"The Firing Squad, Please," Says Prisoner
By ERIK ECKHOLM

Ronnie Lee Gardner had a quarter-century to ponder his choice, whether to die by lethal injection or take four bullets in the heart.

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Bustamante, 40, an El Campo laborer, is set to be executed Tuesday.

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[This message was edited by JB on 04-27-10 at .]

Samuel Bustamante, sentenced to die for stabbing a man to death during a 1998 robbery in Rosenberg, silently went to his death in the state's execution chamber Tuesday.

The lethal drugs were administered at 6:14 p.m. He was declared dead eight minutes later.

Bustamante made no final statement.

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Too bad this killer wasn't "very quiet" when he was thinking about killing the homeless man in Rosenberg or the man in El Campo.

I didn't try this case, but was with Fort Bend when Fred F. tried this killer. I well remember the case and how bad the facts were.

The Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a British woman sentenced to death for killing a Houston mother and stealing her baby in 2001.

The justices rejected an appeal from Linda Carty, who complained her trial lawyers were deficient.

Twenty-year-old Joana Rodriguez had just given birth days earlier when four men busted into her Houston apartment on May 16, 2001, pistol-whipped her husband and abducted her and her newborn.

Rodriguez's body was later found in the trunk of a car with a plastic bag over her head. Her arms and legs were bound with duct tape and her mouth and nose also had been covered with tape. An autopsy revealed she suffocated.

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After thanking the warden, a chaplain and God, he uttered a loud sigh as the drugs began taking effect.

"Oooh! Thank you Jesus," he said. "I'm going, Mom."

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As he waited for the drugs to take effect, he laughed and lifted his head from the gurney.

"I thought it was going to be harder than this," he said, grinning. "I'm going to sleep now. I can feel it. It's affecting me."

Then he began snoring.

Condemned Texas inmate Rogelio Cannady was executed Wednesday evening for killing his cellmate while already serving two life sentences for a double murder.

Note: Cannady had a long juvenile criminal history. No doubt the SCOTUS would include him among those juveniles who should not get life without parole, but can get the DP when they kill again.

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"I wish I could go back and change it, but I know I can't," Alba said before the lethal cocktail of drugs began flowing.

Addressing his son and daughter who watched through a window, he said, "Just tell everyone I love them. Y'all will be OK. I will too."

Then he said, "OK, warden. Do it!"

As the lethal drugs began to take effect, Alba said he could taste them.

"I am starting to go," he said, before snoring and losing consciousness.
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[Have you noticed how the last few inmates have narrated the sensation of feeling the drugs take effect? Have to wonder if their lawyers told them to do that. If so, the claims raised before SCOTUS sure seem frivolous now.]

When asked by the prison warden whether he had a final statement, Jones thanked his parents, "who have been my pillar of strength in this situation," and his brothers and sisters, "who have loved me despite my faults and imperfections."

None of his relatives witnessed the execution, but Hall's relatives watched through a window. Jones told them that he hoped the punishment "brings you closure or some type of peace."

"This has been a long journey, one of enlightenment," he said. "It's not the end; it's only the beginning."

After a gasp and loud snores, Jones stopped breathing. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing.

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Heavily armed, deeply paranoid and strung out on drugs, David Lee Powell was a nightmare personified in 1978.

Sitting in a car that had been pulled over on a dark Austin side street, Powell sighted his AK-47 through the rear window. Police radios caught officer Ralph Ablanedo's scream as the first bullet penetrated his bulletproof vest. Nine more shots found their mark.

The well-liked father of two young sons died shortly after the 12:30 a.m. attack .

Barring the unexpected, Powell will be executed for that crime on June 15 � 32 years, three weeks and five days after Ablanedo was buried with honors.

Texas has never executed a man after so much time has passed, giving rise to a question that speaks to a basic concept of punishment and justice: Has Powell's execution been robbed of its meaning and purpose?

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I wouldn't even consider that argument as long as there is no limitations on murder.

Most of death penalty appeals these days aren't actually about ensuring the defendant got a fair trial, they're about delay, delay, delay. Then the defense advocates complain when their tactics were successful. They wanted to delay, they got it. Now the delays are over.

If anything, this case should just serve as an object lesson to those who keep allowing the delaying tactics. If you think this long of a delay robs the execution of all power, then don't delay that long.

An attorney for David Lee Powell, who is set to be executed next week in the fatal shooting of an Austin police officer more than 30 years ago, asked Tuesday that his death sentence be withdrawn and that a punishment of life in prison be imposed instead.

Houston attorney Richard Burr said in a 53-page application for a writ of habeas corpus that Powell has been a model inmate, that he poses no threat to society and that to execute him would violate his constitutional rights prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

The filing with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and with state District Judge Mike Lynch, who set Powell's execution for next week, said that jurors inaccurately predicted Powell's "future dangerousness" - an element necessary to impose the death sentence - because of his "exemplary and humane behavior in prison."

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[That would be three separate juries that allegedly made that mistake. And quite a few state and federal courts who have already reviewed the issue of sufficiency of evidence.

And, is it even fair to examine D's conduct in prison, since he was on death row, and subject to a far different standard of confinement than if he had been given life in prison -- for which he would already be eligible for parole?]

District attorney finds fault in Powell defense request

[Think the paper is reluctant to publish anything that stands in the way of the anti-death penalty bent of their Pulitzer-seeking story about the incredible rehabilitation of a cop killer?]

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The article does point out that former State Rep Frances Farenthold (wanted the world to know that)"...he taught her patience and goodwill toward others...". Probably hard to believe, but my 6 siblings and I learned about patience and goodwill before we even knew there was a death penalty.

+1, A.P.

quote:

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Powell has apologized for his crime, both in a December letter to Ablanedo's family and in a recent interview with the American-Statesman.

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Forgive me if I find an apology after 30+ years and 3 trials to be not only insincere, but insulting.

Members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole unanimously voted today against commuting the death sentence of David Lee Powell, who fatally shot an Austin police officer 32 years ago. Powell's scheduled execution by lethal injection is set for Tuesday in Huntsville.

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Once in place, warden C.T. O�Reilly asked Powell, who had been strapped to a gurney minutes before, if he would like to make a final statement.
Powell did not respond. Beginning at 6:10 p.m., prison officials began administering the lethal doses of medication.

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Unlike Gary Gilmore, who famously uttered the last words "Let's do it" on Jan. 17, 1977, Gardner could muster few words before a black hood was fastened over his head. Asked if he had anything to say during the two minutes afforded him, Gardner said simply, "I do not, no."

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