Tonight’s Execution: Jefferey Williams, Texas

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Correction: This post was supposed to auto-publish today, but was accidentally published yesterday. Williams’ execution is set for tonight. Please pardon the mistake.

Editor’s note: There are inconsistent spellings of Jefferey/Jeffrey’s name in news reports. I’ve gone with the one listed on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s site. 

Attorneys are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to stop tonight’s scheduled execution in Texas.  Update: Jefferey Williams has been executed in Texas.

Jefferey D. Williams was slated to die this evening in Huntsville for the 1999 shooting of Houston police officer Troy Blando. From the Associated Press: 

Blando was working as a plainclothes officer doing auto theft surveillance when he stopped Williams, who was driving a stolen Lexus. As Blando was putting handcuffs on Williams, he was shot.

Williams’ lawyers argue his punishment should be halted while the high court reviews whether his legal help at his trial and in earlier stages of his appeals was deficient.

When Williams was arrested shortly after the shooting, he was still wearing the officer’s handcuff on one of his wrists.

Williams’ attorneys argued that his earlier trial attorneys were inefficient, missed filing deadlines and failed to present evidence during the sentencing hearing that would have spared him the death penalty.

A stay of execution? In Texas? Unlikely, but Jeffrey Williams’ attorney is giving it a try. ow.ly/kXpS7

— Austin Chronicle (@AustinChronicle) May 13, 2013

However, according to the Houston Chronicle, Williams’ other claims of ineffective counsel were unsucccessful. From the Chronicle: 

To date, Williams’ ineffective counsel claims have fizzled. Now, Sheldon hopes a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Martinez v. Ryan, will prompt the courts to take another look.

The ruling allows reconsideration of a rejected ineffective counsel claim if it is “substantial” and if it can be proved that an appeals lawyer’s performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. It requires proof that, had legal representation been adequate, the trial’s outcome may have been different.

Williams, 37, was represented in his February 2000 trial by veteran Houston defense lawyer Donald Davis. Months after Williams’ conviction, Davis committed suicide. Williams’ appeals attorney was Jules Laird, a former Harris County assistant district attorney.

Laird on Friday said he filed two petitions on Williams’ behalf, one dealing with constitutional issues of the killer’s initial trial, and a second asserting mental disability claims. “I talked to the family, reviewed the files and did my own investigation,” he said. “… I don’t recall filing late, but if the court says I did, I did.”

Laird said he does not remember whether he raised the issue of ineffective counsel.

Williams last-minute appeals were denied and the execution proceeded as planned. The lethal injection began at 6:10 p.m. local time and Williams was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m.

Witnesses emerge. The death penalty has been carried out against killer Jeffrey Williams for the murder of #Houston officer Troy Blando.

— Mary Benton (@KPRCMaryBenton) May 15, 2013

Texas executes Jeffrey Demond Williams for fatally shooting Houston police officer in 1999 – @ap wp.me/p2Rewi-oRV

— W. Star Journal (@wstarjournal) May 16, 2013

According to the Houston Chronicle, there were no witnesses that were related to or friends of either the victim or Williams. The witness chamber was filled instead with police officers.  In his final statement, Williams insulted the police and accused them of getting away with murder.

Executed tonight. Jeffrey Williams last statement: “you clown police…”twitter.com/KPRCMaryBenton…

— BefanOrks (@BefanOrks) May 16, 2013

The Chronicle story also includes a response to Williams’ last statement from Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers Union.

“The fact that to the end he continued to ridicule police officers shows what a thug he was,” Hunt told reporter Allan Turner outside the chamber. “I have no sympathy for him. I have sympathy for his family, but not for him.”

Williams was the 498th execution in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated.

Related Reading:

Cop Killer Makes Last-Ditch Appeal to Save His Life

Death Watch: New Appeal Argues Ineffective Defense

Florida Death Row Inmate’s Attorneys Says New DNA Evidence Proves He Is Innocent

A Florida inmate is back in court this week and hoping new evidence will prove him innocent and free him from death row.

