Donnie Johnson Tennessee Execution

Donnie Johnson - Tennessee

Donnie Johnson was executed by the State of Tennessee for the murder of his wife. According to court documents Donnie Johnson would murder his wife by stuffing a thirty gallon trash bag down his throat. Donnie Johnson would be executed by lethal injection on May 16, 2019

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Donnie Johnson, the Memphis man convicted of brutally murdering his wife in 1984, is dead.

The Tennessee Department of Correction announced Johnson was executed Thursday night by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville and pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m.

Witnesses to the execution provided their accounts in a live news conference outside Riverbend.

Witnesses said Johnson asked for forgiveness before saying ‘I commend my life into your hands. Thy will be done. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.’ He then sang two hymns as the execution proceeded and officials administered the drugs. Witnesses said his voice then trailed off, and eventually he slowly began to make raspy sounds like snoring before he stopped breathing.

Observers said the last words they could faintly hear from him were ‘no more dying here.’

Johnson’s execution comes more than three decades after he was convicted of murdering his wife, Connie Johnson, by stuffing a 30-gallon trash bag down her throat, suffocating her just weeks before Christmas. 

Eight years into his sentence, the convicted murderer was running a gospel radio show from his cell.

During his time of death row, Johnson claims he had changed. WBIR talked to him  in 1992 about his salvation and his sentence.

He told listeners in his show that he wasn’t afraid to die.

“Death is just a sleep. When I awake when Christ returns I’ll go to heaven,” he said to reporter Chuck Denney.

He said he wanted to spread his Christianity to others, both inside and outside the prison

He asked Gov. Bill Lee to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole, based on the fact that he’s now a Christian and not the “monster” he once was. His victim’s daughter, who he adopted, asked the governor for mercy.

But the governor refused to intervene this week.

Johnson had run out of options. He was served his last meal on Thursday. He requested nothing special, just the same food that the other prisoners would receive.

He wrote letters to his family and his victim’s family, asking for forgiveness.

Tennessee has five more executions scheduled for this year and next:

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/do-not-publish-memphis-killer-donnie-johnson-executed-in-brutal-1984-murder-of-his-wife/51-3ee485e9-18ce-47cf-a490-a17539738071

Michael Samra Alabama Execution

Michael Samra execution

Michael Samra was executed by the State of Alabama for multiple murders. According to court documents Michael Samra and Mark Duke would murder Randy Duke, his fiancée Dedra Mims Hunt, and her two daughters, 6-year-old Chelisa Nicole Hunt and 7-year-old Chelsea Marie Hunt. Michael Samra who was 19 at the time was sentenced to death. Mark Duke was sixteen and sentenced to life without parole, Michael Samra would be executed by lethal injection on May 16, 2019

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An Alabama Death Row inmate was executed by lethal injection Thursday night, more than 22 years after the quadruple slaying of a family in Pelham.

Michael Brandon Samra, 42, was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The Alabama Supreme Court set his execution date in April.

Samra was 19 when he and his co-defendant, then 16-year-old Mark Anthony Duke, were charged with killing Mark Duke’s father Randy Duke, his fiancée Dedra Mims Hunt, and her two daughters, 6-year-old Chelisa Nicole Hunt and 7-year-old Chelsea Marie Hunt. Samra was convicted of capital murder in 1998 after confessing, and was sentenced to death for his role in the killings.

The curtains opened to the execution chamber at approximately 7:09 p.m. When approached by the warden, Samra smiled.

His last words were a prayer. “I would like to thank Jesus for everything he’s done for me,” he said. “I want to thank Jesus for shedding his blood for my sins. Thank you for your grace Jesus, amen.”

Samra lied on the gurney with his eyes open, facing the witness room that contained his two attorneys, his spiritual adviser, and members of the media. At 7:14 p.m., his eyes closed.

One minute later, his chest heaved three times. His breathing appeared labored for several minutes.

Samra did not respond to a consciousness check, performed by a corrections officer at 7:17 p.m. Two minutes later, he stretched both hands and slightly raised his left arm, then curled his fingers and dropped his arm.

