Salvation on Death Row

by John T. Thorngren

  32. Elavil (no longer available under this name in the U.S.) is an antidepressant, chemically known as amitriptyline HCl. A dosage of 150 mg per day is the recommended maximum, whereas a dosage of 300 mg is only for hospitalized patients. The noted dosage of Valium, however, appears to be low.

  Elavil. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 4, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitriptyline.

  33. Amitriptyline. Retrieved February 4, 2012, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682388.html.

  34. Brook, Daniel. “When God Goes to Prison.” Legal Affairs. Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/May-June-2003/feature_brook_mayjun03.msp.

  35. Carol Vance Unit. Wikipedia. Retrieved November 4, 2014, from, http://en.wikipedia.org/Carol_Vance_Unit.

  36. Phillips, Scott. “Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment: Blind Justice Requires a Blindfold.” America Constitution Society for Law and Policy. October 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2014, from https://www. acslaw.org/publications/issue-briefs/racial-disparities-in-capital-punishment-blind-justice-requires-a-blindf-0.

  37. Bryce, Robert. “Justice, Texas-style.” Salon Media Group, Inc., June 9, 1999. Retrieved December 10, 2014, from, http://www.salon.com/1999/06/09/prosecutor/. This article first appeared in Salon.com at http://www.salon.com. An online version remains on the Salon archives. Reprinted with permission.

  38. Horne, Andy, former assistant U.S. attorney, Harris County assistant district attorney, 1967 and 1970. Personal communication, November 3, 2014.

  39. Hebrews 13:2. KJV. “…some have entertained angels unawares.”

  40. “Teen Challenge came to Texas in 1968, with the opening of the San Antonio men’s campus, then called the Westwood Center. Adult & Teen Challenge now operates three men’s programs (San Antonio, Magnolia, Azle), two women’s programs (Houston, San Antonio), a women and children’s program (Houston), re-entry programs (Brenham, Houston, San Antonio), three thrift stores (Brenham, San Antonio, Fort Worth), and a referral office in Austin. This ministry, admitting over 350 students a year, continues to expand and offer hope to men and women with life-controlling addictions.” Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas, Mission and History Statement. Retrieved April 23, 2012, from http://teenchallengetx.org/about-us/mission-history/.

  41. Graham, Billy. 1954 Crusade. Billy Graham Evangelistic Associate Library. Retrieved May 25, 2012, from http://www.billygrahamlibrary.org.

  42. Administrative Segregation or “Ad Seg” is “a status involving separation of an offender from the general population for the purpose of maintaining safety, security and order.” Offender Orientation Handbook. Texas Department of Criminal Justice, November 2004, pg. 49. Retrieved May 1, 2012, from http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/documents/Offender__Orientation_Handbook_English. pdf.

  43. Romans 12:6-8. I Corinthians 12:4-11. Ephesians 4:8-11. KJV.

  44. Markham, James W., Field, William T. “Gatesville State School for Boys.” Handbook of Texas Online. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jjg02.

  45. Field, William T. “Mountain View School for Boys.” Handbook of Texas Online. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jjg02.

  46. Josefa (Chipita) Rodriguez was convicted of murder in San Patricio de Hibernia, Texas, in 1863. She ran a rest stop of sorts, on the Welder ranch land on the Aransas River, furnishing travelers with meals and a cot on her porch. Reportedly she murdered John Savage with an ax for $600 in gold. Details are few regarding her arrest, conviction, and execution; even her name is suspect. During her trial, all she would say was “not guilty.” Except for a week’s transcripts, all court records were lost. In 1985, the 69th Texas State Legislature passed a resolution absolving Chipita Rodriguez of murder; Governor Mark White signed the resolution.

  For many years, she was considered the first woman legally hanged in Texas, but this unfortunate honor belongs to Jane Elkins, a slave who was convicted of murder and legally hanged in Dallas, some ten years prior. Jane Elkins was a slave for a man named Wisdom, a widower who lived in Farmers Branch, a small community north of Dallas. She murdered him in 1852 with an ax as he lay sleeping. Interestingly, both females used an ax in their purported crimes. Jane’s duties were to keep house and take care of Wisdom’s children. The children were not harmed. Court records stated Jane’s slave value at $700. She was legally hanged May 27, 1853.