Thirty-three-year-old Clemente Javier “Shorty” Aguirre was sentenced to death in 2006 for the murders of his neighbors, Cheryl A. Williams and her wheelchair-bound mother Carol Bareis. According to attorneys for The Innocence Project there is new DNA evidence that suggests Aguirre is innocent, and they are presenting it in a two-week evidentiary hearing before asking Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler to vacate Aguirre’s conviction.

From the Orlando Sentinel: 

The new hearing will focus on two things: new DNA found at the murder scene and 30-year-old Samantha Lee Williams — Williams’ daughter and Bareis’ granddaughter. She lived in the mobile home with them but had spent the night they were killed with her boyfriend.

There was an enormous amount of blood at the murder scene. After Aguirre’s conviction and with the help of the Innocence Project, a New York-based nonprofit that works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, defense attorneys hired scientists to test more of it.

They’re expected to testify that they’ve found eight drops of Samantha Williams’ blood at the house but none from Aguirre.

They’re also expected to testify that the blood found on Aguirre’s clothes all consisted of “contact” stains, those that happen when someone touches something already bloody — not spatter stains, the kind caused by a blow.

Defense attorneys also are expected to offer evidence about Samantha Williams’ long record of mental illness…..Defense attorneys also are expected to present evidence that Samantha and her mother, the victim with 129 stab wounds, had an argument the night the women were killed.

If Judge Recksiedler rules in favor of vacating and throws out the sentence, Aguirre will receive a new trial.

Much more on the story here:

Altamonte Springs Cook Sent to Death Row Hopes New DNA Clears Him

Innocence Project Press Release: New DNA Testing Reveals Florida Death Row Inmate’s Innocence

Death Row Inmate Back in Seminole County Courtroom, Asking Judge to Throw Out Convictions

 

The Latest From Florida’s Death Row

Editor’s note: Some of these stories are a bit less recent, since I’ve been traveling. But in case you missed them, I’m sharing them here. 

New Death Sentence: Man Sentenced to Death for Vicious Murder of Elderly Little Havana Woman: For viciously stabbing an elderly Little Havana woman to death, Victor Guzman must be executed, a Miami-Dade judge ruled last month.

By a 7-5 vote, jurors in the murder case recommended a death sentence. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy followed suit Thursday, but not before allowing Guzman one last chance to plea for mercy.

 

Kathleen Briles’ Murderer Trying to Avoid Death Row: 

Convicted killer Delmer Smith will be back in a Manatee County courtroom Friday trying to evade a death sentence for murdering Kathleen Briles in 2009. His defense is expected to present medical evidence at the 8:30 a.m. hearing of damage to the frontal lobe of the brain, which they hope persuade Judge Peter Dubensky to reduce his sentence to life in prison.

Deputy’s Convicted Killer Appeals Death Sentence: 

An attorney for Jason Wheeler asked the Florida Supreme Court this week to overturn his death sentence, arguing that the trial attorneys failed to raise two key points in his defense. Mark Gruber, an attorney for the death-row inmate, focused on claims that trial attorneys could have proven Wheeler was acting on the influence of drugs during the February 2005 shooting and that the use of 54 photos of the victim, Lake Deputy Wayne Koester, during the last phase of the trial was excessive.

Will Gary Hilton Return to Florida’s Death Row?  Serial killer Gary Hilton could soon be brought back to Florida to face the death penalty. Hilton has been convicted of killing four people in three states including kidnapping and beheading Crawfordville Sunday school teacher Cheryl Dunlap.

Florida Executions Speeding Up As Gov. Scott Signs Another Death Warrant

Just 10 days after signing his fourth death warrant of 2013, Gov. Scott has used the stroke of his pen to send another Florida inmate on his way to the execution chamber.

The governor’s office reported today that Scott has signed death warrant for 49-year-old Marshall Lee Gore, whose execution is schedule for June 24. Gore was given two death sentences for the 1988 killings of Susan Roark and Robyn Novick.

