TEXAS EXECUTIONS

Texas – Beunka Adams – execution – april 26 – EXECUTED

 Beunka Adams official website click here

Case from his official website

Beunka Adams is 29 years old today and is awaiting his execution at the Polunsky Unit, Livingston,Texas.

He has three children that he loves deeply.

Beunka Adams spends his days writing poetry or letters to his friend, creating artwork, working out and reading.

Beunka Adams also published a poetry book, named Delirium – A mind at death row.

In the beginning of October 2011 Beunka Adams’ final appeal was rejected by the US Supreme Court, even though there are obvious flaws in Mr. Adams’ legal procedure, doubts about the fairness of his trial and also doubts about what really happened that unfortunate day of a robbery back in 2002 in Rusk, Texas, USA.

Beunka Adams has repeatedly expressed his deepest regrets for taking part in the robbery. Mr. Adams is the father of three children and a healthy young man that can be a great asset to society in the future.

Resume of the events:

Richard Cobb and Beunka Adams robbed a store and took three hostages, two women and one man. They drove the hostages to a field where one woman and one man were shot. The man tragically died from his injuries. The women survived.

Beunka Adams has never denied his involvement in the robbery which led to the murder of a man by his accomplice.

The crime: Beunka Adams tells his story 

It was an extremely transitional point in my life (more than I knew) at the time when thismost unfortunate incident occurred. Not long before I had been kicked out of Job Corps and lost every stitch of clothing I owned. I had reunited with my children’s mother after a
little over a month separation and was preparing what would have been our third homesince I was 14 or 15 years old. I was out of work and in the coming two weeks were my step-son and my daughters birthdays… (I tell you this not to trivialize the events that
followed but to show you what motivated me to involve myself in this situation.)So when my friend/co-defendant showed up while I was working on the house and asked me to help him rob a store – I agreed.

It was not planned but I didn’t assume there would be any real physical violence. I didnot even carry my own gun. I was suppose to just follow his lead and be a pair of eyes, but shit went bad from the moment we entered the store and it became obvious my friend had
not planned anything out. He mostly stopped talking and nearly froze at the register.It was noticed there was a customer in the store and my friend whispered that one of the cashiers was his neighbor and he believed she recognized him…At that point I knew we were caught and really my only concern was getting the money where it needed to be. My friend was not talking and I had no idea what to do, so it was decided to take everyone from the store to buy some time to think. Now this is when some of the first lies start to occur. At trial one of the victims said she told me: “I know you, don’t I?” and I said: “yes” and took of my mask. This is not exactly true. She said: “I know you, don’t I? Your girlfriend used to work at Brookshines.”. At the time I had long hair and realized she was mistaken me for a friend of mine, but we did know each other and well, so to calm the situation a bit I took off my mask. The other girlknew my co-defendant so we where caught anyway. I was not known to hurt people for no reason, Nicky and Kenneth knew that.
If you read the transcripts it is said that there was laughter and conversation in the car though Nicky contends she was laughing to keep herself from crying. “Fast forward time” we wound up in an open field outside town. I really did not know what to do next because my friend was not really talking to me and acting weird. First idea was to put all three into the trunk and leave the car in a parking lot to be found in a few hours but all three of them would not fit. Two got in and I along with Nicky left walking (with no weapon). Now it has never been revealed what we spoke about by her nor me and I will not do so in this missive… We wound up having sex. I admit when I later gave a statement I conceded to rape but it was because I knew Nicky was engaged to be married and she would say that and if I did not, those officers would not believe one word that came out my mouth! I will be more than willing to take a lie detector test on the fact I never threatened or forced her to have sex with me, that or any other facts I present.
The others were let back out and it was decided they would take off in one direction and we would go the other. I stopped them because the direction they were headed led deep into the woods and they’d never come to a house, road or anything. It is decided they stay put. I turned and started walking towards the car assuming my friend was doing the same but after a few steps I heard the first blast!

read the whole story (download pdf) click here

Legal documents  click here

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Governor Rick Perry: Stop Beunka Adams’ execution!