  Kent Biffle is a well-known Texas historian writing under the newspaper byline “Kent Biffle’s Texana.” The Dallas Morning News requested the reproduction of the entire article in Appendix B.

  47. Penry, John Paul. Wikipedia. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.

  48. Karla Faye Tucker. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 20, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Faye_Tucker.

  49. Strom, Linda. “Karla Faye Tucker Set Free.” WaterBrook Multnomah, (Random House). N.Y., 2000, 2006.

  50. Hamilton Pool Park. Retrieved April 25, 2013, from https://parks.traviscountytx.gov/find-a-park/hamilton-pool.

  51. Karla Faye Tucker photograph. Murderpedia. Retrieved May 1, 2013, from http://murderpedia.org/ female.T/t/tucker-karla-photos.htm.

  52. Colossians 3:9-10. KJV.

  53. II Corinthians 5:17. KJV.

  54. Lowry, Beverly. Crossed Over. Knopf, N.Y., 1992.

  55. Strom, Linda. “Karla Faye Tucker Set Free.” WaterBrook Multnomah, (Random House). N.Y., 2000, 2006.

  56. The Pick Twelve Game. An Interactive Jury Game, Texas Law-Related Education. Retrieved January 2, 2015, from http://texaslregames.org/games_web_eng/jury_game/index.html.

  57. Williams, Calvin J. Retrieved May 10, 2013, from http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_offenders_no_ longer_on_dr.html.

  58. Warden Plane was an excellent administrator, disciplinarian, and humanitarian. As previously noted, she redesigned the death row cells at Mountain View from animal cages to those more resembling dorm rooms. She passed away at age 98 in May 2013, during the writing of this chapter. Plane, Lucile Garrett. Retrieved May 14, 2013, from http://itemonline.com/obituaries/x730877037/Lucile-Garrett-Plane.

  59. Kearl, Teresa. “The Weaver.” Authorship is disputed to be by Grant Colfax Tullar or B.M. Franklin. U.S. Library of Congress, Washington DC, Card # 20060727210211. Retrieved October 18, 2014, from http://www.writersontheloose.com/writers/mk/index.cfm?story=32559.

  60. Mike Barber Ministries. P.O. Box 6292, Kingwood, Texas 77325. Retrieved (nd) from http://pro-claim.tv.

  61. Betty Beets home page. Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://ccadp.org/bettiebeet.htm.

  62. Betty Beets news update. Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://ccadp.org/beetsnewsupdates.htm.

  63. Philippians 2:12. KJV.

  64. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum interviewed Warden Plane in 2009 when she was in her 90s. She remembered Karla Faye and Pamela Perillo, although she got their crimes confused and misspelled Pamela’s name when asked by the interviewer for its spelling. Ray, Nancy. Interview with Lucile Garrett Plane. Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.texasranger.org/E-Books/Oral%20History%20-Plane_Lucile_ Garrett.pdf.

  65. “The Three-Gun-Monte.” Sack O’ Fertilizer Conviction and Execution of Frances Elaine Newton, November 2, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://www.skepticaljuror.com/2010/11/three-gun-monte-sack-o-fertilizer.html.

  66. Dow, D.R., Tyler, J. Counsel for Frances Elaine Newton. Texas Innocence Network. Ex parte Frances Elaine Newton, Applicant. Application for Post-Conviction Writ of Habeas Corpus & Motion for Stay of Execution. 263rd Judicial District Court, Harris County, Texas. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from July 27, 2005.

  67
. Ibid.

  68. Ibid.

  69. Rimer, Sara, Bonner, Raymond. “Texas Lawyer’s Death Row a Concern.” The New York Times, June 11, 2000.

  70. Ibid, 65.

  71. State Bar of Texas. Find a Lawyer, Ronald G. Mock. Retrieved July 2013 from https://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Find_A_Lawyer&template=/Customsource/MemberDirectory/.

  72. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, President. December 8, 1941.

  73. David RUIZ et al., Plaintiff, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor. W. J. ESTELLE, Jr., et al., Defendants. Civ. A. No. H-78-987. United States District Court, S. D. Texas, Houston Division, December 12, 1980. Retrieved July 22, 2013, from http:www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/426/925.

