Inmate who won delay awaits 2nd date with executioner

Associated Press ^ | January 28, 2004 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Inmate who won delay awaits 2nd date with executioner

08:15 PM CST on Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – For the second time in about seven weeks, condemned prisoner Billy Frank Vickers is racing the clock.

Mr. Vickers, 58, was set to return to the Texas death house today to await lethal injection for the slaying of a Lamar County grocery store owner.

Mr. Vickers spent about 10 hours in a holding cell outside the death chamber Dec. 9 while the courts considered an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the lethal drug combination used in executions. When the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could not resolve the case by midnight, the execution warrant expired and he was returned to death row.

It was the first time since Texas resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982 that a condemned inmate's death warrant expired without a resolution.

The next day, inmate Kevin Lee Zimmerman won a court-ordered reprieve in the same appeal. It was lifted less than a week later when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal, clearing the way for new execution dates for both men. Mr. Zimmerman was put to death last week.

The assertion that the drug combination resulted in cruel and unusual punishment was raised again in his case, but it was rejected on a 5-4 Supreme Court vote.

The drug issue is included in new appeals pending in Mr. Vickers' case. Mr. Vickers' attorney, Keith Hampton, also contends that it was cruel and unusual punishment for Mr. Vickers to have to wait in the death house for an execution that didn't happen.

Mr. Vickers was convicted of killing grocery store owner Phillip Kinslow, 50, in 1993 while trying to steal a money bag he normally carried near Mr. Kinslow's home outside Arthur City, just south of the Red River.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/012804dntexexecute.b6cbb.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Reference also this article (detailed in post #19):

12-09-2003
Scheduled execution is first of three
25th execution for Texas in 2003

[MeekOneGOP]

One of the December stays ...

Inmate who won delay awaits 2nd date with executioner

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[annyokie]

Morbid but entertaining site about last meal here:

http://homecooking.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fdeadmaneating.blogspot.com%2F

[LibWhacker]

Not much doubt about his guilt, if you ask me.

[Tacis]

I understand he is now appealing on the basis that Mexican citizens can appeal to some Eurinal court and, therefore, he as a US born citizen, should have at least equal appeals. If that doesn't work, his neocommunist-fight-American-institutions-in-every-way supporters will appeal the fact that most executions, unfairly, take place on even days, rather than odd days.

These guys will eventually propose a let's-p**s-on-the-victim's-family-hour every time a killer is flushed. C'MON, THROW THE SWITCH!!! (Yeah, for you literalists, I KNOW Texas uses lethal injection!)

[cripplecreek]

just curious. do you guys happen to have a site like this one in texas ? http://www.state.mi.us/mdoc/asp/otis2.html

[VRWCmember]

THROW THE SWITCH!!! (Yeah, for you literalists, I KNOW Texas uses lethal injection!)

Yes, but isn't it a switch that turns on the flow (or releases the flow) of lethal chemicals into the IV? So therefore, throw the switch could still be linguistically and literally correct.

[Poohbah]

BTW, why do they sterilize the needle?

[Paleo Conservative]

BTW, why do they sterilize the needle?

Probably just in case he gets a stay. If they had to reomove the needle and take him back to his cell, the prison staff would not have to worry about the needle wound getting infected. That way he won't be able to sue on the grounds that being stuck with non-sterile needles is cruel and unusual punishment.

[onyx]

Good post, LW. Makes it crystal clear he deserves to be put to death. Thanks for pinging me Meek. I do so enjoy knowing there's one less cretin in our midst.

[RightthinkinAmerican]

Everything's "cruel and unusual". If they want a little demonstation, let me at a few of the scumbags - I'll show them what cruel and unusual looks like. Anybody got a bamboo shoot?

We've mollycoddled our dregs of society so much for so long that they forget what "cruel and unusual" was meant to prevent - actual physical torture. It's a shame you even have to point out some of this crap to them - but they're COMPLETELY DEVOID OF REASON.

[Vigilanteman]

Simple solution. Hang the s.o.b. Hanging was commonplace when the constitution was written. Trouble is, we don't have any experienced hangmen left in this country. The perp would probably slowly strangle. But it was his choice, suing to block lethal injection.

A few more lethal injections get changed to hanging, and the hangman would get the hang of doing it properly. Practive makes perfect. The nice thing about hanging is you can do several at a time. They did 38 in Mankato, Minnesota on December 26, 1862. It would sure be a lot more efficient getting all the protestors out of the way with one mega-event every few months.

[RLK]

Trouble is, we don't have any experienced hangmen left in this country.

-------------------------

Actually, the army had/has a manual for hanging as part of the military specialty. The science has not been lost at all.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks. I think the TDCJ took that info off their site.

They redesigned their website, and I think they eliminated the last meal request section.

I don't know why. I always found it interesting to see what the guys requested. Some requested outrageous things, others regular meals, others requested 'interesting' meals. I think it told a lot about their personalities ...

[annyokie]

Yes, they did remove it from their site. It's fascinating, IMO. I can't get over all the hamburger, pizza and fried chicken requests.

Were it me, I think I'd want something less pedestrian.

[annyokie]

The final meal request of Billy Frank Vickers, Texas, January 28, 2004.

A four egg extra onion and cheese omelet with a bowl of chili, four thick slices of fried bologna, four pieces of toast with jelly, one chopped-up onion stir-fried, four slices of cheese, pan fried potatoes with a bowl of gravy, sliced tomato, hot coffee, black walnut or vanilla ice cream and a cigar.

The request for the cigar was denied.

Here's Billy's last meal.

[MeekOneGOP]

just curious. do you guys happen to have a site like this one in texas ? http://www.state.mi.us/mdoc/asp/otis2.html

[Michigan] Offender Tracking Information System.

On Texas Death Row we track them until a short time after the juices flow. Then, we just plant them, I think.

If you mean other than Death Row murderers, I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe someone else can help with that information or knows someone that might be able to advise ? ...

[Dog Gone]

Vickers executed after second trip to death house

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE - Condemned inmate Billy Frank Vickers, expressing remorse and taking credit for more than a dozen other killings, was executed this evening for the slaying of a North Texas grocery store owner during a botched robbery almost 11 years ago.

Vickers, 58, acknowledged fatally shooting Phillip Kinslow, 50, near his home outside Arthur City, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas on March 12, 1993. In December, Vickers insisted he wasn't responsible for Kinslow's death.

"It was nothing personal, I was just trying to make a living," Vickers said.

"I wish to say to my family, I'm sorry for all the grief I've put you through," he said after he was strapped to the death chamber gurney.

Vickers then said there were "several more that I had done or that I had been a part of, and I'm sorry but I am not sure how many. There must be a dozen or 14, I believe, all total."

He died at 6:21 p.m., six minutes after lethal dose began.

[livius]

In December, Vickers insisted he wasn't responsible for Kinslow's death. "I was just trying to make a living..."

Guess Vickers still just didn't get it. Well, at least the jury and the state did.

[deport]

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/offender_information.htm

Not sure if this is what you are looking for