[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

March 28




TEXAS----stay of execution

Supreme Court blocks execution of Texas 7 lookout

The second-to-last surviving member of the Texas 7 prison escapees who murdered 
an Irving police officer won a reprieve from his execution Thursday night.


The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the lethal injection of Patrick Murphy, 57, 
after his attorneys argued a Buddhist priest was not allowed to be with Murphy 
in the death chamber as he was being put to death.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in an opinion Thursday night, said inmates of other 
religious denominations who want their religious adviser to be present can have 
the adviser present only in the viewing room and not in the execution room 
itself for their executions.

Kavanaugh said that, in his view, the Constitution prohibits such 
denominational discrimination.

Murphy, who became a Buddhist almost a decade ago, said he isn't claiming 
innocence but said he shouldn't be executed for killing police officer Aubrey 
Hawkins during a Christmas Eve 2000 robbery while he and 6 other felons were on 
the lam after escaping from a South Texas prison.

Murphy was convicted based on the controversial "law of parties," which means 
Murphy was responsible for Hawkins' murder because he participated in the armed 
robbery even if he wasn't one of the shooters. He was the getaway driver.

"I don't think sentencing and culpability about law of parties is about 
justice. I think it's about vengeance," he told KTVT-TV (Channel 11) from death 
row in Livingston. "

"I'm sorry. I regret what occurred," Murphy said.

Murphy was serving a 50-year sentence for sexual assault with a deadly weapon 
when the escapees broke out of the Connally Unit of the Texas prison system on 
Dec. 13, 2000. The 7 men overpowered civilian workers and a guard in the 
maintenance shop and then fooled a guard in the prison tower. They stole 
clothing, a pickup, 16 weapons and ammunition.

The prosecution at Murphy's trial said he radioed Hawkins' location to the 
other members of the gang while he waited outside the Oshman's SuperSports USA 
store, armed with 4 loaded guns.

"You don't have to pull the trigger to kill someone," then-Dallas County 
prosecutor Bill Wirskye said at his 2003 trial. "He's got Aubrey Hawkins' blood 
on his hands."

But the defense fought against that notion.

"You cannot convict someone of something they didn't want to happen," Murphy's 
attorney, Juan Sanchez, told the jury. "You just can't find somebody guilty by 
association. If he's guilty of anything, he's guilty of robbery."

A jury convicted Murphy of capital murder in an hour and a half.

Killing Aubrey Hawkins

Murphy was serving a 50-year sentence for sexual assault with a deadly weapon 
when the escapees broke out of the Connally Unit of the Texas prison system on 
Dec. 13, 2000.

The seven men overpowered civilian workers and a guard in the maintenance shop 
and then fooled a guard in the prison tower. They stole clothing, a pickup, 16 
weapons and ammunition.

The men committed a variety of robberies that culminated in the holdup of 
Oshman's in Irving where Hawkins was murdered.

The 7 escapees posed as security guards and tied up employees during the 
Oshman's holdup. They were in the final moments of the heist when Hawkins 
pulled up behind the store.

Hawkins had just left a Christmas Eve dinner at Olive Garden with his wife, 
son, mother and grandmother. He was responding to a suspicious-person call at 
the store.

The escapees shot Hawkins before he could get out of his patrol car. They then 
pulled him from his vehicle and shot him again, before driving over him.

They shot Hawkins 11 times.

After realizing the next day that Hawkins was dead, the gang fled toward 
Colorado and into a snowstorm. Nearly a month after Hawkins' murder, police 
were tipped off that the men were at an RV Park in Woodland Park near Colorado 
Springs, posing as missionaries.

3 of the men, including ringleader George Rivas, were caught in a car nearby. 2 
were surrounded at the RV park, but Larry Harper committed suicide rather than 
be captured. Murphy and another escapee were captured at a Colorado Springs 
hotel.

Murphy was the 6th and final member of the Texas 7 sentenced to death in 
Hawkins’ murder.

It was the 1st time since capital punishment was reinstated in the United 
States that six people were given death sentences for killing one man.

Only Randy Halprin will remain on death row if Murphy is executed as scheduled. 
He does not have a scheduled execution date.

(source: Dallas Morning News)



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Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----42

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



Executions in Texas:  Dec. 7, 1982----present-----560

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



43---------Apr. 11----------------Mark Robertson----------561

44---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------562

45---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------563

46---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------564

47---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------565

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)




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USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution

With the execution of Billie Wayne Coble in Texas on February 28, the USA has
now executed 1,493 condemned individuals since the death penalty was
relegalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision.
Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below
is a list of scheduled executions as the nation approaches a terrible milestone
of 1500 executions in the modern era.


NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.




1494-------Apr. 11------------Mark Robertson------------Texas

1495-------Apr. 11------------Christopher Price---------Alabama

1496-------Apr. 24------------John King------------------Texas

1497-------May 2--------------Dexter Johnson------------Texas

1498-------May 16-------------Donnie Johnson-----------Tennessee

1499-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee

1500-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas

1501-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas

(source: Rick Halperin)