According to court documents, in March 1988 police found the body of a white female covered with a blue tarp in Miami-Dade County. Dental records were used to identify the body as Robyn Novick. Witnesses testified that five days earlier they saw Novick get into a yellow Corvette and leave a bar in the company of a man who was later identified in photos as Marshall Gore. The Florida Capital Case Commission’s summary goes on to detail how Gore was also seen driving what appeared to be Novick’s car:

On the morning of 03/12/88, Gore came to the house of David Restrepo, driving a yellow Corvette with “Robyn N” on the license plate.  Restrepo was told by Gore that his girlfriend had loaned him the car.  Gore and Restrepo then drove to a strip club, and Gore explained that he wanted to change his name to Robyn.  The two then went to a convenience store, but after leaving the store, Gore lost control of the vehicle, which flipped several times and came to a rest with two flat tires.  Gore and Restrepo abandoned the wrecked car.  Police found the abandoned car and discovered credit cards, a driver license, and cigarette case, all belonging to Robyn Novick.

A month later the skeletonized remains of Susan Roark were found in Columbia County. Roark was last seen alive in Cleveland, Tennessee when the two struck up a conversation and drove away in Roark’s car. Gore later arrived in Tampa driving Roark’s car and convinced a friend to help him pawn several of Roark’s things.

Gore was sentenced to death in the Roark case in 1990 and then again in the Novick case in 1995. In a piece for The Miami Herald, David Ovalle writes that “Gore’s 1995 trial in Miami was marked by disruptive behavior. He cursed, laughed and howled during the trial, angering the victim’s family and frustrating his own lawyer.”

The prosecutor in the case showed some disruptive behavior as well, and in 1998 the Florida Supreme Court overturned Gore’s conviction. More from Ovalle:

The Florida Supreme Court, in 1998, overturned the conviction after ruling that the prosecutor on the case “exceeded the proper conduct and professionalism” in taunting Gore and telling a jury “he deserves to die.”

Gore received a new trial a year later and was again sentenced to death.

Gore also has been handed numerous other sentences, including a life sentence for the attempted murder of Tina Coralis in 1988. According to The Associated Press, “two days after killing Novick, Gore attacked Coralis. After beating, raping and stabbing her, Gore left Coralis her for dead on the side of the road near the scene where Novick’s body was found earlier.”

Scott’s death warrant only refers to the death of Novick. He is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. ET June 24 at Florida State Prison in Starke.

Upcoming Florida Executions:

Elmer Carroll, May 28

William Van Poyck, June 12

Marshall Lee Gore, June 24

Related Reading:

Miami-Dade killer Marshall Lee Gore To Be Executed Next Month, Gov. Rick Scott’s Office Says

Tonight’s Execution: Willie Manning

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Editor’s Note: I’m traveling throughout April and May, and will have intermittent access to internet. Because of that, 1) I’m taking the liberty of sharing a Huffington Post story instead of writing my own and 2) postings may be less frequent or updated at a slower pace than usual.

UPDATE: By a vote of 8-1, the Supreme Court of Mississippi Tuesday afternoon halted the scheduled execution of Willie Manning, just hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection at the Parchman prison.

From the Huffington Post:

Convicted double murderer Willie Jerome Manning, who has been on death row for nearly two decades, is set to be executed Tuesday, after being denied a DNA test that could save him from the execution chamber, the New York Times reports.

In a 5-to-4 decision in April, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that there was “conclusive, overwhelming evidence of guilty” and that DNA tests would not “preclude his participation in the crimes,” according to the Times.

But in a dissenting opinion Justice James W. Kitchens argued that “whatever potential harm the denial seeks to avert is surely outweighed by the benefits of ensuring justice by the scientific analysis of all the trace evidence.”

Dov Fox of the Georgetown University Law Center says that “no physical evidence has ever linked Manning to the crime,” in a Huffpost blog.

The 44-year-old black man was convicted in the 1992 kidnapping and murder of Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller, two white college students.

According to the Jackson Free Press:

One of the victims, Tiffany Miller, was shot twice in the face at close range. One leg was out of her pants and underwear, and her shirt was pulled up. Her boyfriend John Steckler’s body had abrasions that occurred before he died, and he was shot once in the back of the head. A set of car tracks had gone through the puddles of blood and over Steckler’s body.

Dov points out that a jury convicted Manning based largely on the testimony of a cousin of the defendant and a jailhouse informant, who claimed Manning confessed to him.

