[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 14



TEXAS----execution

Texas executes inmate for Dallas police officer’s 2001 death


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 given a lethal injection for the November 2001 death 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.

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

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his 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 when the brawl 
started. Escamilla 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 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.

“It’s taken longer than we would have liked,” Frederick Frazier, first vice 
president of the Dallas Police Association, said.

He said he and others showed up to support James and make sure he’s remembered 
for the work he did. While officers know they’re risking their lives every day, 
James’ death has been difficult for them because of how it happened, Frazier 
added.

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.

“We were worried about outbursts during the trial but he managed to keep that 
under control until the very end,” Wayne Huff, Escamilla’s lead trial lawyer, 
recalled Tuesday.

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.

“Licho is a poster child for the death penalty,” one of the trial prosecutors, 
Fred Burns, said Tuesday. “That’s pretty much it.”

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.

Escamilla becomes the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Texas and the 530th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on 
December 7, 1982.  He is the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas 
since Greg Abbott became Governor in Jan. 2015.

Escamilla becomes the 24th condemned inmnate to be put to death this year in 
the USA and the 1418th overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_scheduled_executions.html







Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----12

Executions in Texas:  Dec. 7, 1982----present-----530

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #




13---------November 18--------------Raphael Holiday-------531

14---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------532

15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533

16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534

17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)