About nine months after his arrest, [Terry Lee] Hankins went on trial for the murders of his stepchildren, Kevin and Ashley. On May 13, 2002, jurors deliberated less than 30 minutes and found him guilty. During the punishment phase, they heard about the murders of Hankins' wife, father and half sister.

Court testimony also revealed that Sissy was likely pregnant with Hankins' child when she was killed and that he had previously fathered another child with Sissy, a boy who lives with his adoptive parents.

Jury foreman Drew Springer recalled recently that the jury had no trouble giving Hankins the death penalty.

"It was so heinous," he said. "We felt we did the right thing, and there wasn't any question."

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Execution is scheduled for Tuesday.

HUNTSVILLE - A self-described "non-caring monster" who took responsibility for killing five relatives was executed Tuesday evening for the slayings of his two stepchildren.

"I am sorry for what I've done and for all the pain and suffering my actions caused," Terry Lee Hankins said from the death chamber gurney, his voice wavering. "Jesus is Lord. All glory to God."

Eleven minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. CDT.

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A man who burned a woman alive in the trunk of her car was executed on Wednesday in Ohio's first death by lethal injection since the state revised its protocol on the procedure.

Daniel Wilson, 39, was sentenced to death for the 1991 slaying of acquaintance Carol Lutz, 24. He locked Lutz in the trunk of her car and set it on fire after they spent several hours drinking together at a bar near Cleveland.

"I'm very sorry for what I did to Carol, and to my family, I'm sorry things turned out this way," Wilson said in a final statement. "I believe in Jesus. He's my lord and savior, and I'm coming home."

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A convicted arsonist was sentenced to death Friday for setting a Southern California wildfire that killed five federal firefighters struggling to defend a rural home from raging, wind-driven flames.

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Mike is profiled on the cnn website.

For those who know him, you won't be surprised that he stopped counting how many executions he's seen.

Graczyk

As I've said before, he's a fine gentleman, and his courtesy to the family and friends of late prosecutor Gil Epstein back in 2004 when Gil's killer was executed will never be forgotten by me.

Convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood led a troubled life marked by anger, frustration and perhaps even a learning disability.

Wood, 52, has been on death row for 17 years. The state plans to execute him Aug. 20 for the 1987 murders of six girls and young women in the desert outside El Paso. Police also suspected Wood in the disappearances of three other teenage girls, all of whom vanished in 1987.

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A convicted killer on Texas' death row for nearly three decades has died in prison, prison officials said.

Danny Dean Thomas was found dead Saturday, a day before his 54th birthday, on death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit near Livingston. Prison officials said an autopsy would be performed but initially were attributing his death to natural causes.

Sylvia Elaine Harrison, 19, was fatally shot and her body was dumped in the San Jacinto River in Harris County. Testimony showed Harrison repeated "God help me" until Thomas shot her in the head.

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[I remember this capital murder case because I worked for Ron Hayes, a Harris County criminal defense lawyer, during law school, when he was representing Thomas on appeal. Judy Pryzborski was also in the office as a law school intern and wrote the brief. Ron represented lots of people as a court appointed lawyer and for many years had the most appointments in the county. Judy went on to be a district court judge, hearing family cases (now Judy Warne).

The case was heard and decided by the CCA after I graduated from law school in 1985 and about a month after I got my bar exam results. At that point, I was working at the CCA for Judge Chuck Campbell. So, I got to see the case from the defense side and the appellate side. It was quite an introduction to the world of capital murder and the gruesome details of those crimes.

Thomas got to live longer in prison, pending his execution, than his victim got to live for her entire life.]

I was appointed by the court to represent Thomas' co-defendant, Zendal Peel, who was also charged with capital murder. Got the case dismissed.

After his arrest, appellant gave a confession in which he described the following sequence of events. On July 17, 1981, he and Zendal Peels were driving home from a skating rink when they spotted a young woman whose car had broken down. They stopped to determine whether they could be of assistance. After finding that the fan belt was broken, appellant and Peels drove the woman to a parts store where she purchased a new belt. They returned to the stalled car and appellant put on the new fan belt. When the car was fixed, appellant and Peels followed the woman to her house. She invited them inside. They drank some beer and smoked some marihuana. Peels stated that he wanted to get another beer and left the room. When Peels returned, he walked over to the woman and "swung his hand out and hit her in the face with [appellant's] .25 automatic [gun]." Appellant saw a trickle of blood on the woman as she went limp. Appellant was "getting scared, because [he] thought that [Peels] had probably killed her." Peels dragged the woman out the back door of the house, and appellant helped him put her in the car, on the front seat. Peels and appellant got in the car, and appellant drove away from the house. After traveling for some time, the woman regained consciousness. Appellant reached to push her and she bit his hand. Appellant told Peels to grab her. Peels hit her in the head with the gun.

Appellant stated:

"Then when we were over on Hardy [Street], she come to again, and he began hitting her in the head with his knife, time after time. She started trying to cry, but had something in her throat, and it was sort of gurgling. Finally she went out again. We were coming back around on Airline [Street], and she started mumbling and trying to cry again. Right after that we got on to the Freeway from Airline, and we went up and there was a dark spot on the road before the Greenspoint Mall. She had been saying 'God help me' over and over. I got my gun, and reached over, and glanced to see her head, and when I saw the gun against the side of her head, I shot her one time."

As they were driving, appellant and Peels found several bricks in the road, which they retrieved. Appellant tied the woman's wrists together, and Peels tied her feet. They tied the bricks to her body and threw her into the San Jacinto River.

So how did Peel get off? No evidence to prove what Thomas said later?

Peels was a very short and slightly built 17 or 18 year old young man with no criminal history who cooperated with the police. He gave a very detailed statement that Thomas ordered him at gunpoint to help him dispose of the victim's body. He did not admit to doing anything else. Thomas had a criminal history. Duress was the defense and there was no real evidence to the contrary.

Any word on Peels' post-dismissal criminal life?

After Thomas' case was reversed, I was contacted by the prosecutor and asked to visit with Peels. Seems the prosecutor wanted to have him testify against Thomas. To his credit, he said he wcould not talk to anyone without me present, which was an instruction I had given him about 15 years earlier! I spoke with him and seem to recall that he only had a DWI on his record.

I think he did testify, but am not certain since I had moved away from Houston by then.

I imagine it was a life-changing experience for Mr. Peels.

It was for all three of them.

Thanks for sharing the info, Ken. It is good to know the backstory on some of this.

Broom [set for execution in Ohio] did not request a special meal and was served the same dinner Monday as the general prison population: stir-fried turkey, rice, green beans, greens, pears, bread and cherry-flavored drink. He finished eating as he spoke with one of his attorneys, leaving green beans and greens uneaten.

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Sheila Moore has managed pretty well in the dozen years since her husband, Garland police Officer Michael "David" Moore, was shot to death trying to prevent a bank robbery.

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For an interview of Sheila Moore, click here.

[This message was edited by JB on 09-15-09 at .]

After more than 15 years on Texas death row, Stephen Moody says he's ready to die for the fatal shooting of a Houston man during a robbery in 1991.

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