give a reason for the denial, which is standard.

Hittson’s lawyers also contended in a court filing that his constitutional rights were violated during sentencing when a judge allowed a state psychologist who had examined Hittson to recount damaging statements Hittson had made about Utterbeck.

A Butts County judge on Tuesday rejected those arguments and the state Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal of that decision and denied a stay of execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court also declined to halt the execution.

Hittson, Utterbeck and Vollmer were stationed in Pensacola, in the Florida Panhandle, in April 1992 when they went to Vollmer’s parents’ home in Warner Robins in central Georgia for a weekend.

Hittson told investigators he and Vollmer went out drinking the second night they were there, leaving Utterbeck at the house. As they were driving back to the house, Vollmer told Hittson that Utterbeck planned to kill them both and that they needed to “get him” first, according to court filings.

When they reached the house, where Utterbeck was sleeping in a recliner, Vollmer put on a bulletproof vest and took a sawed-off shotgun and a handgun from his car and gave Hittson an aluminum baseball bat. On Vollmer’s instructions, Hittson hit Utterbeck several times in the head with the bat and then dragged him into the kitchen where Vollmer was waiting, according to court filings. Vollmer stepped on Utterbeck’s hand and Hittson shot him in the head, according to court filings.

Vollmer said they needed to cut up Utterbeck’s body to get rid of the evidence, according to court filings. Hittson told investigators he began to cut the body with a hacksaw but he became sick and Vollmer finished dismembering the body, according to court filings.

They buried Utterbeck’s torso in Houston County in central Georgia and brought the rest of the remains back to Pensacola and buried them there.

When investigators began questioning Utterbeck’s shipmates a couple of months later, Hittson confessed and also implicated Vollmer, according to court filings. He led investigators to Utterbeck’s remains and other crime scene evidence.

Travis Hittson was convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and theft by taking. He was sentenced to die for the malice murder conviction.

Vollmer reached a plea deal and is serving a life sentence. He was denied parole in 1999 and again last year. Reconsideration of his case had been set for 2020, but based on information offered at Hittson’s clemency hearing, the parole board on Wednesday reset that for 2024. Eight years is the maximum delay between consideration dates allowed by board rules.

Travis Hittson was the second person executed in Georgia this year. The state executed five inmates last year, the most it has executed in a calendar year since 1987.

https://www.al.com/news/2016/02/former_navy_crewman_travis_hit.html

Gustavo Garcia Texas Execution

Gustavo Garcia was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Gustavo Garcia would attempt to rob a store and when the victim, Craig Turski attempted to flee he was shot and killed. Gustavo Garcia who was eighteen years old when he committed the murder was sentenced to death and would be executed by lethal injection on February 16, 2016

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After 24 years on Texas death row, a re-sentencing trial and an unsuccessful escape attempt, Gustavo Julian Garcia was executed Tuesday night. He was 43.

Garcia was sentenced to death in 1992 after confessing to the murders of two clerks during separate robberies, according to court documents. On Tuesday, his only personal witness was his spiritual advisor. Family members of one of the victims were also present.

At 6:10 p.m., witnesses shuffled from the clear, warm night into the death house, where Garcia was already strapped to a gurney. He was asked if he had any last words.

“Yes, sir,” he replied. “To my family, to my mom, I love you. God bless you, stay strong.”

A lethal dose of pentobarbital began streaming into the IV already inserted into his tattooed arm. Garcia, in prison whites and black-rimmed glasses, looked straight at the ceiling with a calm expression on his face. A minute later, he yawned and his eyelids drooped. At 6:26 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

It was the third execution in Texas this year, and the sixth in the United States.

In December 1990, Garcia, 18 at the time, and 15-year-old Christopher Vargas entered a liquor store with a sawed-off shotgun, according to court documents. They stole money and beer, and Garcia shot the clerk, Craig Turski, in the stomach and head.

The two weren’t arrested until a month later, when they were caught at a Texaco where another clerk, 18-year-old Gregory Martin, had been shot and killed. Garcia confessed to the murders, and he was sentenced to death for Turski’s death in January 1992, according to court documents. He was never tried in Martin’s case.

Martin’s sister, brother-in-law and friend attended Garcia’s execution. No one related to Turski was there. Garcia’s spiritual advisor, Father Clifton Labbe, stood at the front of the viewing area and stared at Garcia’s face

Garcia’s long stretch on death row wasn’t uneventful. More than six years into his sentence, on Thanksgiving night 1998, Garcia took part in an escape attempt that ended with the death of another death row inmate, Martin Gurule, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The inmates crept under a fence, climbed a roof and sprinted across the prison yard, the Morning News reported. Garcia and five other inmates surrendered on the lawn after guards began shooting at them, but Gurule managed to get over the outer fence. He was found dead a week later, apparently drowned in a nearby creek.

