Crime Time

Texas carries out 3rd execution of 2013

Texas, on Tuesday carried out its third execution in 2013 -- Ronnie Threadgill, who was convicted for fatally shooting a teenager during a carjacking outside a nightclub 12 years ago in Corsicana.

Threadgill, 40, received lethal injection in Huntsville less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal.

"To all the guys back on the row, keep your heads up, keep fighting," he said. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Michael Graczyk of The Associated Press filed this report.

-- Bill Miller

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/04/16/4780170/texas-executes-convicted-killer.html#storylink=cpy

Texas Death Row inmate describes his execution

A second-by-second account of his execution was given by Rickey Lynn Lewis Tuesday, as the lethal drugs entered his body.

Lewis, 50, was on death row for fatally shooting a man during a 1990 home burglary in East Texas. He also was convicted of raping the slain man's fiancee.

"Take me to my king," he said.

As the drug began taking effect, he said he could feel it "burning my arm."

"I feel it in my throat. I'm getting dizzy," Lewis said before he started to snore and, seconds later, lost consciousness.

Michael Graczyk, who covers Texas' death row for The Associated Press, filed this report.

-- Bill Miller

 

Execution tonight for East Texas man

A Tyler man convicted of fatally shooting a man and raping his fiancee in 1990 is set for execution tonight.

Rickey Lynn Lewis, 50, is scheduled to become the second man executed in Texas this year. Three more are scheduled later this month in the nation's most active death penalty state.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday rejected a clemency petition for Lewis, and the U.S. Supreme Court a week ago refused to review Lewis' case.

Read more about it in this report from The Associated Press.

And, here’s a link to information about Lewis on Texas’ Death Row.

— Bill Miller

Killer of Arlington pastor says he is 'trying to maintain my behavior' on death row

Steven Lawayne Nelson, sentenced in mid-October to die for the robbery-slaying of Arlington pastor Clint Dobson, and the severe beating of a church secretary, said he has not had any violent episodes since arriving on death row.

He said he is "trying to maintain my behavior."

But Bob Gill, who prosecuted Nelson, is not impressed. Nelson is suspected of strangling another jail inmate while awaiting trial.

"As soon as he gets any indication of an opportunity, he will be violent again," Gill said. "It's not a tribute to Mr. Nelson if he's not been violent on Death Row. It's a tribute to the procedures they have on Death Row."

-- Read more in this report from Michael Graczyk of The Associated Press.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/23/4505505/in-death-row-interview-pastors.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/23/4505505/in-death-row-interview-pastors.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/23/4505505/in-death-row-interview-pastors.html#storylink=cpy

Registered sex offender executed for slaying of woman in San Antonio

A registered sex offender was put to death Wednesday for the rape, robbery and slaying of a woman abducted from a San Antonio bus stop 11 years ago.

Ramon Torres Hernandez was one of three people convicted in the killing of Rosa Maria Rosado, 37, who was pulled into a car Hernandez was driving after she refused to let go of her purse during a drive-by robbery.

Before he died, Hernandez, 41, glanced briefly at relatives of his victim and said: "I'm very sorry for all the pain."

Michael Graczyk of The Associated Press has this report.

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/14/4414486/man-put-to-death-for-texas-womans.html#storylink=cpy

Texas held another execution, but hardly anyone came

Texas has been leading the nation in capital punishment for quite some time, so whenever someone is executed, it tends to draw a lot of attention.

But when Mario Swain was executed Thursday for murdering a Longview woman nearly a decade ago, hardly anyone showed up.

None of his relatives attended; nor did any relatives or friends of his victim.

For more, read this report from The Associated Press.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/08/4399638/longview-womans-murderer-is-executed.html#storylink=cpy

Louisiana ex-con exectued for girlfriend's 2003 murder in East Texas

Donnie Lee Roberts, convicted in his girlfriend's 2003 slaying in Texas, was executed Wednesday for fatally shooting the woman and taking items from her home to sell or trade to support his drug habit.

Roberts, 41, was given a lethal injection for the killing of Vicki Bowen at her East Texas home. He was the 12 one to be executed this year in Texas.

"I'm really sorry. I never meant to cause you all so much pain," Roberts said to Bowen's father, who was seated in a chair close to a glass window in the death chamber viewing area. "I hope you can go on with your life.

The Associated Press has this report.

 

Former Arlington man hopes new testimony from witnesses will get him off death row

Lester Leroy Bower was a chemical salesman living in Arlington when he was arrested for a 1983 quadruple murder in Grayson County.

But now he hopes accounts from new witnesses will help him win his freedom, or at least a new trial.

One new witness, identified in court Monday as Witness No. 1, said her boyfriend told her that he participated in the killings on the October night they happened.

"He said he and his friends had gone there for a drug deal," the witness said. "It didn't go right and they had to kill some people."

Tim Madigan reports.

 

'I know it wasn't right,' inmate Hines says before Texas execution

Convicted killer Bobby Lee Hines went to his execution Wednesday, but like other death row inmates, he did not deny what he had done.

Hines, 40, was executed for strangling and repeatedly stabbing 26-year-old Michelle Wendy Hauptat in her Carrollton apartment 21 years ago.

Asked by a warden to make a final statement, Hines repeatedly asked for forgiveness.

"I know that I took somebody special from y'all," he said as Haupt's father stood a few feet away, watching through a window. "I know it wasn't right, it was wrong. I wish I could give it back, but I know I can't.

"I wish there was something I could do."

And then he died by lethal injection.

Read more in t his report by The Associated Press.

 

Execution Wednesday for 1991 brutal murder of woman in Carrollton

Bobby Lee Hines is set to die Wednesday for robbing, stabbing and strangling Michelle Wendy Haupt, a 26-year-old woman who lived next door to him at the complex in Carrollton, just north of Dallas, 21 years ago.

Hines was scheduled to die in June, but the Dallas County district attorney's office withdrew the death date for additional DNA testing of evidence. When the tests confirmed his guilt, his execution was reset for Wednesday.

Read more in this report by The Associated Press.