[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

June 27




TEXAS----execution


Texas executes 'ice pick killer' for 1979 rape and murder


Texas on Wednesday executed a man dubbed the "ice pick killer" for the weapon 
he used to murder a woman in 1979, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a 
last-minute appeal from his lawyers, who argued his veins were too compromised 
for a lethal injection.

Danny Bible, 66, was put to death at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. 
His execution was the 12th this year in the United States and the 7th in Texas, 
which has executed more inmates than any state since the U.S. Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Bible, 66,  made no last statement, a prisons official said. His execution 
occurred in a typical time frame for a lethal injection procedure.

Bible was convicted of the rape and murder of Inez Deaton, 20, who went to his 
home to use his phone and was stabbed 11 times with an ice pick. Her body was 
dumped near a Houston bayou.

The crime went unsolved for nearly 20 years, until Bible confessed to the 
murder and other sexual assaults that included raping an 11-year-old girl in 
Montana. He had gone on a rape and murder spree that included the 1983 killing 
of his sister-in-law, her infant son and her roommate, court records show.

After a plea deal for a 25-year sentence in those killings, Bible served 8 
years and was paroled. After his early release under a program that Texas has 
since abandoned, he raped a woman in Louisiana and was apprehended in Florida. 
Soon afterward, he admitted to the ice pick murder.

"Bible has killed at least 4 people, including an infant," Texas said in a 
court filing. "Unlike many offenders, he remained violent as he aged, 
committing his most recent rape in his late forties."

Bible's lawyers said there was undeniable evidence his recent medical 
deterioration has rendered his veins inaccessible or incapable of sustaining a 
lethal injection.

Over the years, Bible contracted coronary disease, diabetes and hypertension, 
they said.

2 executions of inmates with compromised veins have been botched recently, 1 in 
Ohio and another in Alabama. Their lawyers warned courts the men were too frail 
and their veins were not suitable.

In both cases, the states were unable to place intravenous lines and called off 
their executions while the inmates were on death chamber gurneys.

Bible becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in texas 
and the 552nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 
1982.

Bible becomes the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1,477th overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Reuters & Rick Halperin


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Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----34

Executions in Texas:  Dec. 7, 1982----present-----552

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



35---------July 17----------------Christopher Young-------553

36---------Aug. 30----------------Joseph Garcia-----------554

37---------Sept. 12---------------Ruben Gutierrez---------555

38---------Sept. 26---------------Troy Clark--------------556

39---------Sept. 27---------------Daniel Acker------------557

40---------Oct. 10----------------Juan Segundo------------558

41---------Oct. 24----------------Kwame Rockwell----------559

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)