[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA

[Rick Halperin]

September 4




TEXAS----execution

Texas executes Billy Crutsinger in Fort Worth slayings of two elderly women

Crutsinger had pushed to stop his execution based on claims of bad lawyering 
during his trial and in the appellate process.


In 2003, an 89-year-old woman and her 71-year-old daughter were stabbed to 
death in their Fort Worth home. On Wednesday, Texas executed Billy Crutsinger 
for the crime.

Crutsinger was sentenced to death for the home robbery and slayings of Pearl 
Magouirk and her daughter, Patricia Syren. The 2 women were found 2 days after 
their murders, and police tracked Crutsinger to a Galveston bar using Syren’s 
credit card, according to court records.

In Tarrant County, Assistant Criminal District Attorney and lead prosecutor 
Michele Hartmann said Tuesday the loss of the mother and daughter “is still 
felt deeply by their family and the Fort Worth community.”

After his last appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court just minutes 
before his execution was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., Crutsinger, 64, was 
strapped to a gurney in the death chamber in Huntsville. No relatives of the 
women were present to witness the execution, according to a prison spokesman. 
Crutsinger had three friends in the viewing room, who, in his final words, he 
thanked for coming and supporting other death row inmates. Into the microphone 
hanging above his head, he said the system "is not completely right," but he 
was at peace and was going to be with Jesus and his family.

"I am going to miss those pancakes and those old time black and white shows," 
he said. "Where I am going everything will be in color."

Crutsinger was then injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 6:27 p.m., 
and pronounced dead 13 minutes later, according to the prison department. He 
was the fifth person executed in Texas this year and the 14th in the country.

After the murders, Crutsinger was arrested — albeit illegally — after he didn’t 
identify himself to police in Galveston. He consented to a DNA swab that linked 
him to the crime scene and confessed to the murders while in custody, the 
records state.

A judge ruled that police were not justified in arresting Crutsinger on the 
spot for credit card abuse because they didn’t have a warrant, and he didn’t 
commit the crime of failure to identify himself before his arrest. Still, 
despite the illegal arrest, the judge found his confession and DNA sample were 
admissible evidence in court because the police conduct was not “purposeful or 
flagrant,” and there was probable cause for his arrest, just not a warrant.

During his nearly 16 years on death row, Crutsinger appealed his sentence 
arguing against the legal validity of his confession and DNA sample. But more 
recently, he pointed to his lawyers’ failings.

Crutsinger argued that his trial lawyer failed to adequately investigate 
mitigating factors that could have swayed the jury to hand down a sentence of 
life in prison instead of execution. Specifically, he claimed the attorney 
overlooked evidence of mental impairment caused by alcohol addiction, head 
trauma, depression and low intelligence, according to a recent federal district 
court ruling.

His most recent lawyer, Lydia Brandt, had also knocked his state appellate 
lawyer — claiming his incompetence and the courts’ refusal to grant 
investigatory funding kept Crutsinger from any meaningful appeals process. She 
noted that a judge in another capital case found Crutsinger’s state appellate 
lawyer “sloppy” and lacking professionalism, and that his filings were “poorly 
done and of minimal assistance to the court,” according to Crutsinger’s 
petition.

“The State of Texas denied Mr. Crutsinger his initial right to one full and 
fair opportunity to present his claims concerning violations of his fundamental 
constitutional rights,” Brandt wrote in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme 
Court last week.

Brandt did not respond to The Texas Tribune on Tuesday.

The federal courts, as well as the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, rejected 
his arguments. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means ruled last month that 
despite a lack of funding for Crutsinger to investigate it, Means fully 
addressed the merits of the ineffective counsel claim and found it was without 
merit. He referred to trial records that revealed the lawyer presenting 
multiple witnesses at the phase of trial where jurors weigh questions that lead 
to life in prison or death, including prison officers who testified to his good 
behavior and family members who described his grief and issues with drinking.

According to the testimony of his ex-wife and wife at the time of trial, 
Crutsinger had lost a newborn daughter; his toddler son to drowning; his 
teenage son to lymphoma; his brother from illness; his father, who was hit by a 
car; and his sister, who was killed in a car crash in which he was driving.

