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Anthony Doyle Texas Execution

Anthony Doyle was executed by the State of Texas for a robbery murder. According to court documents Anthony Doyle would make an order from a restaurant and when the delivery person showed up he would demand her money and when Hyun Cho replied she did not have any Anthony Doyle would fatally beat her with a baseball bat. Anthony Doyle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Anthony Doyle would be executed by lethal injection on March 27, 2014.

Anthony Doyle More News

Texas executed convicted murderer Anthony Doyle on Thursday as it kept the pace of executions steady while other states have had to postpone capital punishments because they cannot obtain drugs used in lethal injections.

Doyle, 29, was convicted of beating food delivery woman Hyun Cho, a South Korean native, to death in 2003 with a baseball bat, putting her body in a trash can and stealing her car.

Doyle was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. CDT (2349 GMT) at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville after receiving a lethal injection. He did not make a last statement, a Department of Criminal Justice spokesman said.

Texas, which has executed more people than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, has obtained a fresh batch of its execution drug pentobarbital, the Department of Criminal Justice said this month, without revealing the source.

On Thursday, a state judge ordered Texas to release the name of its new drug supplier. The state attorney general’s office said it would appeal the ruling.

The decision was for two inmates due to be executed in April and had no impact on Doyle’s execution.

Many other U.S. states have been struggling to obtain drugs for executions after pharmaceutical firms, mostly in Europe, imposed sales bans because they object to having medications used in lethal injections.

Oklahoma has had to postpone two executions planned for this month because it could not find drugs. Alabama said this week it has run out of one of the main drugs it uses, putting on hold executions for 16 inmates who have exhausted appeals and face capital punishment.

Several states have looked to alter the chemicals used for lethal injection and keep the suppliers’ identities secret. They have also turned to lightly regulated compounding pharmacies that can mix chemicals.

But an Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday that the state’s secrecy on its lethal injections protocols was unconstitutional, a decision that could delay executions in other states where death row inmates are planning to launch similar challenges.

Texas plans to execute five more inmates between now and the end of May, about the same number as every other state combined for the period, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization which monitors capital punishment.

Doyle was the fourth person executed in Texas this year and the 512th in the state since the death penalty was reinstated.

But executions overall have been on the decline in Texas, after hitting a peak of 40 in 2000. Since 2010, Texas has averaged about 15 executions a year.

The high costs of prosecutions and the availability of a sentence of life without parole have caused capital punishment convictions to fall to about 10 or less a year in recent years.

“We are now very selective in what we choose to go after as death penalty cases, instead of deciding that every single murder that we try will be a capital case,” said Susan Reed, the district attorney in San Antonio and a death penalty supporter.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-execution-texas-doyle-idUSBREA2R00R20140328

Ray Jasper Texas Execution

Ray Jasper was executed by the State of Texas for a robbery murder. According to court documents Ray Jasper would attempt to steal recording equipment from David Alejandro and in the process would slit his throat causing his death. Ray Jasper would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Ray Jasper would be executed by lethal injection on March 19, 2014

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Ray Jasper, who was convicted 14 years ago of killing a man he intended to rob of recording equipment by slashing his throat, has been executed.

Officials pronounced Jasper dead at 6:31 p.m. Wednesday, after a lethal dose of pentobarbital was injected into his system.

Of the three men found guilty of David Alejandro‘s November 1998 slaying, Jasper, 33, was the only one to receive a death sentence.

Co-defendants Steve Russell and Douglas Williams are each serving life sentences. Russell took a plea deal days after a jury sentenced Jasper to death and Williams was sentenced to life by a jury six months later.

No one from Jasper’s family was in Huntsville Wednesday to witness the execution. No one from the Alejandro family, who are against the death penalty, attended either — instead opting to spend the evening together in San Antonio.

During his capital murder trial in 2000, Jasper, a local rapper, admitted to using a kitchen knife to cut David Alejandro’s throat during what was supposed to be a recording session at the victim’s studio.

But Jasper also insisted that he wasn’t responsible for Alejandro’s death. It was instead the 25 stab wounds inflicted by Williams and Russell that caused the death, he asserted on the witness stand.

In a seven-page letter Jasper recently sent to Gawker.com that he has described as his final statement, he continued to deflect responsibility.

