Posted on 06/30/2004 6:30:15 PM PDT by Dog Gone
 AP David Ray Harris was executed today for the murder of Mark Mays in a shootout outside Mays' Beaumont apartment. Harris, in an unrelated case, had given testimony that sent an innocent man to death row before the 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line cast doubt on the evidence. |
"Sir, in honor of a true American hero: Let's roll," David Ray Harris said when asked by a warden if he had a final statement. "Let's Roll" were the last words a passenger aboard the doomed Flight 93 was heard saying over a cell phone before attacking the hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Lord Jesus receive my spirit. I'm done warden," Harris said.
With his eyes closed, he took a deep breath and gasped three times as the lethal drugs took effect. He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later at 6:48 p.m.
Harris, 43, was sentenced to death for a 1985 shootout that killed Mark Mays after Harris tried to abduct the victim's girlfriend.
He was the 10th Texas inmate executed this year.
A federal judge had blocked the lethal injection procedure Texas uses for executions Tuesday, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her ruling Wednesday afternoon. The U.S. Supreme Court later rejected Harris's appeals.
Harris, an apprentice bricklayer from Vidor, just east of Beaumont, was convicted of killing Mays, 30, in a shootout outside Mays' Beaumont apartment.
Harris, however, may have been better known for his testimony that put an innocent man on death row for the 1976 slaying of a Dallas police officer.
Randall Dale Adams spent 12 years in prison for the shooting death of Robert Wood and in May 1979 came within three days of execution for a crime he insisted he didn't commit. The following year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his death sentence because of jury selection problems at his trial.
The case of Adams was detailed in a 1988 documentary movie, "The Thin Blue Line," that portrayed him as wrongly convicted. Adams, whose sentence was commuted to life, was released from prison in 1989.
Harris implicated Adams when questioned by authorities and never was charged in the officer's slaying. Years later he recanted his trial testimony and attested to Adams' innocence.
The restraining order lifted late Wednesday afternoon involved Texas' use of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride in succession, which Harris' attorneys contended "likely cause an excruciatingly painful death" and violates Harris' constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The inmate's lawyers also lost an appeal contending jurors deliberating his death sentence were given improper instructions. The appeal cited another Texas case from the 1980s where the high court last week ruled jurors did not have enough latitude in their instructions to give a convicted killer a life sentence.
Jury instructions have changed since Harris' trial, where his lawyers argued in their appeal that "a rational juror could have concluded that Harris' alcoholism, drug addiction and intoxication rendered the death penalty inappropriate."
Instead, Harris' jurors "were not given the opportunity to express that reasoned moral response" within their instructions, the appeal argued.
According to court records, Harris, then 24, broke into Mays' apartment before dawn Sept. 1, 1985, woke Mays and his girlfriend and led the woman outside toward his truck. Mays grabbed his own gun, exchanged shots with Harris and was fatally wounded. The woman escaped unharmed. Harris was arrested four days later.
Harris was 16 and had bragged to friends about killing a Dallas officer when he was questioned by police about three weeks after Wood's shooting in 1976. Harris said it was Adams, a hitchhiker he had picked up in a stolen car after Adams' own car had run out of gas, who killed Wood when the officer pulled them over.
Adams had no criminal record and always said he had no part in Wood's slaying.
By the time Harris changed his story about the officer's death, he had built a lengthy criminal history who was on death row for the Mays slaying. Records show he was a court-martialed former soldier and ex-con who had served time in California for robbery and burglary.
I saw that film.
That guy was a lifelong scumbag.
Good effin riddance . Every state should execute like Texas .
I think we're behind schedule this year in Texas. Unusual.
What's the hold up? I'm sure we're not running out of scumbags. Do we need more needles or what? Where do I send my donation? A .22 short behind the ear is just as quick and painless. Got a box here somewhere. Give me an address to send 'em to.....
I'm glad he found Jesus. I'm proud the Great State of Texas made the meeting possible.
"I think we're behind schedule this year in Texas. Unusual."
Well, we have six months to play catch-up.
We've been stalled by some cases claiming that the inmates are retarded (they keep raising the bar and eventually they'll include anyone who votes Democrat).
this was up on yahoo, but pulled.
"We've been stalled by some cases claiming that the inmates are retarded (they keep raising the bar and eventually they'll include anyone who votes Democrat)."
Hmmmmm. . . that *might* be a workable defense if you think about it. Depends upon how good the defense lawyer is and how Republican the jury is. I'll admit that I tend to think that any honest person that would vote for a Democrat *is* a retard.
Ah! That's the out -- honest. If you are convicted of a crime you are not honest. If they are guilty they might not be voting for Democrats because they were stupid. They could be voting for Democrats as a rice bowl issue.
Maybe because of the atrocious writing:
Harris was 16 and had bragged to friends about killing a Dallas officer when he was questioned by police about three weeks after Wood's shooting in 1976.The first sentence is immensely ambiguous and confusing, and I'm not sure there's any way to make a coherent scenario out of it. The second sentence doesn't even make sense.[...]
By the time Harris changed his story about the officer's death, he had built a lengthy criminal history who was on death row for the Mays slaying.
"use of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride in succession, which Harris' attorneys contended "likely cause an excruciatingly painful death"
This is complete crap. sodium thiopental is also known as sodium pentothol. It is a general anesthetic. Takes effect essentially instantly. He would experience pleasant going to sleep.
It used to be used very regularly for inducing anesthesia prior to surgery but it is less used now.
I have had pentothol x2 with my wisdom teeth. Didn't hurt at all.
Good riddance; turn the remains over to Waste Management.
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