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HUNTSVILLE (April 23, 2012)—Death row inmate Beunka Adams, 29, who was scheduled to receive a lethal injection this week for killing an East Texas man after robbing a convenience store, won a reprieve Monday from a federal judge.

april 13, 2012

Petitioner: Beunka Adams
Respondent: Rick Thaler, Director TDCJ-CID
Case Number: 5:2012cv00036
Filed: April 13, 2012
Court: Texas Eastern District Court
Office: Texarkana         Office
County: Cherokee
Nature of Suit: P. Petitions – Death Penalty
Cause: 28:2254
Jurisdiction: Federal Question
Jury Demanded By: None

december 2010, source: various

Beunka Adams is imprisoned on the Polunsky Unit of Texas death row for a crime that another man confessed to committing. He was convicted and sentenced to death at the age of 21. Beunka was involved in a robbery in which store employee, Kenneth Vandever, was shot and killed.

Beunka’s co-defendant, Richard Cobb, admitted to the killing in his trial. This information was suppressed at Beunka’s trial. His jury were told that he was the gunman and he was given the death penalty.

Beunka does not deny his guilt in participating in the robbery and he suffers huge remorse for what happened that night, but he is not a murderer and does not deserve to die for his crime!

His supporters say; “Beunka is indigent – he has no money to pay for a defence and his state-appointed defence attorney is overworked and unable to help him. We need to raise $150,000 to pay for a private lawyer and investigator to help save Beunka’s life”.

In 2007 Beunka’s attorney at appeal, Stephen Evans, presented ten points of error in his client’s criminal case. The court voted 9 to 0 that the objections held no merit. The court affirmed both the trial court’s judgment and the sentence of death.

Evidence presented in the court hearings alledged that on the night of the murder the men entered BDJ’s convenience store wearing masks and demanding money. One of them was armed with a shotgun.

Prosecutors say that after taking the money from the cash register it was said that they demanded the keys to a Cadillac parked outside. Two women employees of the store and Kenneth Vandever were forced the three into the car. After arriving at the secluded field, one female and Mr. Vandever were told to get into the trunk of the car. The prosecution says that the other female was taken away and sexually assaulted. Both women were wounded.

A supporter of Beunka Adams said; “criminals are punished in the name of justice. This sense of justice seems to have abandoned the scene of capital punishment. Even in the USA people who committed murder as a minor are put on death row, those without money cannot afford decent legal aid which almost immediately condemns them, and prisoners spend years and years on death row sometimes getting their execution postponed several times.

“People on death row go through years of isolation and uncertainty. This is when justice becomes torture”.

12/05/2007 source :http://www.tdcaa.com

An East Texas man condemned for a fatal shooting during an abduction and robbery at a convenience store lost an appeal Wednesday at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Richard Aaron Cobb was 18 when he was arrested along with a companion for the slaying of Kenneth Vandever in 2004. Vandever and two women were abducted from a store in Rusk. The three were taken to a field about 10 miles away near Alto, where one of the women was raped and all three were shot with a 20-gauge shotgun.

Vandever, 37, died of his injuries but the two women survived and testified against Cobb and his partner, Beunka Adams.

Both Cobb and Adams were convicted and sentenced to die. Records showed Cobb was on probation at the time for auto theft.

Vandever was described as mentally challenged after injuries in an auto accident left him with the mental capacity of a child.

Cobb’s conviction and sentence were upheld in January by the Court of Criminal Appeals. A subsequent appeal reviewed by the Austin-based court was rejected Wednesday.

The brief five-paragraph ruling from the appeals court upheld the recommendation of the trial court in Cherokee County, where a judge denied Cobb any legal relief after an evidentiary hearing.

Testimony showed Cobb fired the shot that killed Vandever, who frequented the store and would do things like take out the trash. Adams, then 20, was accused of shooting the two women who worked at the store. Adams’ conviction and sentence were affirmed by the court in June.

