Texas executes its first inmate of 2016 after late appeals

[webfact]

Texas executes its first inmate of 2016 after late appeals
MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man put to death Wednesday for a killing 15 years ago became the busy death penalty state's first prisoner executed in 2016.

Richard Masterson, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m., 25 minutes after the lethal injection began.

"I'm all right with this," he said. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it." He said he was being sent "to a better place."

He mouthed a kiss to relatives and friends who were watching the execution through a window and told them he loved them. As the pentobarbital took effect, he began snoring. After about a dozen snores, he stopped moving.

Masterson had claimed the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt was accidental and had several appeals before the courts, including four with the U.S. Supreme Court. His last-day efforts to stop his execution were rejected.

Texas is the nation's busiest death penalty state, having carried out 13 lethal injections in 2015, which accounted for nearly half of the 28 executions nationwide.

Masterson had testified at his trial that the death of the 35-year-old Honeycutt in Houston happened accidentally during a chokehold that was part of a sex act. The two had met at a bar and then went to Honeycutt's apartment.

Honeycutt was an entertainer who performed dressed as a woman. Honeycutt's stage name was Brandi Houston.

No family members or friends of Honeycutt witnessed Masterson being executed.

Court records showed Masterson confessed to police, told others about the killing and acknowledged Honeycutt was slain on purpose in a letter to the Texas attorney general in 2012.

"I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state's governor. "It was no accident."

Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified he was robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked.

Masterson's attorneys argued Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient and that his prolonged drug use and then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when he spoke to police and in the letter to Abbott.

Lawyers also contended trial jurors were given an incomplete instruction before their deliberations and that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections.

State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected, including by jurors at Masterson's 2002 trial. Federal courts had no jurisdiction in the execution drug secrecy because it was a state matter, they contended.

Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15. Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his trial for the killing and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt at a bar and they went to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of an autoerotic sex act.

Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he failed to show up for work.

Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger — an element they had to agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate.

Masterson's case recently drew the attention of Pope Francis, who has reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment.

At least eight other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the coming months, including one set for next week.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-21

[ezzra]

I'm all right with this," he said. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it." He said he was being sent "to a better place."

No truer words were ever spoken, pity that it take a needle to bring out the best in people.....

[oxo1947]

I'm all right with this," he said. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it." He said he was being sent "to a better place."

No truer words were ever spoken, pity that it take a needle to bring out the best in people.....

So if no truer words were ever spoken.........

maybe you can enlighten us on where the "Better Place" he is being sent to is...............

[manarak]

I'm all right with this," he said. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it." He said he was being sent "to a better place."

No truer words were ever spoken, pity that it take a needle to bring out the best in people.....

So if no truer words were ever spoken.........

maybe you can enlighten us on where the "Better Place" he is being sent to is...............

the graveyard.

"better place" for him, but seen from our perspective.

[up2u2]

Backward and barbaric.

[arunsakda]

Barbarism that brings America down to the lowest level of those we criticise for Human rights violations. Iran, Saudi Arabia, China. Makes no sense whatsoever other than to sate the blood-lust of right wingers.

I really cannot for the life of me comprehend how death penalty is in accordance with the values we supposedly support. Completely beyond my comprehension.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited January 21, 2016 by arunsakda

[hawker9000]

Barbarism that brings America down to the lowest level of those we criticise for Human rights violations. Iran, Saudi Arabia, China. Makes no sense whatsoever other than to sate the blood-lust of right wingers.

I really cannot for the life of me comprehend how death penalty is in accordance with the values we supposedly support. Completely beyond my comprehension.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Obviously so. And while your disability is saddening, it really isn't relevant to the case at hand.

[arunsakda]

Meanwhile has Texas become crime-free overflowing with Walmart Guns and liberal application of Capital Punishment?

Quite the contrary, It is not a deterrent to crime. Two wrongs do not make a right. It is applied in a way that is fundamentally racist.

innocent people have and will continue to be put down by the State, and it drags America down to the level of the lowest of the low nations

of human rights abuse. (Saudi, China, Iran).

It is a failed policy that serves no good purpose, .

[chickenslegs]

Backward and barbaric.

Yes, he was.

And, he was allowed to live for 15 more years. Which is 15 more than his victim.

[chuckd]

Meanwhile has Texas become crime-free overflowing with Walmart Guns and liberal application of Capital Punishment?

Quite the contrary, It is not a deterrent to crime. Two wrongs do not make a right. It is applied in a way that is fundamentally racist.

innocent people have and will continue to be put down by the State, and it drags America down to the level of the lowest of the low nations

of human rights abuse. (Saudi, China, Iran).

It is a failed policy that serves no good purpose, .

Care to cite some examples of innocents put down by the state of Texas in the last 25 years?

[GeorgesAbitbol]

Meanwhile has Texas become crime-free overflowing with Walmart Guns and liberal application of Capital Punishment?

Quite the contrary, It is not a deterrent to crime. Two wrongs do not make a right. It is applied in a way that is fundamentally racist.

innocent people have and will continue to be put down by the State, and it drags America down to the level of the lowest of the low nations

of human rights abuse. (Saudi, China, Iran).