The curtain to the chamber closed at 7:26 p.m. The official time of death was 7:33 p.m., according to prison officials.

Samra’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing his age at the time of the 1997 slaying should prohibit him from being executed, but the nation’s highest court ruled Tuesday they would not review the case and would not stay Samra’s execution.

Gov. Kay Ivey also refused a reprieve for Samra, the prisoner’s lawyer said. One of his attorneys, Steven Sears, said he received the denial from Ivey’s office about eight hours before the execution.

Following the execution, Ivey released a statement: “For more than 20 years, the loved ones of Randy, Dedra and the two young daughters Chelisa and Chelsea have mourned an unbearable and unimaginable loss. Four lives were brutally taken far too soon because of the malicious, intentional and planned-out murders by Michael Brandon Samra.

“Alabama will not stand for the loss of life in our state, and with this heinous crime, we must respond with punishment. These four victims deserved a future, and Mr. Samra took that opportunity away from them and did so with no sense of remorse. This evening justice has been delivered to the loved ones of these victims, and it signals that Alabama does not tolerate murderous acts of any nature.

“After careful consideration of the horrendous nature of the crime, the jury’s decision and all factors surrounding the case, the state of Alabama carried out Mr. Samra’s sentence this evening. Although this can never recover the lives lost, I pray that their loved ones can finally find a sense of peace.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement following the execution, detailing the crime. He added, “Randy Duke was shot in the head. Dedra Hunt was shot multiple times as she attempted to flee with one of her daughters. Samra and Duke then proceeded to kill both of the young girls, cutting their throats. Samra was convicted of capital murder in 1998 and received his just punishment: a sentence of death. After too many years of delay, justice has finally been served. Tonight, we pray for the victims and for their families, that they might find peace and closure.”

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn spoke after the execution and read a statement from the Mims and Hunt family. “This has been a painful journey. Today justice has been carried out,” it said. The statement also included thanks for all police and investigative agencies who worked on the case. “We ask that you keep all families involved in your prayers,” the statement said.

Dunn did not give any reasons for the hour delay, and said to his knowledge there were no problems preparing the inmate for the procedure.

Wednesday, Samra was visited by six friends, two attorneys, and his spiritual adviser. He also made a phone call to his father. Thursday, he was again visited by six friends and his spiritual adviser.

Samra did not eat breakfast Thursday and did not request a last meal. He did not have any special requests.

Six witnesses from the victims’ families witnessed the execution, along with two attorneys from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office

According to court records filed by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office to the U.S. Supreme Court, Mark Duke and Samra brought two guns to Randy Duke’s home on March 22, 1997, where the teenagers planned to kill everyone inside.

Mark Duke fatally shot his 39-year-old father in the head, while Samra shot Hunt in the face. Although injured, 29-year-old Hunt fled upstairs with her daughters. Hunt and Chelisa sought shelter in an upstairs bathroom, while Chelsea hid under a bed.

Samra and Mark Duke ran after them, and Mark Duke shot and killed Hunt after he kicked in the bathroom door. Then, out of bullets, Mark Duke got two knives and pulled Chelisa from behind the shower curtain and slit her throat. The teens then pursued Chelsea, who was fighting back from under the bed. As she struggled, Mark Duke held her down and Samra slit her throat.

Mark Duke was also originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was later overturned and changed to life in prison pursuant to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning execution for offenders who committed their crimes while they were juveniles. He was 16 at the time of the slaying.

According to court records, Mark Duke came up with the murder plot because Randy Duke refused to allow him to use a pickup truck. He was called the “mastermind” of the plot.

Samra’s attorneys, Sears and Alan Freedman, have argued in court filings that the Eighth Amendment bans the execution of offenders- like Samra- who were under the age of 21 at the time of their crimes.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court banned execution for people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Sears has said this ruling should be modified due to “evolving standards of decency.”

In his U.S. Supreme Court petition, Samra’s attorneys argue the 2005 rule should be extended to include offenders up to the age of 21 at the time of their crimes. “The mitigating qualities of youth do not dissipate the day a youthful offender turns 18 years old,” the petition states. “Since [the 2005 decision], scientific studies have shown that during a person’s late teens and early 20’s, the brain continues growing and undergoes rapid changes in self-regulation and higher-order cognition.”

