Today Texas executed Kenneth Wayne Morris on his 38th birthday. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. Two more executions are set for next week in Texas.

Morris was the 194th person executed since Rick Perry assumed the office of governor of Texas in December 2000. Overall, 433 people have been executed in Texas since 1982. There were zero executions in Texas between 1964 and 1982. Virginia, with 103 executions, comes in a distant second to Texas in number of executions.

The AP has the details:

In a brief statement, Kenneth Wayne Morris apologized for the killing.

“I’m sorry for all the pain I might have caused you and your family,” he said, looking at three of the victim’s sons and one grandson. “I carry nothing but love in my heart. I pray one day y’all can forgive me.”

Morris looked toward two female friends watching through another window and expressed his love to them.

“I’m ready to go home,” he said, his voice breaking. Then he grinned broadly and mouthed a kiss to the women. “I’ll always be with you.”

As the drugs began taking effect, he turned again toward the victim’s relatives and said, “I really am sorry.” Eight minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing, he was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m.

Morris, whose 38th birthday was Wednesday, was condemned for the 1991 fatal shooting of James Adams, 63. Evidence showed Morris and two companions who broke into Adams’ home thought the place contained numerous expensive weapons but got disoriented as they drove around the neighborhood and picked the wrong house. .”

Below is a video of news footage from KABB in San Antonio of Texas Moratorium Network’s February 24 press conference at the Texas Capitol on the Law of Parties with bill sponsor Rep Harold Dutton, Lawrence Foster and Kenneth Foster Sr, Steven Been (brother-in-law of Jeff Wood), Mary Ellen Felps and Scott Cobb.

Since the press conference, there has been a second Law of Parties bill filed by Rep Terri Hodge, which we also support. Hodge is a member of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.

Terri Hodge has filed HB 2267 that would end the death penalty under the Law of Parties, so now there are two Law of Parties bill. Rep Dutton also has filed one, HB 304. Now that Hodge has filed a Law of Parties bill our chances are improved of getting a hearing and actually getting the bill passed in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, since she is a member of that committee. Last week, we held a press conference at the capitol on the issue of the Law of Parties with the families of Kenneth Foster and Jeff Wood. We also meet with the general counsel of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee about the Law of Parties.

Hodge was one of the legislators we got to sign a clemency letter for Kenneth Foster in 2007.

On March 24, there will be a Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty at the Capitol and one of the issues we will be advocated for on that day is ending the Death Penalty under the Law of Parties.

81R9476 GCB-D

By: Hodge
H.B. No. 2267

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the joint or separate prosecution of a capital felony

charged against two or more defendants and the extent of a

defendant’s criminal responsibility for the conduct of a

coconspirator in capital felony cases.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Article 36.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, is

amended to read as follows:

Art. 36.09. SEVERANCE ON SEPARATE INDICTMENTS. (a) Two

or more defendants who are jointly or separately indicted or

complained against for the same offense or any offense growing out

of the same transaction may be, in the discretion of the court,

tried jointly or separately as to one or more defendants; provided

that in any event either defendant may testify for the other or on

behalf of the state; and provided further, that in cases in which,

upon timely motion to sever, and evidence introduced thereon, it is

made known to the court that there is a previous admissible

conviction against one defendant or that a joint trial would be

prejudicial to any defendant, the court shall order a severance as

to the defendant whose joint trial would prejudice the other

defendant or defendants.

(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the court may not join

two or more defendants in the same criminal trial if any defendant

to be tried is indicted or complained against for a capital felony,

and the court shall order a severance as to any two or more

defendants who are jointly indicted or complained against for a

capital felony.

SECTION 2. Section 1, Article 37.071, Code of Criminal

Procedure, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 1. (a) If a defendant is found guilty in a capital

felony case in which the state does not seek the death penalty, the

judge shall sentence the defendant to life imprisonment without

parole.