It is a failed policy that serves no good purpose, .

Care to cite some examples of innocents put down by the state of Texas in the last 25 years?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/08/03/fresh-doubts-over-a-texas-execution/?wpisrc=al_national

[chuckd]

Meanwhile has Texas become crime-free overflowing with Walmart Guns and liberal application of Capital Punishment?

Quite the contrary, It is not a deterrent to crime. Two wrongs do not make a right. It is applied in a way that is fundamentally racist.

innocent people have and will continue to be put down by the State, and it drags America down to the level of the lowest of the low nations

of human rights abuse. (Saudi, China, Iran).

It is a failed policy that serves no good purpose, .

Care to cite some examples of innocents put down by the state of Texas in the last 25 years?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/08/03/fresh-doubts-over-a-texas-execution/?wpisrc=al_national

Did you miss the word "innocents" put forth in my post?

He was convicted of murdering his three daughters by a jury of his peers and conviction was upheld through 12 years of an appeals process.

Now try and find something that is relevant.

Edited January 22, 2016 by chuckd

[GeorgesAbitbol]

Meanwhile has Texas become crime-free overflowing with Walmart Guns and liberal application of Capital Punishment?

Quite the contrary, It is not a deterrent to crime. Two wrongs do not make a right. It is applied in a way that is fundamentally racist.

innocent people have and will continue to be put down by the State, and it drags America down to the level of the lowest of the low nations

of human rights abuse. (Saudi, China, Iran).

It is a failed policy that serves no good purpose, .

Care to cite some examples of innocents put down by the state of Texas in the last 25 years?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/08/03/fresh-doubts-over-a-texas-execution/?wpisrc=al_national

Did you miss the word "innocents" put forth in my post?

He was convicted of murdering his three daughters by a jury of his peers and conviction was upheld through 12 years of an appeals process.

Now try and find something that is relevant.

Now try to google this name and see if he was really considered guilty beyond any reasonable doubts:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/letter-from-witness-casts-further-doubt-on-2004-texas-execution/2015/03/09/d9ebdab8-c451-11e4-ad5c-3b8ce89f1b89_story.html

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news-events-exonerations/cameron-todd-willingham-wrongfully-convicted-and-executed-in-texas

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent

http://camerontoddwillingham.com/

I even copy the headlines so you can try to read them here, as clicking on links seem to hard for ya:

Texas Executed An Innocent Father After Prosecutor Hid Evidence In Kids’ Arson Deaths"

Executed But Possibly Innocent

Cameron Todd Willingham - Innocent and Executed

Texas Executed an Innocent Person

Rick Perry executed an innocent dad after prosecutor hid evidence in kids’ arson deaths: Texas bar

Is this enough or will you hide behind : "I trust my country and no death penalty have been given wrongly, especially in Texas where the truth and the moderatio always prevails...!" ?

Edited January 22, 2016 by GeorgesAbitbol

[chuckd]

I've heard about this case for years. Find me one court or Judge that claims he was innocent and executed unjustly.

All you have are a bunch of death penalty foes that will go to the ends of the earth to prove their point.

In the end, he was convicted by a jury of his crimes, sentenced to death by a Judge and executed in accordance with existing law.

All you have is speculation and guess work.

PS: I did read your link. It might surprise you to know I read nearly all links that are presented to me, even from the far out left.

[GeorgesAbitbol]

Only guess and speculation?

Well it seems Gerald Hurst who was a chemist and fire investigator, not really a "far left" guy...

"Nationally known fire investigator Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene, and said in December 2004 that "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire."

In 2004, Hurst was asked to review the case of Texas death row inmate Cameron Todd Willingham, who was sentenced to death after a fire in which his three children died. By that time, Hurst's work had contributed to ten exonerations. Hurst was contacted only a couple of weeks before Willingham's scheduled execution. He issued a report in which he criticized the conclusions of the original fire investigators in light of more current fire investigation knowledge. Hurst said that the fire had not been a case of arson. Hurst's report was faxed to the office of Texas governor Rick Perry on the day that Willingham was scheduled to die. However, the execution proceeded because Perry was unconvinced that the report provided a basis for a stay of execution.

In 2006, the Innocence Project brought together a group of arson experts to review the Willingham case. The panel agreed with Hurst's conclusions. A 2009 review by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found that the original arson determination had been made using "flawed science".^[9] Hurst was featured in Incendiary, a documentary film on the Willingham case.

He was sentenced by a judge, a judge which has attracted a lot of doubts upon him for this execution.

Of course having all those left guys, like the washington Post investigation (a newspaper well known for its regular "Che" covers ) is just a dust i the well oiled laws of the country. It is not like executed were afterward recognized innocents, but too late unfortunately...

And this condemnation is still under high scrutiny, and not only by left guys...

I appreciate your read my link but I highly doubt you spent time to read them carefully and ask yourself why so many results in google show up against this execution..

Edited January 22, 2016 by GeorgesAbitbol