Last week, Sears sent a letter to Ivey asking for a reprieve until another state’s supreme court can decide whether offenders who committed their crimes under the age of 21 should be eligible for the death penalty.

Sears wrote in the letter, “The question of whether the U.S. Constitution permits the execution of 18-to-21-year-old offenders is percolating in the courts and is currently pending in the Kentucky Supreme Court. The Kentucky case arose after a trial court judge ruled that the reasoning supporting the U.S. Constitution’s ban on executing juvenile offenders extends to those over the age of 21. To prevent a miscarriage of justice and ensure that Alabama does not carry out an unconstitutional execution, Samra respectfully requests a reprieve until the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled on the question that would determine whether Samra is categorically eligible for the death penalty.”

The U.S. Supreme Court petition also mentions the Kentucky case and states, “Also, there is a burgeoning national consensus against executing young adult offenders. Since [the 2005 ruling] was decided, only 13 states have handed down 4 new death sentences to offenders under 21, and a majority of states, 30, would not permit the execution of a youthful offender. Notably, one Kentucky court, surveying the scientific research and national consensus, has concluded that Eighth Amendment line drawn in Roper must now be drawn at 21.”

“In the 14 years since this Court decided [case law], society’s standards have evolved rapidly to the point that the line drawn [in the 2005 case] can no longer be justified. Accordingly, Samra has shown a reasonable likelihood that he will prevail on his Eighth Amendment claim… Before it is too late, this Court should ensure that the Eighth Amendment does not categorically preclude him from receiving the law’s most severe and irreversible penalty.”

“Finally, to the extent that Samra relies on a supposed national consensus against imposing capital punishment on persons who were under the age of twenty-one when they committed capital murder, his claim is meritless. There is no such consensus, which is made most obvious by Samra’s failure to point to a single state that has specifically eliminated the death penalty for defendants who are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one when they murder their victims,” the Alabama AG’s Office wrote.

“Simply put, Samra’s allegation does not withstand scrutiny. His ‘national consensus’ and ‘clear and growing trend’ are made up out of whole cloth. Rather than citing to any instance in which any state has adopted his position, Samra points to two red herrings… What Samra ignores is that all of the states that fall in these categories still retain the death penalty as a sentencing option for persons who committed capital murder between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. At bottom, Samra has failed to show a ‘clear and growing trend’ because there is none.”

Samra’s attorneys have also argued that putting Samra to death isn’t just, since the crime’s mastermind Mark Duke is spending his life in prison. Sears called the quadruple slaying a “terrible tragedy,” but said he and his co-counsel “don’t think that killing one more person is going to help.”

“It’s not fair to kill the small fish and let the whale go,” Sears said, referring to Mark Duke’s sentence change. Sears said the fact Samra was several years older than his friend at the time of the slaying has made more of a difference than anything in the case.

The lead investigator on the case at the time, and now the mayor of Helena, Mark Hall said he believes it’s time Samra face his punishment. “I am not surprised by the request for a stay by the offender, but I’m reminded that the innocent victims of these horrific and senseless murders– two adults and two small children– did not have that option on that terrifying night when they were brutally murdered,” Hall wrote in a statement.

“…Convicted murderers, who have exhausted all means of the possibility of acquittal in a capital murder case should serve every day, every hour and every minute of the sentence they were given, and that includes the death penalty when it is imposed.

Those innocent victims, and the families of those victims, deserve no less.”

Two other men, David Collums and Michael Ellison, were convicted of lesser crimes in the case and served time in prison. They have since been released.

Another execution is scheduled Thursday in Tennessee, that of 68-year-old Don Johnson, who was condemned to die for the 1984 suffocation of his wife.