“The cousin had accused two other men before Manning, however, and the informant has since recanted altogether,” Dov writes.

The Washington Post points out that the justice department admits to flaws in forensic testimony as part of a broad review of the FBI’s handling of evidence in the 1980s and 1990s.

In urging Gov. Phil Bryant to issue a stay of execution, Death Penalty News pointed out that the tests could provide the identity of a possible second perpetrator who has never been caught and put to rest questions over now-outmoded forensic practices, used at the time of the investigation.

“Since 1994, Manning has been seeking DNA testing of the rape kit, fingernail scrapings that were recovered from both victims and hairs recovered from the scene,” the blog states.

In an Atlantic article entitled, “A Ghost of Mississippi: The Willie Manning Capital Case,” Andrew Cohen says the specters of racial bias, a faulty confession and untested scientific evidence have haunted this case.

Tonight’s Execution: Carroll Parr, Texas

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Editor’s Note: I’m traveling throughout April and May, and will have intermittent access to internet. Because of that, postings may be less frequent or updated at a slower pace than usual.

There were two executions scheduled for tonight and it’s likely the controversy of one will overshadow the other. In a highly-criticized case in Mississippi, state officials say there should be no DNA or fingerprint testing for Willie Manning, who has always maintained his innocence. In a rare move, the Department of Justice and the FBI have admitted reports and testimony by FBI examiners from the original trial were inaccurate and have offered to do additional DNA testing. There is no physical evidence tying Manning to the crime and activists, legal analysts and members of the media are calling for the tests to be done prior to his execution.

UPDATE: By a vote of 8-1, the Supreme Court of Mississippi this afternoon halted Manning’s execution, just hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection at Parchman prison. Read more about the latest in Manning’s case here.

Meanwhile in Texas, not much was being said about the execution of Carroll Parr, slated to die at 6 p.m. who was executed tonight for the 2003 shooting of a drug dealer in a robbery gone wrong. His execution was the 497th in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated.

For the sake of easy posting from a place with dodgy internet, here’s more on Parr’s case from The Associated Press:

LIVINGSTON, TX – Condemned Texas inmate Carroll Parr says he’s OK with capital punishment but doesn’t believe he should be facing lethal injection this week.

“I’m not guilty of what I’m on death row for,” Parr said recently from a tiny visiting cage at the East Texas prison that houses the state’s 275 condemned men. “I believe in the death penalty. I believe in the Bible. I disagree in how it’s carried out.”

Parr, 35, a Waco drug dealer who was known on the streets at “Outlaw,” is set to die Tuesday evening for the 2003 robbery and fatal shooting of a man following a drug deal outside a convenience store.

Parr would be the fifth Texas inmate executed this year. At least 10 others have execution dates scheduled for the coming months, including one next week.

“I have been dealing with death all my life,” Parr told The Associated Press. “This is nothing I fear. … My execution is a release for me and a relief.”

Attorneys for Parr last week argued unsuccessfully in state courts and to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a witness at Parr’s 2004 trial had provided an affidavit saying his testimony was false and that he’d been encouraged by McLennan County prosecutors to testify falsely. Trial prosecutors denied the accusations and said the witness’ retraction wasn’t credible.

The 5th Circuit last year rejected another appeal from Parr, and the U.S. Supreme Court in January refused to review his case.

Parr was convicted of the slaying of 18-year-old Joel Dominguez.

According to court records, Parr bought marijuana from Dominguez at a convenience store in Waco, then came back with a friend, Earl Whiteside, to get his money back.

Dominguez and another man, Mario Chavez, were hustled to a fenced area next to the store, where Parr pistol-whipped Dominguez and demanded his money back. Dominguez complied.

Parr ordered Whiteside to “smoke ‘em,” according to court documents. Whiteside shot Chavez in the hand, critically wounding him. Parr then shot Dominguez in the head.

“He grabbed a gun and the gun went off,” Parr said of Dominguez from prison. “I wasn’t holding the gun. I wasn’t at the scene of the crime.”

A surveillance video showing him at the store was from an hour or more before the robbery, Parr said, and manipulated by authorities who fabricated evidence against him.