About two years later, then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn discovered that psychologist Walter Quijano, who testified at Garcia’s original sentencing trial, had claimed in testimony that Hispanics were more likely to pose a future danger to society, according to court documents. Quijano said he came to that belief because Hispanics were overrepresented in the prison population.

Garcia and several other inmates whose death sentences had been influenced by Quijano’s improper testimony were granted new sentencing trials, but Garcia was again sentenced to death in 2001, according to the attorney general’s office.

In August, a Collin County judge set his execution date. His latest appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was denied Feb. 9, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a stay and new hearing the next day.

On his final day, Garcia visited with family and friends, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“He was complacent,” TDCJ spokesman Robert Hurst said.

Texas executed 13 men last year, according to TDCJ. Nine more inmates have executions scheduled through July.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/16/execution-set-man-involved-death-row-escape/

Brandon Jones Georgia Execution

Brandon Jones was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of a store clerk. According to court documents Brandon Jones and Van Roosevelt Solomon would enter a store and in the process of robbing it would shoot and kill the manager Roger Tackett in 1979. Both men would be sentenced to death, Van Roosevelt Solomon was executed by way of the electric chair in 1985. Brandon Jones would be executed by lethal injection on February 3, 2016

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Georgia has executed the oldest man on the state’s death row, Brandon Astor Jones.

At 12:46 a.m. Wednesday, Jones, just 10 days shy of his 73rd birthday, took his last breath, ending a decades-long journey for the daughter and widow of the man he murdered in 1979.

The execution had been scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday. Jones, the fifth-oldest inmate executed in the nation, waited in a holding cell a few steps from the death chamber as the appointed time came and went amid a flurry of last-minute court filings for mercy.

It took more than an hour to prepare Jones for his lethal injection. According to a media witness who monitored the setup, it appeared they had to insert an IV into his groin area, which is protocol if the nurses cannot find accessible veins in the inmate’s arms.

Jones fought death. His eyes closed within a minute of the warden leaving the execution chamber, but 6 minutes later his eyes popped open. He looked at a clock on the wall, and then appeared to look at the man who prosecuted him in 1979, former Cobb County District Attorney Tom Charron, who was sitting on the front row.

After he died, about 15 of his supporters and death-penalty opponents, who were gathered about a mile from the execution building, held hands and prayed.

One supporter, Carole Butcher, said she had been writing Jones for about 15 years from her home in the United Kingdom. “We had our ups and downs. He supported me through my ups and downs,” Butcher said tearfully.

Jones’ attorneys waged a legal battle through the final hours to spare the 72-year-old from being executed for the 1979 murder of Roger Tackett, who managed a Tenneco convenience store and gas station in Cobb County.

The battle ended at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas denied requests for a stay, allowing the execution to go forward.

No final statement

Three friends and 11 family members visited Jones on his last full day of life, as did a lawyer and an investigator.

Afterward, Jones ate his final meal — the same dinner served every other inmate at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson: chicken, rutabagas, turnip greens, dry white beans, cornbread, fruit punch and, for dessert, bread pudding.

Jones declined to make a final statement, although he did record a message several hours before his execution.

Cruel and unusual?

Earlier on Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta turned down Jones’ request for a stay so his lawyers could argue before all 11 federal appeals court judges, sitting as a group, the constitutionality of the Georgia law that keeps secret the identity of the pharmacist who makes the pentobarbital for executions.

Although a majority of those judges rejected his request for a stay, five of the judges in four dissents sharply criticized the secrecy law.

“Today Brandon Jones will be executed, possibly in violation of the Constitution,” 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robin Rosenbaum wrote in one of the dissenting opinions. “He may also be cruelly and unusually punished in the process. But if he is, we will not know until it’s too late — if ever.”

Pardons and Paroles

Challenges to secrecy laws have failed repeatedly in Georgia and in other states with similar statutes.

These laws were adopted as it became increasingly hard to secure lethal injection drugs from makers who were under public pressure from death penalty opponents.

Opponents, however, say the laws make it impossible to ensure that the drugs made are pure and will not cause an unnecessarily painful death.

Jones also lost on Monday before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles despite his argument that the death sentence for this particular crime was disproportionate.

Co-defendant electrocuted

Jones and Van Roosevelt Solomon were both sentenced to die for murdering Tackett, who had stayed at the Tenneco convenience store after closing to finish paperwork so he would be free to attend Father’s Day Mass with his daughter and wife.

Jones worked for Solomon at his painting business. The two had set out to burglarize the Tenneco.