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2019/05/michael-samra-convicted-of-killing-4-in-1997-to-be-executed-thursday.html

Scotty Morrow Georgia Execution

scotty morrow execution

Scotty Morrow would be executed by the State of Georgia for a double murder. According to court documents Scotty Morrow would drive over to an ex girlfriends home and would shoot and kill her and her friend and shooting and injuring a third woman. Barbara Young and Tonya Woods would die from their injuries. Scotty Morrow would be executed by lethal injection on May 3, 2019

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Scotty Morrow, arms extended to his side, eyes open to the heavens, seemed at peace with his fate. Appeals exhausted, clemency denied, Morrow was just moments from death, and at 9:38 p.m. he became the first person executed by the state of Georgia this year.

His final words were contrite, his delivery, composed. The 52-year-old Gainesville man first addressed the relatives of the two women he killed nearly a quarter-century ago.

“I would like to give my deepest and sincerest apology to the Woods family and to the Young family,” he said.

The father of two and grandfather of four said in his petition for clemency that he thought every day about what happened on Dec. 29, 1994.

Spurned over the phone by his ex-girlfriend, Barbara Ann Young, Morrow drove to her house and fatally shot her and her friend, Tonya Woods. He shot a third woman in the face and arm but she survived. The murders were witnessed by Young’s 5-year-old son.

“I’m truly sorry for all that happened,” Morrow said, strapped down on a gurney inside a small room toward the rear of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

“I hope that you all recover and have healing,” he said to the roughly 20 people who observed his execution.

Morrow also thanked his family for their support and asked for their forgiveness.

“I love you all. God bless,” he said.

An imam gave the final prayer, telling Scotty Morrow he loved him.

At 9:26 p.m., prison Warden Benjamin Ford left the small room, signaling the injection of a lethal dose of anesthetic.

One woman in a white dress, sitting alone on the wooden pews facing Morrow, shook noticeably, holding back tears.

At 9:28 p.m., Morrow’s chest heaved, tilting his head to the right. One minute later, he yawned.

Then, stillness.

At 9:37 p.m. two doctors entered the room, checking Morrow’s vitals. One nodded to the warden, who announced Morrow’s death. Morrow is the 73rd person executed by the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and the 50th by lethal injection.

“Tonight, justice was carried out for the families of Tonya Woods and Barbara Ann Young and the injured LaToya Horne,” said Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh, who witnessed the execution. “Twenty years ago, I stood in front of a jury and asked them for the sentence of death finally imposed. It was indeed a profound experience to witness the execution for which I had asked, but it was important I be present.”

The U.S. Supreme Court had denied Morrow’s final appeal to stay the execution at about 9 p.m. Thursday, two and a half hours after his defense team petitioned the nation’s highest court.

Morrow was denied clemency Wednesday by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. His attorneys argued that unplanned crimes of passion, such as the ones Morrow was convicted of, are rarely punished by death.

They also pointed out that jurors in Morrow’s murder trial heard little about his traumatic childhood.

At age 3, Scotty Morrow watched his father stomp on his pregnant mother’s abdomen, causing her to miscarry. Mother and son eventually fled to a relative’s home but found no solace. That relative started raping Morrow when he was 7, his attorneys said. Another relative raped him one year later. Later, after moving to New York, Morrow was beaten repeatedly by his mother’s new boyfriend, according to his clemency petition

A state court judge overturned Morrow’s sentence in 2011, saying that his lawyers had not afforded him proper representation.  A new trial was ordered, but the Georgia Supreme Court later reversed that decision and reinstated the death sentence.

On Tuesday, a Butts County judge dismissed a petition claiming Morrow’s death sentence was unconstitutional because it was improperly imposed. Lawyers for the Gainesville man said the judge in Morrow’s criminal trial decided which of the two murders he committed warranted the death penalty, a decision they said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled must be made by jurors.

The Butts County judge on Wednesday agreed with attorneys for the state that those claims had already been rejected by higher courts.

On Thursday, the state Supreme Court agreed in a unanimous decision. The court described Morrow’s appeal “as lacking in arguable merit” and it also denied a request from his lawyers for a stay of execution.

The state Supreme Court’s ruling came just as Morrow was served his final meal — a hamburger, chicken and waffles, two hot dogs, a bag of buttered popcorn, a pint of butter pecan ice cream and a large lemonade. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said he finished only about half the meal.