The men left the scene after believing the two women were dead, but the women were able to get up and run to houses nearby to get help. Adams and Cobb were arrested a few hours later in Jacksonville, about 25 miles to the north.

Both men still have appeals to pursue in the federal courts, and neither has an execution date.

Defense lawyers had argued at his trial that Cobb suffered abuse as a child and from fetal alcohol syndrome, the result of his mother drinking liquor while she was pregnant with him. Prosecutors presented witnesses who testified Cobb was able to tell the difference between right and wrong.

Executions in Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state, and other states with capital punishment are on hold pending the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court review of lethal injection procedures. Arguments in that case, initiated by two death row inmates in Kentucky, are set for early next year and a decision is expected before summer.

No. 11-9359

Beunka Adams v. Texas

from the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Docket Entries

on March 13, 2012

Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due April 18, 2012)

Parties

Beunka Adams, Petitioner, represented byThomas Scott Smith



Related articles

TEXAS – Court Ruling Could Affect Texas Death Row Cases

march, 21   source :http://www.texastribune.org

Death row inmate Jesse Joe Hernandez, set to be executed next week for the 2001 death of a 10-month-old boy in Dallas, is hoping that a ruling Tuesday from the U.S. Supreme Court could give him another chance to prove that the tragedy was not entirely his fault.

The nation’s highest court ruled that the failure of initial state habeas lawyers to argue that their client’s trial counsel was ineffective should not prevent the defendant from making that argument later on. Lawyers across the country, including those for at least two Texas death row inmates, were eagerly awaiting the court’s ruling in the Martinez v. Ryancase out of Arizona, which could expand appeals access for inmates.

“A procedural default will not bar a federal habeas court from hearing those claims if, in the initial-review collateral proceeding, there was no counsel or counsel in the proceeding was ineffective,” the court majority held.

Habeas lawyers investigate issues that could or should have been raised during a defendant’s original trial.

Brad Levenson, director of the Texas Office of Capital Writs, filed a petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday afternoon on behalf of Hernandez,arguing that his March 28 execution should be stayed, in part, because of the court’s ruling.

Although the ruling applies to federal courts, Levenson said, Texas’ highest criminal court should take its cue from the nation’s highest court and hear Hernandez’s claims.

Hernandez was convicted in 2002 for the death of a child who lived in the home where he lived at the time. Hernandez admitted he hit the child, who was rushed to the hospital, where he was put into a medically induced coma and then died after he was removed from life support.

In a writ filed Tuesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Hernandez argues that his actions did not directly cause the child’s death. Instead, an expert who recently reviewed the medical records concluded that the hospital gave the child a lethal dose of the drug pentobarbital and that he was pulled from life support too soon.

“There’s no way to tell at end of day whether he would have survived,” Levenson said. “Our expert said there’s a very real probability the child could have lived.”

Levenson said Hernandez’s trial lawyers and his initial appeals lawyers were ineffective because they failed to do further investigation and hire their own experts to find out why the child died. Levenson, who took the case only three weeks ago, hired a doctor who reviewed the medical records and determined that the little boy had not been diagnosed as brain-dead before he was removed from life support and that he was given toxic doses of pentobarbital.

“It’s not to say that Mr. Hernandez is not guilty of a crime, but he’s not guilty of capital murder,” Levenson said.

Current law, though, could prohibit Hernandez from arguing that because his original trial lawyers were ineffective by not further investigating the cause of death that he should get a new trial. Those kinds of claims must be raised from the beginning of the appeals process to be valid later on. And Hernandez’s previous habeas lawyers did not argue that he was inadequately represented.

Levenson said that even though Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling applies to claims made in federal court — not state writs like the one he filed — the same principle ought to apply.

“We’re saying the state courts should also take a look at these claims for the same reason the Supreme Court would take a look at them,” he said.

The ruling could also be a boon for death row inmate Rob Will, who was convicted in 2002 of fatally shooting a Harris County sheriff’s deputy. Will says that the man he was with that night was the real shooter and that he is innocent.

