Posted on 02/12/2004 7:25:20 PM PST by deport
Feb. 12, 2004, 8:34PM
Convicted killer in two knife slayings executed
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- A former bull rider from New Mexico was executed tonight for fatally slashing and stabbing two young women more than 10 years ago while he was on probation for a drug conviction.
"Warden, at this time I have no statement, sir," Bobby Ray Hopkins said when asked if he had a final statement.
As the lethal drugs began taking effect, he gasped and gurgled. Eight minutes later at 8:19 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Hopkins, 36, was the sixth Texas inmate put to death this year and the second in as many nights. His execution was held up about two hours while last-minute appeals were considered.
Hopkins insisted he wasn't responsible for the slayings of Sandi Marbut, 18, and her cousin, Jennifer Weston, 19, at their apartment in Grandview in Johnson County, about 35 miles south of Fort Worth.
Marbut was cut about 40 times with a dull knife, its blade blunted to about 3 inches. Weston, a cousin from Indiana, had 66 wounds.
Their bodies were found July 31, 1993, by Marbut's father, who lived across the street.
"Unless you've experienced it, you can't imagine it," Terry Marbut, who planned to witness the execution, told The Associated Press. "It changes your perspective on everything. It was extremely traumatic."
Hopkins' lawyers had filed motions for clemency, for a reprieve and asked in appeals that DNA evidence used at Hopkins' trial be retested. They also were questioning the legality of a confession he gave.
Hopkins, from Lea County, N.M., was on probation for dealing cocaine when his name surfaced as authorities canvassed a crowd that gathered outside the home where the killings occurred. Bystanders told officers Hopkins, who was wanted for a probation violation, previously was at a party there and had argued with Sandi Marbut over $40 missing from her purse.
A Texas Ranger tracked down Hopkins. A blood spot on his boot matched the blood of the victims. A bootprint from the slaying scene matched Hopkins' boot.
Hopkins was questioned eight times and held in isolation for 15 days, refusing to confess. A detective he knew from Hobbs, N.M., came to talk with him and during a four-hour interview Hopkins told how he went to the home, a struggle ensued and he stabbed Marbut. He also said he was cut in the fight.
The confession became an issue in Hopkins' appeals because of questions about whether he was properly informed of his rights and whether it should have been allowed into evidence. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, while saying it was troubled by the methods used to obtain the confession, last year characterized the error as harmless because of overwhelming circumstantial evidence against Hopkins.
His blood was found in numerous places in the apartment, including a light switch, a wall, a sock, a bathroom rug and faucet, a shoe and a magazine, a newspaper article in one of the victims' purse, the top of a stairway and a drawer in a bedroom.
Hopkins accused authorities of taking vials of his blood and sprinkling the contents throughout the crime scene.
Doug Allen, who was police chief in Grandview at the time, called the allegations "fairy tales."
"Anyone who sat through the case down there has no doubt who the murderer was," Allen said this week.
Hopkins refused to speak with reporters while on death row, but on an anti-death penalty Web site he wrote of his innocence and "wrongful conviction."
Evidence showed Marbut was sleeping downstairs and was attacked first. The commotion likely woke Weston, who came from a second floor and was confronted by her killer.
On Wednesday, Edward Lagrone, 46, maintaining his innocence while strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney, received lethal injection for the 1991 slaying of a 10-year-old girl he impregnated. Two elderly women, great-aunts of the girl, also were killed in the shotgun rampage in Fort Worth.
On Tuesday, Cameron Willingham, 36, is set for lethal injection for the deaths of his three children -- a 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins -- in what authorities said was a fire he set at their home in Corsicana two days before Christmas in 1991.
Bobby Ray Hopkins http://ccadp.org/bobbyrayhopkins.html.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm
..next!
Warden; Well, we'll get back to you later then Bobby, have a good evening.
I'm disappointed there's not one scheduled for Valentines day. I'll be glad if California ever acheives the efficiency of Texas in carrying out the death penalty.
I feel your pain!
Stupid kooks as well. Don't they know death row is in Huntsville not BCS?
So where do they protest? I can't imagine they'd want to protest on the Quad.
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