“I’m on death row and yet I didn’t commit the act of murder,” he said in the letter, which has been touted by Gawker.com for having been read 1.7 million times.

He is the third inmate executed in Texas this year.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/S-A-rapper-Ray-Jasper-executed-5332421.php

Edgar Tamayo Texas Execution

Edgar Tamayo was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Edgar Tamayo would shoot and kill Houston police officer Guy Gaddis in 1994. Edgar Tamayo who was an illegal immigrant scheduled execution caused a riff between Mexico and the State of Teas however in the end Edgar Tamayo would be executed by lethal injection on January 22, 2014

Edgar Tamayo More News

A last-ditch push to keep a convicted cop killer alive failed Wednesday night when the U.S. Supreme Court denied a motion to stay his execution.

Edgar Tamayo Arias, a Mexican national, was executed at 9:32 p.m. CT, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

His execution marks the first of the year in Texas and the 509th in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Tamayo did not make a statement before his death, department spokesman Jason Clark said.

Mexico’s government had been pushing to block Tamayo’s execution, arguing that it would violate international law.

Lawyers for Tamayo criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“He will be executed tonight, despite the indisputable fact that his right to consular assistance was violated,” attorneys Sandra L. Babcock and Maurie Levin said in a statement before Tamayo’s lethal injection.

Tamayo, 46, was convicted of the 1994 murder of a Houston police officer.

Officer Guy Gaddis was fatally shot after arresting Tamayo and another man for robbery.

Tamayo’s supporters say he was denied access to his consulate when arrested, as required by an international treaty.

In the past five years, Texas has executed two other Mexicans convicted of murder who raised similar claims. The Supreme Court refused to delay either of those executions, which took place in 2008 and 2011.

Tamayo’s lawyers argued the consulate access violation was more than a technicality — that Mexican officials would have ensured he had the most competent trial defense possible, if they had been able to speak with him right after his felony arrest.

The Bush and Obama administrations had urged Texas and other states to grant Tamayo and inmates in similar situations new hearings, fearing repercussions for Americans arrested overseas.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has also weighed in on Tamayo’s case, arguing that setting an execution date is “extremely detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

“I want to be clear: I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo’s conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no sympathy for anyone who would murder a police officer,” Kerry wrote. “This is a process issue I am raising because it could impact the way American citizens are treated in other countries.”

Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said the state was committed to enforcing its laws.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from — if you commit a despicable crime like this in Texas, you are subject to our state laws, including a fair trial by jury and the ultimate penalty,” she said.

Tamayo was one of 40 Mexican citizens awaiting the death penalty in U.S. prisons.

https://www.q13fox.com/news/texas-executes-mexican-national

Raphael Holiday Texas Execution

Raphael Holiday was executed by the State of Texas for the murders of three children. According to court documents Raphael Holiday would set fire to a cabin that would kill his eighteen month old daughter and two other children. Raphael Holiday insisted he was not responsible for setting the fire however he would be found guilty and would be sentenced to death. Raphael Holiday would be executed on November 19, 2015

Raphael Holiday More News

A Texas inmate has been executed after failed appeals for setting a fire that killed his 18-month-old daughter and her two young half-sisters at an east Texas home 15 years ago.

Raphael Holiday, 36, became the 13th convicted killer put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. It has accounted for half of all executions in the US so far this year.

The lethal injection was carried out after the US supreme court rejected an appeal seeking to halt Holiday’s punishment so new attorneys could be appointed to pursue additional unspecified appeals in his case.

Earlier on Wednesday the judge in Holiday’s trial court stopped the execution after Holiday’s trial attorney filed an appeal saying the conviction and some trial testimony were both improper. The judge agreed the issues should be reviewed and withdrew his execution warrant. The Texas attorney general’s office appealed, the judge’s order was voided and the warrant reinstated, clearing the way for the lethal injection to go ahead

Holiday insisted he didn’t know how the log cabin he once shared with his common-law wife and the children in the Madison county woods about 100 miles north of Houston caught fire in September 2000.

“I loved my kids,” Holiday said. “I never would do harm to any of them.”

Evidence and testimony showed Holiday was irate over a protective order his estranged wife obtained after his arrest for sexually assaulting one of the children. Holiday, from prison, contended he knew nothing about the assault.