Earlier in the day, Scotty Morrow was visited by one friend, 10 family members, two members of the clergy, and four of his attorneys.

“Mr. Morrow’s acts of violence were aberrations in a life otherwise characterized by kindness and compassion, and the man he became in December of 1994 bears no resemblance to the man he was before and the man he has worked to be since,” his attorneys wrote in his clemency petition.

Prison officials testified Scotty Morrow was a model inmate who sought redemption for his crimes. His son and namesake said he was a positive influence on his four grandchildren. Counselors told the parole board he had been fully rehabilitated.

But the parole board was unswayed, denying Morrow’s last, best chance at survival.

https://www.ajc.com/news/crime–law/georgia-set-execute-convicted-double-murderer-tonight/4r5Ibz4U8zNun6yEKqL02M/

John King Texas Execution

john king execution

John King was executed by the Texas Government for a brutal racial murder. According to court documents John King and two other men would tie James Byrd to the bumper of a truck and dragged the man at high speeds causing his death. John King and Lawrence Brewer would be sentenced to death Shawn Berry would receive life sentences. John King would be executed by lethal injection on April 24, 2019. Lawrence Brewer was executed in 2011

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A man who helped carry out the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. – one of the most horrific hate crimes in modern American history – was executed by injection on Wednesday evening in a Texas prison.

John William King, 44, was one of three men convicted for the murder. He is the second person to die for the crime that made news around the world and helped inspire Congress to pass federal hate crime legislation.

King was pronounced dead at 7:08 p.m. (8:08 p.m. ET) at Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.

According to Jeremy Desel with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, King had his eyes closed and replied “No” to the warden when asked whether he had any last words.

King did give a written statement that said, “Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment.”

Desel said the execution was delayed because the case went to the US Supreme Court before moving ahead at 6:56 p.m.

Clara Byrd Taylor said while watching her brother’s killer die she felt nothing.

“There was no sense of relief,” she said.

She called the execution a “just punishment.”

King showed no remorse, not Wednesday, not ever, she said.

The killer had his eyes closed the entire time he was on the gurney, Desel said, and only moved once, taking one deep breath as the execution started.

Byrd’s acquaintances told police they’d seen Byrd, who was black, at a party the night of June 6, 1998, that he’d left around 2 a.m. and was later seen riding in the bed of a pickup with three white men in the cab.

Authorities said King, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry picked up Byrd and drove him to a secluded area where they beat him and spray-painted his face before tying a logging chain around his ankles and dragging him behind a pickup truck for almost 3 miles.

Brewer died by injection in 2011Berry was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 2038.

While most murders are brutal, the viciousness of Byrd’s killing shocked the world. NBA star Dennis Rodman came forward to pay for Byrd’s funeral. Filmmakers produced multiple documentaries. Artists including Geto Boys, Drive-By Truckers and Will Smith referenced the violent saga in their songs. Maryland poet laureate Lucille Clifton penned an ode to Byrd.

Most importantly, the 49-year-old’s slaying spurred Texas and Congress to push through hate crime legislation. The federal act is often associated with the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay student beaten to death in Wyoming, but the full name of the law is the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

King had long maintained his innocence, once sending a letter to the Dallas Morning News that would later be used against him. He had said the evidence presented in his case was circumstantial and that Berry was solely responsible for Byrd’s death.

King has repeatedly appealed his guilty verdict, claiming ineffective assistance from his counsel, but a federal appeals court upheld his conviction last year, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear his case in October.

hough the motive was never specifically outlined, race was a theme in King’s trial. Prosecutors presented evidence that King had been an “exalted cyclops” of the white supremacist Confederate Knights of America and regularly drew lynching scenes.

King was the third prisoner executed in Texas this year, after cop killer Robert Mitchell Jennings and triple murderer Billie Wayne Coble.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/us/james-byrd-killer-execution-john-william-king/index.html

Billy Coble Texas Execution

billy coble execution

Billy Coble was executed by the State of Texas for a triple murder. According to court documents Billy Coble would murder his estranged wife’s parents and brother. Billy Coble would be executed by lethal injection on March 1, 2019.