In January, U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison denied Will’s pleas for a new trial but wrote that he lamented doing so because of “disturbing uncertainties” raised about his guilt.

Will is hoping the court’s ruling in Martinez will allow him to argue that he should get a new trial because both his trial lawyer and his state-appointed habeas lawyer were ineffective when they failed to track down several witnesses who have testified that the other man confessed to the killing.


Executions scheduled april 2012

Dates are subject to change due to stays and appeals

update april 27

4/05/2012

Michael Anthony Archuleta

Utah

Stay likely

  

4/12/2012

Carey Dale Grayson

Alabama

          DELAYED  

4/12/2012

Garry Allen

Oklahoma

           STAY  

04.12.12

David Gore

Florida

          6:19 p.m  

4/18/2012

Mark Wiles

Ohio

         10:42 am  

4/19/2012

Daniel Greene

Georgia

       CLEMENCY  commuted

4/20/2012

Shannon Johnson

Delaware

         2:55 am  

4/26/2012

Beunka Adams

Texas

          6:25 p.m  

4/25/2012

Thomas Arnold Kemp

Arizona

         10:08 a.m  


US – Execution scheduled march 2012

Dates are subject to change due to stays and appeals

March

Texas – Keith Thurmond declared, “I didn’t kill my wife. … I swear to God I didn’t kill her.”

His execution for the 2001 slayings near Houston came about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments to halt the capital punishment, the third this year in Texas.

The 52-year-old Thurmond was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. — 11 minutes after lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.

With his death nearing Wednesday, Thurmond blamed the shooting deaths on another man before telling prison officials, “Go ahead and finish it off.”

As the drugs began flowing, he said, “You can taste it.” He wheezed and snored before losing consciousness.

Last Statement:

All I want to say is I’m innocent, I didn’t kill my wife. Jack Leary shot my wife then her dope dealer Guy Fernandez. Don’t hold it against me, Bill. I swear to God I didn’t kill her. Go ahead and finish it off. You can taste it.

Related articles

TEXAS – Keith Thurmond – EXECUTED

keith Steven Thurmond was pronounced dead at 6:22 PM CST at Huntsville, Texas, executed for murdering his estranged wife, Sharon, and her boyfriend, Guy Fernandez. Strapped on the Gurney in the execution chamber, Thurmond denied killing his wife, although he murdered her in the presence of the couple’s 8-year-old son

If his loved ones are typical, they are re now rushing to the funeral parlor where his body has been sent so they may touch it while it is still warm. The custom stems from the fact that, once a prisoner enters death row, he is permitted no physical contact with is family. In Thurmond’s case, that was about a decade ago.

Suprem court of United States 

No. 11-9083      *** CAPITAL CASE ***
Title:
Keith Thurmond, Petitioner
v.
Texas
Docketed: March 5, 2012
Linked with 11A839
Lower Ct: Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
  Case Nos.: (WR-62,425-01, and WR-62,425-02)
  Decision Date: February 29, 2012
~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings  and  Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mar 5 2012 Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due April 4, 2012)
Mar 5 2012 Application (11A839) for a stay of execution of sentence of death, submitted to Justice Scalia.
Mar 6 2012 Brief of respondent in opposition filed.
Mar 6 2012 Reply of petitioner Keith Thurmond filed.
Mar 7 2012 Application (11A839) referred to the Court.
Mar 7 2012 Petition DENIED.
Mar 7 2012 Application (11A839) denied by the Court.

Last News from execution watch : NO WORD FROM HIGH COURT ON THURMOND STAY

I just fielded a news call on whether the Supreme Court has ruled on Keith Thurmond’s request for a stay of tonight’s execution. I had to tell them, “No news yet.”

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an emergency request from Keith Thurmond to stop the State of Texas from executing him tonight.

Last-minute requests like this from Texas are routinely considered by Justice Antonin Scalia, though he has the option to poll the full court.

Thurmond, who was denied any federal appeals because his lawyer missed a deadline, is slated to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife and her new boyfriend a decade ago.

