Under Perry, Executions Raise Questions — Rick Perry | The Texas Tribune
As Gov. Rick Perry touts his tough-on-crime policies on the national political stage, the case of Cameron Todd Willingham will continue to be scrutinized. Scientists have raised questions about whether Willingham set the blaze that killed his three daughters and led to his 2004 execution.
But Willinghams execution is not the only controversial one the governor has presided over. During nearly 11 years in office, Perry has overseen 234 executions by far the most of any recent governor in the United States and has rarely used his power to grant clemency. He has granted 31 death row commutations; most of those 28 were the result of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning capital punishment for minors.
To his critics, his parsimonious use of clemency is notable because of continuing concerns about the ability of prisoners facing capital charges in Texas to retain quality legal representation, the execution of those who were minors when they committed their crimes, the ability of some prisoners to intellectually understand their punishment and the international ramifications of executing foreign nationals.
The Texas Tribune has compiled a database of all the executions in Texas under Perrys leadership. Below, some of the most controversial, by category.
Mental Incapacity
Kelsey Patterson was sentenced to death for the September 1992 shooting deaths of Louis Oates and Dorothy Harris in Palestine.
Testimony showed that without provocation, Patterson walked up to Oates, 63, the owner of Oates Oil Co., and shot him. He shot Harris, 41, when she came out to see what was going on. Patterson then went to a friends home nearby, stripped down to his socks and waited in the street for police to arrive.
Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist and popular prosecution expert witness who earned the label Dr. Death because he rarely found defendants too mentally unfit to face the death penalty, told jurors Patterson was sane at the time of the murders. At trial, Patterson testified at length about devices the military had planted in his head.
From prison, he sent incoherent letters to the courts, including a 2004 letter to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in which he wrote that he wanted to conduct my legal work needed to stop the execution murder assaults injury execution date murder machines grave graveyard murder ...
Shortly before his execution on May 18, 2004, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that Perry grant clemency, which Perry rejected. He worried that if he commuted the sentence, Patterson might be released on parole. Pattersons last statement was a final testimony to his mental condition: Statement to what? State what? I am not guilty of the charge of capital murder. Steal me and my familys money. My truth will always be my truth. There is no kin and no friend; no fear what you do to me. No kin to you undertaker.
Not the Shooter
Robert Lee Thompson did not fire the bullet that resulted in his 2009 execution. Thompson and his accomplice, Sammy Butler, robbed a Houston convenience store in 1996. Thompson shot one of the clerks four times. The man survived.
Butler shot the other clerk, Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, who died. During Butlers 1998 trial prosecutors could not prove that Butler intended to kill Mohammed. He received a life sentence and is eligible for parole in 2036.
Jurors, however, assessed the death penalty against Thompson in 1998. Thompson had also been charged but not convicted in several other aggravated robberies, including three that involved murders.
The courts rejected the argument that Thompson should not receive a harsher sentence than his accomplice, but the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a rare clemency recommendation and advised that the sentence be commuted to life in prison.
Questionable Counsel
Leonard Uresti Rojas was convicted in 1996 of shooting to death his common-law wife and his brother. The appellate lawyer appointed to handle Rojas case was inexperienced, on probation with the state bar and suffered from mental illness, according to court documents. He had been disciplined for not adequately serving his clients and was serving three probated sentences from the bar while he was working on Rojas case. He missed crucial deadlines for filing appeals on Rojas behalf, effectively eliminating any chance he might have had for relief.
Shortly before his scheduled execution, new attorneys took on Rojas case. They appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and asked Perry for a reprieve.
The pleas failed, and Rojas was executed on Dec. 4, 2002.
In a dissenting opinion published after the execution, Tom Price, an appeals court justice, scathingly rebuked the courts decision. Death penalty appeals, he wrote, should not be left to lawyers with disciplinary problems and no experience.
He neglected his duties, Price wrote. It is hard to imagine that there was no one more able or better qualified.
After reviewing all of the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, Perry said in a statement, I have decided to uphold the jurys capital murder conviction and capital punishment.
Thompson was executed on Nov. 19, 2009.