“They chopped the tape,” Parr said. He declined to identify the shooter, saying he had told the people involved in the shooting: “I ain’t going to tell on y’all.”

“I gave the dudes my word,” he said.

Witnesses testified Parr subsequently was angry with Whiteside for not killing Chavez because a witness to the shootings remained alive. Whiteside, who wound up with a 15-year prison term for aggravated robbery, and Chavez both identified Parr as the killer.

Four other people, including Parr’s girlfriend, testified he told them he was the shooter.

Parr, from prison, described himself as a third-grade dropout who “grew up on the streets since I was 9″ and fathered five children.

“Unfortunately, Carroll has some sort of seedy criminal history,” Russ Hunt Sr., one of Parr’s trial lawyers, said. Parr also had an abusive childhood and a “hellacious environment where he grew up,” Hunt said.

Evidence showed at the time of the slaying Parr already had been convicted of three counts of delivery of cocaine and placed on probation. He also had other drug convictions, a parole violation and a conviction for evading arrest. He was also linked to but not charged with a fatal drive-by shooting, as well as another shooting and an assault.

“We did our best for him,” Hunt said. “I’d say it’s always disappointing and frustrating to have a jury not agree with you.

“They believed him to be a cold-blooded murderer.”

Parr was pronounced at 6:32 p.m. CT, 19 minutes after the procedure began. An Associated Press report has details of his final words:

In the seconds before being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, Carroll Joe Parr told his victim’s wife she should talk to her brother to learn “the truth about what happened to your husband.”

Then, in what he called a “statement to the world,” Parr said he was “in the midst of the truth.”

“I am good. I am straight,” he said.

He added that he wanted his “partners” or friends to know that he would “be back” like the Arnold Schwarzenegger “Terminator” film character.

“I’m on my way back. … These eyes will close, but they will be opened again,” Parr said before telling his family he loved them and thanking his spiritual adviser.

The next lethal injection in Texas is scheduled for next week, when Jeffrey Williams is slated for execution for the 1999 killing of a Houston police officer.

Related Reading:

Death Watch: No Place for Mitigation

DA Rejects Death Row Inmate’s Claim of More Waco Killings

Gov. Scott Signs Death Warrant for Florida Inmate William Van Poyck

As a much-criticized bill to speed up Florida’s executions sits on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature, Rick Scott has signed another death warrant, in a move that is perhaps indicative of his decision on the measure.

Scott has signed a death warrant for 58-year-old William Van Poyck, who was convicted in the death of corrections officer Fred Griffis in 1987.

According to the case summary from the Florida Commission on Capital Cases:

On 06/24/87, during the transport of a state prisoner named James O’Brien, Van Poyck and an accomplice, Frank Valdez, ambushed the two guards in the prison van, assaulted them, and fired three shots, one to the head and two to the chest, into one of the guards, killing him instantly. In an attempt to free O’Brien from the van, Van Poyck fired numerous shots at the padlock of the van door, with one ricocheting and striking the other guard.

Van Poyck and Valdez then fled the scene in a Cadillac, and a chase with police ensued.  During the chase, Van Poyck fired numerous shots at the pursuing police cars, striking three of them.

Eventually, Valdez lost control of the car and it struck a tree.  The two were arrested and four pistols were recovered from the car, including the service revolver of the guard that was killed.

According to the Associated Press, “Van Poyck has taken responsibility for the slaying but denied he was the triggerman.”

Van Poyck has a blog that is maintained by his sister, who posts his letters to her there. His writing often details the conditions on the row, which I’ve reposted on this blog several times, specifically in the case of Tom Wyatt, who I posted about here, here and here.

Van Poyck is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 12 at 6 p.m. ET, at Florida State Prison. From The Associated Press:

 

Tonight’s Execution: Richard Cobb, Texas

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

UPDATE: Richard Cobb has been executed, according to Execution Watch reporter Gloria Rubac, who is outside the Walls Unit.

Richard Cobb was only 18 when he and his friend Beunka Adams, 19, were arrested for a crime spree that included robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault, and the shooting of three people. Tonight Texas executed Cobb for the crimes almost a year to the day after they executed Adams. 