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A Texas inmate was executed Thursday evening for the killings nearly 30 years ago of his estranged wife’s parents and her brother, who was a police officer.

Billie Wayne Coble received lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the August 1989 shooting deaths of Robert and Zelda Vicha and their son, Bobby Vicha, at separate homes in Axtell, northeast of Waco.

Coble, 70, once described by a prosecutor as having “a heart full of scorpions,” was the oldest inmate executed by Texas since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.

Asked to make a final statement, Coble replied: “That’ll be $5.”

He told the five witnesses he selected to be in attendance that he loved them, then again said: “That’ll be $5.” Coble nodded to the witnesses and added, “take care.”

He gasped several times and began snoring.

As Coble was finishing his statement, his son, a friend and a daughter-in-law became emotional and violent. They were yelling obscenities, throwing fists and kicking at others in the death chamber witness area.

Officers stepped in and the witnesses continued to resist. They were eventually moved to a courtyard and the two men were handcuffed.

“Why are you doing this?” the woman asked. “They just killed his daddy.”

While the witnesses were being subdued outside, the single dose of pentobarbital was being administered to Coble. He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later at 6:24 p.m.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel said the two men were arrested on a charge of resisting arrest and taken to the Walker County Jail.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier Thursday turned down Coble’s request to delay his execution.

His attorneys had told the high court that Coble’s original trial lawyers were negligent for conceding his guilt by failing to present an insanity defense before a jury convicted him of capital murder.

A state appeals court had previously rejected Coble’s request to delay Thursday’s execution and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down his request for a commutation.

Coble “does not deny that he bears responsibility for the victims’ loss of life, but he nonetheless wanted his lawyers to present a defense on his behalf,” his attorney, A. Richard Ellis, said in his appeal to the Supreme Court.

In Coble’s clemency petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ellis said his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his time as a Marine during the Vietnam War and was convicted, in part, due to misleading testimony from two prosecution expert witnesses on whether he would be a future danger.

Billy Coble was the third inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the second in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

“This is not a happy night,” McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson said. “This is the end of a horror story for the Vicha family.”

J.R. Vicha, Bobby Vicha’s son, said it would be a relief knowing the execution finally took place after years of delays.

“Still, the way they do it is more humane than what he did to my family. It’s not what he deserves but it will be good to know we got as much justice as allowed by the law,” said J.R. Vicha, who was 11 when he was tied up and threatened by Coble during the killings.

Prosecutors said Billy Coble, distraught over his pending divorce, kidnapped his wife, Karen Vicha. He was arrested and later freed on bond.

Nine days after the kidnapping, Billy Coble went to Karen Vicha’s home, where he handcuffed and tied up her three daughters and J.R. Vicha. He then went to the homes of Robert and Zelda Vicha, 64 and 60 respectively, and Bobby Vicha, 39, who lived nearby, and fatally shot them. After Karen Vicha returned home, Coble abducted her and drove off, assaulting her and threatening to rape and kill her. He was arrested after wrecking in neighboring Bosque County following a police chase.

Billy Coble was convicted of capital murder in 1990. In 2007, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial on punishment. On retrial in 2008, a second jury sentenced him to death.

Crawford Long, the former first assistant district attorney in McLennan County who helped retry Coble in 2008, said his “heart full of scorpions” description of Coble was fitting.

“He had no remorse at all,” said Long, who retired in 2010.

J.R. Vicha, 40, still lives in the Waco area. He eventually became a prosecutor for eight years, a career choice inspired in part by his father, who was a police sergeant in Waco when he was killed. His grandfather was a retired plumber and his grandmother worked for a foot doctor.

Vicha, now a private practice lawyer, is working to get a portion of a highway near his home renamed in honor of his father.

“Every time I run into somebody that knew (his father and grandparents), it’s a good feeling. And when I hear stories about them, it still makes it feel like they’re kinda still here,” Vicha said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/01/texas-inmate-billy-wayne-coble-executed-murders/3025769002/

Billy Coble Last Interview