[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

Tue Jan 30 23:02:44 CST 2018

January 30

TEXAS----execution

Texas carries out nation's second execution of 2018

Dallas man put to death for murder committed while on parole for earlier 
slaying

A Dallas man who was already on parole for the murder of his estranged wife 
when he stabbed and strangled his ex-girlfriend in 1999 begged for forgiveness 
and thanked God with his final breaths before his Tuesday night execution.

"I've asked God to forgive me. Please find it in your hearts to forgive me," 
William Earl Rayford said before he died by lethal injection at 8:48 p.m.

The 64-year-old asked his victim's family for forgiveness and promised to keep 
them in his prayers, according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice 
spokesman.

"By no means am I happy for what I've done. I have asked the Lord to forgive 
me," he said. "Tell my kids I'm sorry for being a disappointment. Thank you. 
God bless. I'm ready warden."

The execution, which took 13 minutes to carry out, was delayed more than two 
hours in light of a pair of pending Supreme Court appeals, including claims 
that racially biased testimony tainted his sentencing.

With another execution on the calendar for Thursday, this week could be the 
first time in five years the Lone Star State has seen back-to-back executions 
so close together. The next death date on the calendar is for John David 
Battaglia, who was convicted of killing his two daughters in 2001 while 
narrating the slayings to his estranged wife on the other end of the phone.

The scheduled execution comes 2 weeks after Texas carried out the nation's 
first execution of 2018 with the lethal injection of Houston-area serial killer 
Anthony Shore.

Rayford was first sent to death row 17 years ago, following the gruesome 
slaying of Carol Hall. The crime eerily echoed a 1986 killing that netted him a 
23-year prison sentence.

In the earlier killing, the former glass cutter had stabbed his ex-wife Gail 
Rayford 16 times, just after she won a temporary restraining order against him. 
Their four children were at home and witnessed the killing - then watched the 
Dallas man leap out a second-story window, according to court records.

Rayford spent eight years behind bars for the crime, but was released early on 
mandatory supervision under a law that has since changed.

But in 1999, history would repeat itself.

In November of that year, Rayford slipped into the home of his ex-girlfriend, 
Carol Hall, according to court records. He started a fight and stabbed Hall's 
12-year-old son, then chased the terrified mother down the street, according to 
court records.

Her body was later found in a culvert. She'd been strangled, beaten and 
stabbed.

In the years since his arrival on death row, Rayford, who is black, has 
launched appeals centering on claims of bad lawyering, brain damage and a 
suicide attempt that his lawyers argued showed remorse and hinted that he may 
not be a future danger.

This week, in a flurry of last-minute filings in the Supreme Court - including 
one late Tuesday - Rayford's lawyers argued that racially charged testimony 
during the punishment phase of trial "irreparably stained" the case.

"The punishment phase of Mr. Rayford's trial was tainted when defense counsel 
made the egregious and prejudicial error of soliciting testimony - later 
determined to be false - linking race to future dangerousness," his lawyers 
wrote. "William Earl Rayford is on the brink of being executed, at least in 
part based on his race."

Defense counsel also argued that Rayford had been wrongly denied funding to 
hire experts in his case.

But late Tuesday - after the execution had been delayed for more than two hours 
- the court rejected both of Rayford's bids for reprieve.

Meanwhile, with two days to go till the next date, Battaglia's lawyers are 
arguing for a reprieve based on questions of competency and mental illness. 
Three out of four experts who evaluated the Dallas man said he suffers 
delusions that render him incompetent to be executed, according to Supreme 
Court filings. The fourth, his lawyers wrote, used the wrong standard to 
determine his level of competency.

The former accountant has been on death row since the early 2000s, when he was 
convicted of killing his daughters, 9-year-old Mary Faith and 6-year-old 
Liberty.

At the time, Battaglia was already on probation for beating his estranged wife, 
Mary Jean Pearl.

But when Pearl complained of continued bad behavior - which could have sparked 
a probation revocation - Battaglia retaliated by killing his daughters during a 
scheduled visit.
Pearl listened on the phone as her girls pleaded for their lives, and tried 
running.

"Merry f****ng Christmas," her ex shouted as he fired the fatal shots.

Afterward, he drove to a tattoo parlor before he was arrested.

Last year, Texas led the nation in executions with 7 condemned men put to 
death. The Lone Star State is the only state to execute a prisoner so far this 
year. Rayford's execution was the 2nd nationwide this year, and the 1467th 
overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Rayford becomes the 547th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since 
the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982, and he is the 29th 
condemned inmate to be executed in Texas since Greg Abbott became Governor.

(sources: Houston Chronicle & Rick Halperin)

  Photo: AP

Image 1 of 9

This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows 
William Rayford, who is scheduled for execution Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, for the 
1999 killing of his ex-girlfriend Carol Lynn Thomas ... more

A Dallas man who was already on parole for the murder of his estranged wife 
when he stabbed and strangled his ex-girlfriend in 1999 begged for forgiveness 
and thanked God with his final breaths before his Tuesday night execution.

"I've asked God to forgive me. Please find it in your hearts to forgive me," 
William Earl Rayford said before he died by lethal injection at 8:48 p.m.

The 64-year-old asked his victim's family for forgiveness and promised to keep 
them in his prayers, according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice 
spokesman.