On Sept. 2, 2002, 37-year-old Kenneth Vandever, who was mentally disabled, and two women were abducted from an East Texas convenience store and taken to a nearby field. One of the women was raped and then all three were shot. Vandever died from his wounds, but the women were able to play dead until their attackers left, when they managed to go get help. 

Cobb and Adams were arrested for the crimes a day later, after being turned in by Adams’ cousin.

According to court documents, at trial “Cobb admitted to participating in the robbery and kidnaping and to shooting Vandever. He testified, however, that Adams pressured him into committing the murder, threatening to kill Cobb if he refused to take part in killing the three hostages. The [S]tate cast doubt on this portion of Cobb’s testimony by getting him to admit on cross-examination that he did not mention any coercion by Adams when he first confessed to the authorities.”

Prosecutors also used the testimony of a jailhouse snitch to secure a sentence of death. From the Austin Chronicle: 

William Thomsen testified that while in jail awaiting trial Cobb bragged about his crimes, said he would commit additional crimes if he could, that he likely wouldn’t have been caught if he’d killed the two clerks, and that he got “like a rush” from shooting Vandever. (In a courtroom outburst, Cobb denied saying that.) Thomsen also testified that he was not given any deal or done any favors by the state in exchange for his testimony.

As it happened, that wasn’t entirely accurate: In January 2003, the prosecutor, Elmer Beckworth, penned a short letter to Thom­sen’s parole officer, advising that he would not seek to prosecute Thomsen on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The letter had been put into Adams’ file, but not Cobb’s; it was turned over a day before closing arguments, but the defense chose not to use it, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a May 2012 opinion. Two months after Cobb was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004, a prosecutor reviewing Adams’ file found another letter, this one from Thomsen, written in 2002, reminding Beckworth that during a meeting a week earlier the prosecutor had “agreed to completely clear” his pending weapons charge and to have a parole hold lifted so that Thom­sen could be released; in the letter Thomsen also offers additional details about what Cobb told him about the robbery and murder. Cobb then appealed, citing the failure of prosecutors to turn over this second letter. But each of Cobb’s appeals has been denied, and on Feb. 21 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the case.

Yesterday Cobb’s attorneys filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari and an application for stay of execution. However the U.S. Supreme Court denied that stay and the execution proceeded on schedule.

Supreme Court denied Richard Cobb’s appeal. He will be executed at 6pm.

— Field Sutton (@KYTXFieldSutton) April 25, 2013

Cobb’s execution was the fourth execution in Texas this year, the third this month and the 496th since the death penalty was reinstated.

“There’s really nothing left to do,” Cobb told the Jacksonville Daily Progress recently in a jailhouse interview last month. “ … I accept it, you know what I mean? For what it is. There’s no getting away from it. At the same time I don’t want to die, but I’m ready to die.”

He also expressed remorse for his crimes and told the Progress reporter he has many regrets. 

“You survey ever single mistake you’ve ever made over and over again,” he said. “It doesn’t stop. Every day. There’s regret in the water. Regret every time you look in the mirror. That’s just part of life. There’s no escaping it…The damage, the regret, the remorse. I wish I could go back and make this never have happened. Just change it all.”

Cobb was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. CT at the Walls Unit in Huntsville.

In his final statement, Cobb said “Life is death, death is life. I hope that someday this absurdity that humanity has come to will come to and an end. Life is too short; I hope anyone that has negative energy towards me will resolve that. Life is too short to harbor feelings of hatred and anger. That’s it.”

Related Reading:

Last Interview: ‘I’m Ready to Die’

Killer in East Texas Slaying-Abductions Set to Die

Despite Prosecutor’s Deal With Snitch, Cobb Loses Appeals

Transcript of the interview with Death Row inmate Richard Cobb

Gov. Rick Scott Signs Death Warrant for Elmer Carroll

I’m on the road with spotty internet, so more details will come on this post soon, but for now, here’s a quick summary on the latest death warrant signed in Florida, this one for Elmer Leon Carroll.

