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

[Rick Halperin]

September 25



TEXAS----execution

Texas inmate executed for stabbing 2 stepsons to death

Robert Sparks was executed via lethal injection for the September 2007 killings 
of 9-year-old Harold Sublet and 10-year-old Raekwon Agnew in their Dallas home.


A Texas inmate who said he's intellectually disabled was executed for fatally 
stabbing his 2 stepsons during an attack more than 12 years ago in their north 
Texas home that also killed his wife.

Robert Sparks, 45, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday night for the 
September 2007 slayings of 9-year-old Harold Sublet and 10-year-old Raekwon 
Agnew in their Dallas home.

In his final moments, Sparks uttered these words: "Umm, Pamela, can you hear 
me? Stephanie, Hardy, Marcus, tell all the family I love them. I am sorry for 
the hard times and what hurts me is that I hurt y'all, and um, even for y'all 
too, and Patricia, she wrote me, tell Patricia I wrote her back and to tell 
y'all what I said. I love y'all. I am ready."

Prosecutors say Sparks' attack began when he stabbed his wife, 30-year-old 
Chare Agnew, 18 times as she lay in her bed. Sparks then went into the boys' 
bedroom and separately took them into the kitchen, where he stabbed them. 
Raekwon was stabbed at least 45 times. Authorities say Sparks then raped his 
12- and 14-year-old stepdaughters.

His attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, alleging his trial 
jury was improperly influenced because a bailiff wore a necktie with an image 
of a syringe that showed his support for the death penalty. Sparks also alleges 
a prosecution witness at his trial provided false testimony regarding his 
prison classification if a jury chose life without parole rather than a death 
sentence.

Lower courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down requests by 
Sparks' attorneys to stop his execution.
seventh in Texas. Seven more executions are scheduled in Texas this year.

On Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stop his 
execution on claims he was intellectually disabled, saying his attorneys had 
not presented sufficient evidence to show Sparks was mentally disabled and had 
failed to raise such a claim in a timely manner.

In August, the 5th Circuit did grant a stay for Dexter Johnson, another Texas 
death row inmate who also claims he is intellectually disabled. In that case, 
the appeals court ruled Johnson had made a sufficient showing of possible 
intellectual disability that needed further review.

After his arrest, Sparks told police he fatally stabbed his wife and stepsons 
because he believed they were trying to poison him. Sparks told a psychologist 
that a voice told him "to kill them because they were trying to kill me."

Sparks' lawyers argued he suffered from severe mental illness and had been 
diagnosed as a delusion psychotic and with schizoaffective disorder, a 
condition characterized by hallucinations.

A psychologist hired by Sparks' attorneys said in an affidavit this month that 
Sparks "meets full criteria for a diagnosis of" intellectual disability.

"Without a stay of execution, it is likely that Texas will execute an 
intellectually disabled man," Seth Kretzer and Jonathan Landers, Sparks' 
appellate attorneys, wrote last month in court documents.

The Supreme Court in 2002 barred execution of mentally disabled people but has 
given states some discretion to decide how to determine intellectual 
disability. However, justices have wrestled with how much discretion to allow.

The Texas Attorney General's Office, which called the killings "monstrous 
crimes," said in court documents that Sparks' "own trial expert testified that 
he was not intellectually disabled."

His attorneys said that at the time of his trial, Sparks was not deemed 
intellectually disabled, but changes since then in how Texas makes such 
determinations and updates to the handbook used by medical professionals to 
diagnose mental disorders would change that.

On whether Sparks' jury was improperly influenced by the bailiff's necktie with 
an image of a syringe, the attorney general's office said the jury foreperson 
indicated she never saw the tie and had no knowledge of it affecting the 
jurors.

The attorney general's office said the testimony from the prosecution witness 
on prison classification was corrected on cross-examination.

"Sparks committed a heinous crime which resulted in the murders of two young 
children. He is unable to overcome the overwhelming testimony" in his case, the 
attorney general's office said in its court filing with the Supreme Court.

Sparks becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas 
and the 565th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 
1982.  Sparks becomes the 47th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas 
since Greg Abbott became governor in 2015.

There are currently 7 more executions scheduled in Texas this year.

Sparks becomes the 16th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1,506th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 
1977.

There are currently 15 executions secheduled in the USA during the remainder of 
this year.




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




Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----47

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


Executions in Texas:  Dec. 7, 1982----present-----565

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




48---------Oct. 10----------------Randy Halprin-----------566

49---------Oct. 16----------------Randall Mays------------567

50---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------568

51---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------569

52---------Nov. 13----------------Patrick Murphy----------570

53---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------571

54---------Dec. 11----------------Travis Runnels----------572

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)










USA----impending/scheduled executions

With the execution of Robert Sparks in Texas on September 25, the USA has now 
executed 1,506 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.



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

1508-------Oct. 10------------Randy Halprin------------Texas

1509-------Oct. 16------------Randall Mays-------------Texas

1510-------Oct. 30------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas

1511-------Nov. 3-9-----------Charles Rhines-----------South Dakota

1512-------Nov. 6-------------Justen Hall--------------Texas

1513-------Nov. 7-------------James Dailey-------------Florida

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)