You know... that old chestnut."
Posted on 07/07/2004 5:00:27 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Texas death row inmate avoided execution when the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his lethal injection that had been scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Troy Kunkle, 38, was set to die for fatally shooting a Corpus Christi man during a robbery nearly 20 years ago when Kunkle was an 18-year-old high school student in San Antonio.
The court, in a brief order delivered Wednesday morning, halted the punishment indefinitely.
The reprieve came early enough in the day so Kunkle never was moved from death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit near Livingston. Executions are carried out in Huntsville, about 45 miles to the west.
Kunkle's appeal before the high court contended jurors who deliberated his death sentence were not allowed to properly consider his drug and alcohol abuse history and that he was on drugs and alcohol the night of Aug. 12, 1984, when Steven Horton, 29, was shot in the head and robbed of $13.
"Evidence demonstrated that Mr. Kunkle was the product of a troubled and turbulent home environment, including parents who had been medically treated for depression, which would naturally have left him psychologically and emotionally scarred," his appeal said.
Kunkle's rights to due process also were violated when his trial judge refused to allow his appeals lawyers to have a state-paid full transcript of nearly six days' worth of questioning of potential jurors, his appeal said.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday rejected requests that his sentence be commuted to life or he be given a six-month reprieve.
According to evidence at his capital murder trial, Kunkle, after shooting Horton, said: "Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath." The words are lyrics from a song called "No Remorse" from an album "Kill 'Em All" by the heavy metal rock group Metallica.
Kunkle declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his execution date but told the San Antonio Express-News in 1996 his life was transformed while on death row thanks to prison religious ministers.
Kunkle and four friends got high on LSD and marijuana and were drinking large amounts of beer when they decided to drive from San Antonio to the beach at Corpus Christi, 140 miles to the southeast.
Court records show they robbed a man of $7 at a convenience store, then drove around Corpus Christi looking for someone else to rob.
Horton was walking home after playing pool at a bar and the youths offered him a ride. When he got into their car, testimony showed Kunkle urged one of his companions to shoot Horton. When the friend refused, Kunkle grabbed the .22-caliber pistol. As they drove behind a skating rink, Horton was shot in the back of the head. His body was pushed out of the car and his wallet taken.
Kunkle's girlfriend, Lora Lee Zaiontz, received a life prison term. Two others received 30-year sentences for murder and have since been released from prison. No charges were filed against a fifth person in the car.
Ping!
And he was 18 when the murder was done. 18 years growing up and out of custody...20 waiting for execution and counting.
How long does it take to execute criminals in Russia these days?
I'd say that his drug abuse increases his eligibility for death, not lessens it.
Why are these scumbags allowed to sit on death row for twenty years? It certainly didn't take long for the government to execute Timothy McVeigh, so we know that swift executions are possible in this country.
You know... that old chestnut."
I agree. This quote about General Robert E. Lee sums up my attitude towards death row inmates.
"May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none."
General Joe Hooker
He can't be executed until he pays royalties to Metallica. RIAA and Lars Ulrich are quite insistent on this point.
Here is pretty boy:http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/offendersondrow.htm
Let me understand...if your parents were clinically depressed and being treated THEN you must be psychologically scarred???? I might understand it if they were untreated but I sure don't understand how this works if they were being treated...what a load
Ti-i-i-me is on my side, yes it is
Ti-i-i-me is on my side, yes it is....
(To understand this, rent the movie FALLEN starring Denzel Washington)
How long does it take to execute criminals in Russia these days?
Not sure about Russia, but can tell you that in most Muslim countries, if you're sentenced to death, it will be carried out within a week(the Friday after sentencing). Think there is a little something that can be gleaned from that.
Or was it...
Imagine there's no Heaven,
it's easy if you try.
No Hell below us.
Above us, only sky.
Imagine all the people,
living for today....
That sounds fitting, to me.
The supreme court staying his execution does not surprise me in the least. The Supreme Court has degenerated into two decent individuals, Clarence Thomas and Scalla, and seven perverts and degenerates.
"Evidence demonstrated that Mr. Kunkle was the product of a troubled and turbulent home environment, including parents who had been medically treated for depression, which would naturally have left him psychologically and emotionally scarred," his appeal said.
While the above oration would wring tears from a statute, I believe that Mr. Horton is still in a grave while the "poor victim of society" is enjoying the good life.
Hopfully GWB when relected will fight a little harder to get some conservatives on the courts. I think the next president will get the chance to appoint one supreme court justice.
Russia does not have the death penalty anymore (I could be wrong)
Soon the ACLU will be using this case to argue that it's racially unfair, because the white guy gets away with murder.
Just one more of many, many cases in which it is DRUGS--not the need for cash for a fix--that leads to heinous crimes.
This is BS. How many times are jurors shielded from prior arrest/conviction information because it would bias their decision?
Past drug and alcohol abuse history only serves as damning evidence in a drunk driving murder or a drug possession/dealing conviction (and you can bet that jurors would be shielded from such a past).
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