According to the case summary, Carroll was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 10-year-old Christine McGowan. From the summary:

“Robert Rank attempted to wake his stepdaughter, Christine McGowan, on the morning of 10/30/90 and, when she did not answer his calls, Rank went to McGowan’s room.  He noticed her door, which was open the night before, was closed.  Upon entering the room, Rank discovered McGowan face down on the bed.  She had blood between her legs and her body was cold to the touch.  Rank then noticed that the front door was slightly open and his construction truck was missing.  Police investigators at the scene determined that McGowan had been raped and strangled to death, and issued a bulletin regarding the stolen construction truck.

Upon hearing a radio bulletin regarding the stolen construction truck, Debbie Hyatt notified police that she remembered seeing the abandoned truck and a man, later identified as Elmer Carroll, walking easterly away from the truck.  As a result of Hyatt’s tip, Carroll was arrested.  When law enforcement officers searched Carroll for weapons, they found a box cutter and the keys to the stolen construction truck.

Information presented at trial revealed that Carroll was a resident of the halfway house located next door to the victim’s home and that Carroll had remarked to other residents about the “cute” girl next door.  DNA evidence recovered from the scene matched Carroll’s saliva, semen and pubic hair.”

Carroll, 56, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 28 at 6 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison in Starke.

Related Reading:

Governor signs death warrant for Apopka girl’s killer

Elmer Leon Carroll execution: Florida man to die by lethal injection for Christine McGowan murder

Tonight’s Execution: Ronnie Threadgill, Texas

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 

Editor’s note: I’m traveling at the moment, with intermittent internet access, so updates might be a bit slower than usual. For more up-to-date information, see the Twitter feed for this blog, at www.twitter.com/floridadeathrow.

Update: Ronnie Threadgill has been executed.

The busiest death chamber in America carried out another lethal injection tonight, in what was its 495th execution since the death penalty was reinstated.

Texas executed Ronnie Threadgill for the 2001 shooting of a 17-year-old boy outside a nightclub. According to the Associated Press, “Dexter McDonald had been in the back seat of a friend’s car in the parking lot of a club south of Corsicana when a bandana-wearing gunman later identified as Threadgill jumped in an open door, started shooting and drove off. McDonald died of a gunshot wound to the chest.”

Threadgill’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay, arguing he had inadequate defense at his original trial. From the Austin Chronicle:

“At issue is whether his trial attorney – and then the state habeas attorney – rendered ineffective assistance of counsel on several counts: by failing to ask the court for jurors to be given the option of convicting Threadgill on the lesser charge of felony murder (attempting to commit one crime and engaging in a dangerous act that causes someone to lose life; unlike capital murder, there is no intent to kill in felony murder) and by failing to thoroughly investigate a previous shooting case out of Limestone County. In order to prove Threadgill would remain a future danger unless sentenced to death, prosecutors brought a host of evidence about his past. Indeed, at the time of the McDonald killing, Threadgill, then 29, had spent almost all of his adult life in prison; among the bad acts prosecutors used as evidence against him was an allegation that he had shot a man named Erik Martin in a previous and unrelated incident in another county. What Thread­gill’s defense apparently did not find out was that those Limestone County charges had been dropped after prosecutors found that there was ‘conflicting evidence’ in the case.

“Threadgill’s claims were ultimately shot down, however, because they had not been raised in his first appeal. And on April 3, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his most recent appeal, which argued that the state habeas attorney was also ineffective for not calling into question the efficacy of the trial counsel. Whether these specific types of appeals can be made in Texas is actually the subject of a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court, styled Trevino v. Thaler. The Fifth Circuit last week declined to stay Threadgill’s execution, however, arguing that regardless of the outcome of the Trevino case, Threadgill is procedurally barred from having his claim heard. Threadgill’s attorney, Lydia Brandt, is appealing that decision to the Supremes.”

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal though and the execution went forward as planned. Threadgill’s time of death was 6:39 p.m. CDT, 25 minutes after the injection began.

“To my loved ones and my dear friends, I love y’all and appreciate y’all for being there,” Threadgill said. “I am going to a better place. To all the guys back on the row, keep your heads up, keep fighting. I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Texas has 10 more executions scheduled through July.

Related Reading:

Ronnie Threadgill Files Last Appeal to Supremes

Texas Man Convicted in Carjack Slaying Set to Die