If the execution goes through as planned, Execution Watch will provide live coverage and commentary to inform listeners of the realities, versus the cliches, of the Texas death penalty.

The broadcast will be at 6 p.m. Central Time on nonprofit FM station KPFT 90.1 in Houston and online at http://executionwatch.org/ > Listen.

The execution will be the 480th in Texas since 1982 and the 241st since Rick Perry became governor. Perry has already presided over more than 50 percent of all Texas executions in the modern era.

source : execution watch.org

480th Texas Execution Set for Today; 241st Execution Under Rick Perry

Wednesday’s execution will be the 480th in Texas since 1982 and the 241st since Rick Perry became Governor. More than 50 percent of all executions in Texas in the modern era have been conducted under Rick Perry. Call the Office of Governor Rick Perry at 512 463 2000 to give him your opinion on the death penalty.

Read more : Texas Moratorium 

TEXAS – EXECUTION WATCH TO COVER THURMOND EXECUTION WED.

The busiest death chamber in the industrialized West is preparing to put the 480th notch in its belt of modern death penalty, and Execution Watch will cover the details.

Keith Thurmond’s attorney missed a filing deadline, causing Thurmond to lose his federal appeal, the last constitutionally required review before a death sentence may be carried out. Execution Watch will provide live coverage and commentary Wednesday on his execution in Huntsville, Texas.

RADIO PROGRAM PREVIEW
EXECUTION WATCH
Unless a stay is issued, we’ll broadcast on …
Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 6-7 PM CT
KPFT Houston 90.1 FM or
Online: http://executionwatch.org/ > Listen
*** Join the Execution Watch discussion on Facebook ***

Thurmond case :

The former master mechanic was convicted of shooting and killing his estranged wife and her boyfriend in Magnolia in 2001. He lost his federal appeal when his attorney missed a deadlines, essentially waiving the last constitutionally required review before his death sentence could be carried out.

Read more : Execution Watch.org

TEXAS – Execution Keith Steven Thurmond – march 7, 2012 EXECUTED 6.22 p.m

March 7, 2012

Picture of Offender    Keith Thurmond          Sharon Thurmond

A Texas man condemned for fatally shooting his estranged wife and the neighbor who became her boyfriend denied killing them Wednesday, moments before he was put to death by lethal injection.

Strapped to the gurney inside the death chamber, Keith Thurmond declared, “I didn’t kill my wife. … I swear to God I didn’t kill her.”

His execution for the 2001 slayings near Houston came about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments to halt the capital punishment, the third this year in Texas. The 52-year-old Thurmond was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. – 11 minutes after lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.

Thurmond’s attorneys argued that lawyers representing him in earlier appeals were “grossly deficient” and that his execution should have been postponed until justices decide on a similar case in Arizona.

With his death nearing Wednesday, Thurmond blamed the shooting deaths on another man before telling prison officials, “Go ahead and finish it off.”

As the drugs began flowing, he said, “You can taste it.” He wheezed and snored before losing consciousness.

The killings occurred after sheriff’s deputies showed up at Thurmond’s mobile home on Sept. 25, 2001, with a court order removing his 8-year-old son and putting the boy in the care of his mother

Thurmond became irate and stormed down the road to the mobile home where his 32-year-old wife, Sharon, was living with her new boyfriend, Guy Fernandes, 35, near Magnolia in Montgomery County, about 35 miles north of Houston.

Fernandes’ father, brother and sister were among those who witnessed Thurmond’s execution. They were joined by Sharon Thurmond’s brother and two nieces. All stood stoically a few feet from Thurmond and declined comment after his death.

Thurmond’s brother, Tom, was at Thurmond’s home the day of the killings, heard gunshots and looked out the door. He saw Thurmond outside standing over his wife with a gun in his hand.

At the 2002 capital murder trial, Keith and Sharon Thurmond’s son testified that he saw his father shoot his mother repeatedly in the yard behind Fernandes’ mobile home.

Thurmond surrendered to police after a two-hour standoff.