“The assertions that the denial of funding precluded a true merits review and 
that trial counsel's representation was egregious, border on frivolous,” Means 
wrote. “... His conclusion that trial counsel failed to explore his alcoholism, 
his ‘personality change’ after a single drink, his history of domestic violence 
and abuse, and his repeated losses of significant friends and relatives, is 
completely false.”

Earlier rulings in Crutsinger’s case from the federal district court and the 
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have been highlighted by the U.S. Supreme 
Court, though, when pointing out that the appellate court overly limited 
investigatory funding. Although the courts reexamined the case and still denied 
funding and declined to reopen the case for further review, one appellate judge 
split from his court’s ruling.

Judge James Graves on the 5th Circuit court said last week he would stop 
Wednesday’s execution. He said earlier that Means’ ruling on the merits of 
Crutsinger’s claim came before he had any funds to further investigate the 
issue, so it was not yet developed for such a ruling.

“The court concluded that Crutsinger must prove his claim of ineffective 
assistance of counsel to be able to establish that ‘investigative, expert, or 
other services are reasonably necessary’ to then be able to prove his claim of 
ineffective assistance of counsel,” Graves wrote in a dissent in July. “Such a 
circular application is illogical ... . A defendant who has already proven his 
claim of ineffective assistance of counsel would have no need for additional 
investigative, expert, or other services.”

Crutsinger becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be executed this year in Texas 
and the 563rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 
1982.

Crutsinger becomes the 45th condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg 
Abbott becase Governor of Texas in 2015.

There are 10 other Texas executions scheduled through December.

Crutsinger becomes the 14th condemned individual to be executed this year in 
the USA and the 1,504th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 
17, 1977.

(sources: The Texas Tribune & Rick Halperin)




**************************






Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----45



Executions in Texas:  Dec. 7, 1982----present-----563

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





46---------Sept. 10---------------Mark Anthony Soliz------564

47---------Sept. 25---------------Robert Sparks-----------565

48---------Oct. 2-----------------Stephen Barbee----------566

49---------Oct. 10----------------Randy Halprin-----------567

50---------Oct. 16----------------Randall Mays------------568

51---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------569

52---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------570

53---------Nov. 13----------------Patrick Murphy----------571

54---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------572

55---------Dec. 11----------------Travis Runnels----------573

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






USA----impending/scheduled executions

With the execution of Billy Crutsinger in Texas on September 4, the USA
has now executed 1,504 condemned individuals since the death penalty was
re-legalized 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 further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful 
practice of state-sponsored killings.


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



1505-------Sept. 10-----------Mark Anthony Soliz-------Texas

1506-------Sept 25------------Robert Sparks------------Texas

1507-------Oct. 1-------------Russell Bucklew----------Missouri

1508-------Oct. 2-------------Stephen Barbee-----------Texas

1509-------Oct. 10------------Randy Halprin------------Texas

1510-------Oct. 16------------Randall Mays-------------Texas

1511-------Oct. 30------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas

1512-------Nov. 3-9-----------Charles Rhines-----------South Dakota

1513-------Nov. 6-------------Justen Hall--------------Texas

1514-------Nov. 13------------Patrick Murphy-----------Texas

1515-------Nov. 20------------Rodney Reed--------------Texas

1516-------Dec. 5-------------Lee Hall Jr.-------------Tennessee

1517-------Dec. 9-------------Daniel Lewis Lee---------Federal - Ark.

1518-------Dec. 11------------James Hanna--------------Ohio

1519-------Dec. 11------------Travis Runnels-----------Texas

1520-------Dec. 11------------Lezmond Mitchell---------Federal - Ariz.

1521-------Dec. 13------------Wesley Purkey------------Federal - Mo.

1522-------Jan. 13-----------Alfred Bourgeois----------Federal - Tex.

1523-------Jan. 15-----------Dusten Honken-------------Federal - Iowa

1524-------Jan. 16-----------Kareem Jackson------------Ohio

(source: Rick Halperin)