(b) A defendant who is found guilty in a capital felony case

only as a party under Section 7.02(b), Penal Code, may not be

sentenced to death, and the state may not seek the death penalty in

any case in which the defendant’s liability is based solely on that

section.

SECTION 3. Section 2, Article 37.0711, Code of Criminal

Procedure, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 2. (a) If a defendant is found guilty in a case in

which the state does not seek the death penalty, the judge shall

sentence the defendant to life imprisonment.

(b) A defendant who is found guilty in a capital felony case

only as a party under Section 7.02(b), Penal Code, may not be

sentenced to death, and the state may not seek the death penalty in

any case in which the defendant’s liability is based solely on that

section.

SECTION 4. Article 36.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, as

amended by this Act, applies only to a trial commenced in a criminal

case on or after the effective date of this Act. A trial commenced

before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in

effect when the trial commenced, and the former law is continued in

effect for that purpose.

SECTION 5. Section 1, Article 37.071, and Section 2,

Article 37.0711, Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by this

Act, apply only to the sentence imposed in a criminal proceeding

that commences on or after the effective date of this Act. The

sentence imposed in a criminal proceeding that commenced before the

effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when the

proceeding commenced, and the former law is continued in effect for

that purpose.

State Rep Marc Veasy of Dallas has filed a bill requiring the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and its clerk’s office to stay open on execution days. In 2007, Sharon Keller violated the rules of the court by having the Court’s general counsel tell lawyers for Michael Richard that the court closed at 5. In reality, the court itself did not close at 5 and Keller should have told the general counsel to inform the duty judge of the request to file a late appeal. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has charged Keller in a Notice of Formal Proceedings with misconduct and could vote to remove her from office.

This bill can be seen as an extra safeguard since there are already rules in place at the Court of Criminal Appeals that require the general counsel to be present at the Court on the day of an execution and for the duty judge to also be present at the court or “immediately available”. Those rules were in effect on the day that Keller violated them. If the rules are adjusted, they should require that all judges be present at the court until the execution has taken place.

Below is the bill filed by Veasey

81R10620 CAE-D

By: Veasey H.B. No. 2189

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the hours of operation of the court of criminal appeals
on a day an execution is scheduled to occur.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 22, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 22.113 to read as follows:
Sec. 22.113. COURT HOURS ON DAY OF EXECUTION. On a day a
convict is scheduled to be executed, the court of criminal appeals
and clerk’s office for the court shall remain open until the
execution has occurred if the court has been notified by the
attorney of record for the convict that the attorney will file
documents with the court requesting a stay of execution.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2009.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Willie Pondexter blamed his own stupidity and ignorance for an elderly woman’s shooting death that had him set for a trip to the Texas death chamber.

“I know what I did was wrong,” Pondexter, 34, said of the October 1993 murder of 85-year-old Martha Lennox during a burglary of her home in Clarksville in far northeast Texas. “At 19, you really don’t think of the consequences.”

Attorneys were in the U.S. Supreme Court trying to block the scheduled Tuesday evening lethal injection.

The high school dropout from Idabel, Okla., would be the ninth condemned Texas prisoner executed this year in Huntsville and the first of two set to die on consecutive nights this week in the nation’s most active capital punishment state.

In their appeal, Pondexter’s lawyers argued the Supreme Court should order the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether legal interns working for the inmate improperly were obstructed by corrections officers and sheriff’s deputies as they tried to gather information for a clemency petition. The New Orleans-based court refused to rule on a suit filed by Pondexter’s attorneys “in dereliction of its fundamental constitutional duty to decide the case before it,” the attorneys said.

They asked the high court to stop the execution and order the lower court to decide the case.

“The court of appeals has a duty to decide his appeal,” lawyer David Dow said.

On Friday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Pondexter’s clemency petition.

“Mr. Pondexter was prevented from filing a complete clemency petition, so it is unfortunate, but not surprising,” Dow said.

On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also refused to stop Pondexter’s execution, ruling against him in an appeal that argued Pondexter has been a model prisoner with no violence since arriving on death row.