According to court records he showed up at the home and forced the girls’ grandmother at gunpoint to douse the interior with gasoline. After it ignited he sped away in the grandmother’s car, hit a police car that arrived outside the cabin and then led officers on a chase that ended two counties away when he wrecked.

Defense attorneys at his trial suggested an electrical problem or a pilot light started the blaze in the early hours of 6 September 2000 that killed Holiday’s daughter, Justice, and her half-sisters, Tierra Lynch, 7, and Jasmine DuPaul, 5.

The girls’ grandmother told a jury she watched Holiday bend down and then the flames erupted, court records show. Jurors convicted him of capital murder and decided he should be put to death.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/19/texas-executes-raphael-holiday-over-fire-that-killed-three-children

Licho Escamilla Texas Execution

Licho Escamilla was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of an off duty police officer. According to court documents Licho Escamilla was already wanted for another murder when he was involved in a shooting outside of a Dallas night club striking and killing off duty police officer Christopher Kevin James who was working security at the club. Licho Escamilla would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Licho Escamilla More News

A man already being sought for a neighbor’s slaying when he killed a Dallas police officer outside a club was executed Wednesday.

Licho Escamilla was put to death for the fatal 2001 shooting of Christopher Kevin James, who was trying to break up a brawl involving Escamilla. The 33-year-old prisoner was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. — 18 minutes after the lethal injection began.

Escamilla became the 24th convicted killer executed this year in the United States. Texas has accounted for 12 of the executions.

Before dying, Licho Escamilla looked at the slain officer’s daughter, who was seated a few feet away watching through a window, and told her: “God bless your heart.”

He turned to his own relatives, who were in a separate witness space but could see him through the same glass, and said he loved them and all his supporters.

“Pope Francis, God’s children has asked the state of Texas to switch my death sentence to life in prison,” he said. “But the state of Texas has refused to listen to God’s children.

“They will have to take that up with God,” he added. “Let everyone know it’s not over.”

He took two breaths as the sedative pentobarbital took effect, then became still. His sister cried and screamed for God not to take him. Her wails nearly masked the sound of rumbling motorcycles outside the prison where bikers supporting the punishment gathered.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Escamilla’s case last week and no additional appeals were filed as his execution neared. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday decided against a reprieve and clemency.

James and three other uniformed officers were working off-duty security in November 2001 when a brawl started outside a Dallas club. Licho Escamilla, who was involved in the brawl, pulled out a gun and opened fire on the officers as they tried to end the fight.

The bullets from his 9 mm semi-automatic handgun struck James twice, knocking him to the ground. Escamilla then calmly walked up to the officer and fired three more shots into the back of his head before running and exchanging shots with other officers, witnesses said. A second officer wounded in the shootout survived.

A wounded Licho Escamilla was arrested as he tried to carjack a truck.

About a half-dozen Dallas police officers stood at attention and saluted as relatives of the slain officer entered the prison in Huntsville ahead of the execution. More arrived later to show their support and also saluted when they emerged.

“It’s been a long time waiting for justice to be served,” said Kevin Janse, a family spokesman who read a statement afterward. “We will grieve for him forever.

“Kevin was dedicated to making a difference,” he said, referring to James by his middle name. “The night he died he ran straight into gunfire to protect and serve those in harm’s way.”

James, 34, had earned dozens of commendations during his nearly seven years on the Dallas police force after graduating at the top of his cadet class. He was working the off-duty security job to earn extra money so he and his new wife could buy a house.

Escamilla was 19 at the time of the officer’s killing and a warrant had been issued for him in the shooting death of a West Dallas neighbor nearly three weeks earlier.

Escamilla’s trial attorneys told jurors he was responsible for James’ slaying but argued it didn’t merit a death sentence because James wasn’t officially on duty, meaning the crime didn’t qualify as a capital murder.

He was sentenced to death in October 2002. At his trial in Dallas, Escamilla grabbed a water pitcher off the defense table and threw it at the jury as the judge was reading his sentence.

Escamilla also started kicking and hitting people and hid under the table until he was subdued by deputies who triggered an electronic stun belt he was wearing.

Testimony showed Escamilla bragged to emergency medical technicians who were treating his wounds that he had killed an officer and injured another and that he’d be out of jail in 48 hours. He also admitted to the slaying during a television interview from jail.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2015/10/14/texas-executes-inmate-for-dallas-police-officers-2001-death/