Evidence showed Sharon Thurmond had been shot seven times with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun that was later found in Thurmond’s home. The same gun was used to shoot Fernandez twice in the head. The gun’s firing pin was missing and pieces of it were near the body of Fernandez, who also had been beaten in the head with the weapon.

During the punishment phase of his trial, a former girlfriend testified that Thurmond stalked and raped her after she ended their relationship. She told jurors that he cut her stuffed animal’s head off and that she feared he would do the same to her.

A second woman testified that she faced similar abuse and harassment until she obtained a court order against him. Sharon Thurmond also had two court orders against him.

Prosecutors said these incidents proved Thurmond was a threat to society, an element Texas jurors must consider when deciding on the death penalty. John MacDonald, Thurmond’s lead trial attorney, said that background on Thurmond’s character very much hurt his defense.

In an appeal petition, Thurmond’s attorneys said the sentence was too harsh. They said his former appellate lawyers failed to track down any of his relatives who could have testified that he had been abused as a child and that this could have accounted for his behavior.

State lawyers opposed the petition, arguing that unlike the Arizona case, Thurmond’s earlier attorneys didn’t abandon him and that any information now from the prisoner’s relatives likely would not have altered the outcome of the trial.

Last Statement:

All I want to say is I’m innocent, I didn’t kill my wife. Jack Leary shot my wife then her dope dealer Guy Fernandez. Don’t hold it against me, Bill. I swear to God I didn’t kill her. Go ahead and finish it off. You can taste it.

Related articles

TEXAS – Last hour of George Rivas- execution February 29, 2012 – EXECUTED 6.22 p.m

Last statement

Yes, I do. First of all for the Aubrey Hawkins family, I do apologize for everything that happened. Not because I am here, but for closure in your hearts. I really believe that you deserve that. To my wife, Cheri, I am so grateful you’re in my life. I love you so dearly. Thank you to my sister and dear friend Katherine Cox, my son and family, friends and family. I love you so dearly. To my friends, all the guys on the row, you have my courtesy and respect. Thank you to the people involved and to the courtesy of the officers. I am grateful for everything in my life. To my wife, take care of yourself. I will be waiting for you. I love you. God Bless. I am ready to go

Aubrey Hawkins, the police officer killed by t...

Aubrey Hawkins, the police officer killed by the Texas Seven (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5:59p George Rivas will be strapped to a gurney, arms extended, and an IV for the lethal injection will be inserted in both arms. Once He’s strapped down, the warden will call for witnesses to enter the two observation rooms.

5:58p Once witnesses are in place, guards will ask George Rivas if he wants to make a final statement. He said he did.

5:48p Guards move George Rivas from his holding cell, 15 feet to the execution chamber. The lethal injection procedure is scheduled to begin a few minutes after six o’clock.

5:22p One of George Rivas’ four witnesses did not appear for his execution. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins will attend instead.

5:03p Three drugs are used in the lethal injection cocktail. That used to cost about $86, but the price has recently skyrocketed to more than $1,300 because the state has been forced to resort to a more expensive substitute for one of the drugs being used.

5:01p “I met with him a few minutes ago along with the warden and the chaplain, and Rivas stated that he’s… all these years he’s made it clear that he’s ready to go,” said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “He did say that he was going to make a last statement.” Rivas is said to have made several personal calls from a phone provided by the prison, He asked five friends to witness his lethal injection.

4:50p More than 15 Irving police officers are standing outside the Walls Unit where George Rivas will soon be executed for killing Irving Officer Aubrey Hawkins on Christmas Eve 2000.

4:42p The widow of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins, who was killed by George Rivas, will not attend the execution. She told News 8 that she felt no closure after being present at the last execution of a Texas 7 gang member in 2009.

4:40p George Rivas was served barbequeue chicken for his final meal, just like the other inmates at the Walls Unit.

4:30p George Rivas’ appeals have all been denied. Clemency is denied. The state says attorneys for the convicted killer do not plan a last-minute challenge to the scheduled 6 o’clock execution.