  74. Ruíz v. Estelle. Wikipedia. Retrieved July 22, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruiz_v._Estelle.

  75. Sagar, Kristen. “Ruíz v. Estelle.” The Civil Rights Clearing House. University of Michigan Law School. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://www.clearinghouse.net/detail.php?id=960.

  76. Perkinson, Robert, Texas Tough, The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, Picador, Henry Holt & Company, New York, NY (2010).

  77. White, Mark. Personal communication. December 12, 2013.

  78. Smith, Jordan. “Prisoners’ Rights Crusader Ruíz Dies.” The Austin Chronicle, Nov. 25, 2005. Retrieved August 5, 2013, from http://www. austinchronicle.com/news/2005-11-25/313588/.

  79. David Ruíz, Presente–1942-2005. “Heroes in Prison, TPNS.” Broken Chains. Retrieved August 2, 2013, from http://brokenchains.us/tdcj/Heroes.html.

  80. The final chapters of Ruíz v. Estelle. (Judicial News). The Free Library. 2002 American Correctional Association, Inc. Retrieved August 7, 2014, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+final+chapter+of+Ruiz+Estelle.+(Judicial+News).-a087426102.

  81. Legal Information Institute, LII. Free Legal Information for Everyone. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from http://www.Law.cornell.edu.

  82. Walpin, Ned. “The New Speed-Up in Habeas Corpus Appeals.” PBS, KERA 13. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/texas.html.

  83. Baker Botts L.L.P. One Shell Plaza, 910 Louisiana Street, Houston, Texas 77002.

  84. Strom, Linda. “Karla Faye Tucker Set Free.” WaterBrook Multnomah, (Random House). N.Y., 2000, 2006.

  85. Arthur, Audrey. “For Better or For Worse: Proxy Marriages End Inmate Marriages in Texas.” Correctional News, September 11, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from http://www.correctionalnews.com/article/11/better -worse-proxy-marriages-end-inmate-marriages-in-Texas.

  86. HBO®, Home Box Office, Inc. A Division of Time Warner Inc. One Time Warner Center, New York, NY 10019-8016.

  87. Michael Graczyk is a journalist with the Associated Press, who has become the AP’s professional witness to executions and chronicles the subsequent articles. In this rather bizarre occupation, he has witnessed over 300 executions. Michael Graczyk. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 5, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Graczyk.

  88. Robbins, Mary Alice. “Court Snuffs Out Challenge to Prison Smoking Ban.” Amarillo Globe News, December 6, 1996. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from www.amarillo.com/stories/120696/snuffs.html.

  89. Salvucci, Jessica. “Femininity and the Electric Chair: An Equal Protection Challenge to Texas’s Death Penalty Statute.” 31 B.C. Third World L.J. 405 (2011). Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/twlj/vol31/iss2/7.

  90. Matthew 26:39. NIV.

  91. Rhema, from the Greek. “The Holy Spirit can cause certain passages to stand out with significant meaning or application for our lives. The Spoken Word of God, as one reads the Holy Scripture, enters one’s heart via the Holy Spirit.” Advanced Training Institute International. Retrieved November 1, 2014, from http://ati.iblp.org/ati/family/articles/concepts/rhema/.

  92. Pamela Lynn Perillo, Petitioner-appellant, v. Gary L. Johnson, Director, Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Respondent-appelle. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 79 F.3d 441. March 21, 1996.

  93. II Corinthians: 4:9. KJV.

  94. Sister Helen Prejean is a well-known and vocal death penalty opponent who hails from the Bayou State and has the Louisiana-French surname as well. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille (now the Congregation of St. Joseph) in 1957 when she was eighteen. After graduating from St. Mary’s Dominican College in New Orleans, she obtained a Master in Religious Education from St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, Canada. Following a career in education, she entered the prison ministry in 1981 when she became a pen pal with Patrick Sonnier, a Death Row inmate in Louisiana’s Angola Prison. Angola has a nefarious history similar to that of the Walls Unit in Huntsville. From this experience, she wrote a book titled Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty. The book was on the New York Times Best Seller List for thirty-one weeks and became an Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Sister Helen ministers to both the condemned and the murder victims’ families and is the founder of Survive, a victim’s advocacy group located in New Orleans. Appearing on many television and radio shows, she is a precious, inspired voice educating people about the death penalty and God’s mercy and grace. Prejean, Helen, Sister. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.SisterHelen.org/biography/.

  95. Bill Glass. “Champions for Life.” Retrieved August 28, 2014, from http://www.billglass.org/ministries.htm.

  96. Larry King Live, January 14, 1998. Transcript # 98011400V22. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/tucker.execution/transcripts/trans.1.14.html.

  97. Prejean, Helen, Sister. Death in Texas. The New York Review of Books, January 13, 2005. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/jan/13/death-in-texas/.

  98. “Last Meal.” Wikipedia. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_meal.

  99. On September 21, 2011, Texas Death Row inmate Lawrence Russell Brewer, a white supremacist, faced execution for the hate crime of dragging James Byrd to death in Jasper, Texas. For his last meal, Brewer ordered: “two chicken-fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat-lover’s pizza, a pint of ice cream, three root beers, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.”

  100. Then, he didn’t eat any of it. Following an immediate outrage from the chairman of the State Senate Criminal Justice Committee, the TDCJ banned all last-meal requests. The condemned could eat what the other prisoners were eating. In reality, Brewer did not receive all that he requested. He, like all those before him, got “reasonable portions of foods already available in the prison’s kitchen.”

  Clarke, Matthew. “Texas Abolishes Last Meals for Death Row Prisoners, Reduces Weekend Meals.” Prison Legal News, October 2012, p.28. Retrieved December 3, 2013, from www.prisonlegalnews.org/ news/2012/oct/15/texas-abolishes-last-meals-for-death-row-prisoners-reduces-weekend-meals/.

  101. John 3:8. NIV.

  102. Willett, James. Personal communication, August 19, 2014. Director, Texas Prison Museum, Huntsville, TX 77320.

  103. Karla Faye Tucker, Offender Information. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_ row/dr_info/tuckerkarlalast.htm.

  104. The Ellis Unit, TDCJ. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Unit.

  105. The Polunsky Unit, TDCJ. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_B._Polunsky_Unit.

  106. Perillo, Pamela. The Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from http://ccadp.org.

  107. Sworn Affidavit, 11/8/99. Alt.True-Crime. Retrieved January 15, 2014, from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/CC-XZtdhdm0.

  108. United States of America. Plaintiff-appelle versus Gi
lbert Martinez Musquia & Robert Martinez Gatewood, Defendants-appellants. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, No. 93-2600, February 10, 1995. Retrieved (nd) from http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/93/93- 02600.CR0.wpd.pdf.

  109. Prejean, Helen, Sister. Death in Texas. The New York Review of Books, January 13, 2005. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/jan/13/death-in-texas/.

  110. Bill Glass. “Champions for Life.” Retrieved October 28, 2014, from http://www.billglass.org/ministries.htm.

  111. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is not to be confused with the Texas Prison Board (created as the Texas Board of Criminal Justice in 1989). Texas Board of Criminal Justice. Retrieved January 31, 2014, from http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/mediasvc/tbcj/index.html.

  112. Also in 1989, the Board of Pardons and Paroles was revamped to include eighteen members. The governor nominates the members of both entities, and obviously each must mirror his ideology. Lucko, Paul M. “Texas Prison System.” Handbook of Texas on Line. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved January 31, 2013, from http://www.tshaonline.org/ handbook/online/articles/mdbjq.

  113. Lucko, Paul M. “Board of Pardons and Paroles.” Handbook of Texas on Line. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from http://www.tshaonline.org/ handbook/online/articles/mdbjq.

  114. Farewell Letter from Betty Beets—on the Eve of Her Execution. Retrieved January 4, 2014, from http://ccadp.org/finalbettie.html.

  115. Ibid, 102.

  116. Romans 13:4. NIV.

  117. Recinella, Dale S. The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty. Northeastern University Press, 2014.

  118. Correspondence with Joe Margulies regarding: The Execution of Betty Lou Beets, Reprieve, http://www.reprieve.org.uk/blog2012_10_10_PUB_margulies_execution_Betty_wdadp/, Accessed 2/14/2014. Link reported to be broken. See Joseph Margulies, Memories of an Execution, 20 U. Minn. J. of Law & Inequality 125 (Winter 2002).

  119. Application for Reprieve from Execution of Death Sentence and Commutation of Sentence for Imprisonment for Life, http://www.webfaerie.com/content/WI_Archive/library/reference/bl_beets_cl.htm, Accessed 1/10/2015.