Posted on 07/28/2005 6:03:39 PM PDT by GW and Twins Pawpaw
The State of Texas avenged the death of a young woman from Minnesota this evening. She fought valiantly and died with honor. Then the perp carved an 'X' into her chest. I wish her parents respite from their grief.
David Martinez
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/martinezdavid.htm
buh bye......
Would they have executed him if his victim was from...say..Idaho?
Where didja get the info that Martinez had carved an "X" into her chest? Did I miss that in the two links you furnished?
You are asking the wrong person. Perhaps the person who posted the article has the information. Not me.
If he had done the crime in Minnesota, he would be out in less than 20 years since the judges and parole boards are apparently more compassionate (with the criminals, but not the families of the victim). Oh, those mean Texans.
Go Minnesota Judges! Keep letting the bad guys out. But when you do, make sure they live at your back door and not mine.
nice to be down there?? in a state that really dispatches the bad actors?? we can dream , back up here in PC Babel
Inmate executed for slaying of Minnesota student
HUNTSVILLE — A former Austin drifter was executed Thursday evening for the rape-slaying of a Minnesota woman attacked on an Austin jogging trail eight years ago.
David Martinez received lethal injection for the 1997 killing of Kiersa Paul, a 24-year-old former art student from Minnesota who said she was going to meet him at a popular Austin park.
"Only the sky and green grass goes on forever, and today is a good day to die," Martinez said in a brief statement before being put to death.
As the drugs began taking effect, Martinez sputtered and gasped several times before losing consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the drugs began flowing into his arms.
Paul's parents, holding hands with another of their daughters, watched through a window a few feet away from Martinez. He made brief eye contact but said nothing to them.
As other witnesses, including his mother, entered a chamber viewing area, Martinez nodded and smiled.
Martinez, 29, was the 10th condemned prisoner to receive lethal injection this year in Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state. Court documents illustrate a grim environment for David Martinez as he grew up.
His mother may have abused and neglected him. Their house was filled with bird feces. His father was living elsewhere in an openly gay relationship and involved in the manufacture of sadomasochistic sex toys. He may have been abused there as well.
What the courts were asked, however, as the condemned killer faced execution Thursday evening, was whether those factors should have been explored more thoroughly so jurors could have better considered whether Martinez deserved life in prison rather than the death penalty.
"The state violated his due process because the same district attorney's office that was prosecuting David was also charged with the responsibility of investigating and prosecuting those persons who abused him, and they didn't do so," Martinez's appeals lawyer, Gary Taylor, said. "Therefore, they denied us that evidence."
The appeal was dismissed Wednesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Taylor said he was prepared to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which earlier this year refused to review Martinez's capital murder conviction for the death of Kiersa Paul.
"A lot of that came out during trial," Darla Davis, one of the prosecutors, said Wednesday.
Authorities never had credible evidence Martinez was sexually assaulted, and if such evidence existed, Martinez "was sitting in jail and had every opportunity and motivation to let us know," Bryan Case, appellate division director in the Travis County District Attorney's office, said in the Austin American-Statesman.
Martinez, from death row, refused to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his scheduled punishment.
Eight years ago last week, Paul told her sister she was heading out on her bicycle to a popular Austin park along the Barton Creek greenbelt to meet a guy she felt sorry for and knew only as "Wolf," which was Martinez's nickname. The pair apparently had met through mutual friends.
The next morning, Paul's body was found by a jogger. She'd been raped, strangled, her throat cut at least eight times and an "X" etched into her chest.
Martinez was arrested days later. At his trial in 1998, a Travis County jury deliberated only 15 minutes before convicting him of capital murder. Two weeks later, they decided he should be put to death.
Paul, whose family lived in Bloomington, Minn., was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota and came to Austin to visit a sister. She decided to stay, finding work as a cashier at a bakery.
Martinez was on probation for a 1995 conviction for possession of an explosive device, a homemade hand grenade police found in his car during a traffic stop.
"This was a young man who had a very difficult life," recalled Bill White, one of Martinez's trial lawyers. "He couldn't stay with his mother, he couldn't stay with his father, and he found people who would take him in."
At times, he lived on the streets.
When Martinez was arrested, he had Paul's bicycle, her backpack and a book bag. A roommate who saw Martinez's new bicycle had called police.
DNA tests tied him to the crime scene and the victim.
At least eight other Texas death row inmates have execution dates, two in each of the next four months. After Martinez, next on the schedule is Gary Sterling, set to die Aug. 10 for the 1988 robbery and slaying of a Navarro County man.
"The predator nickname turned out prophetic. The next morning, Paul was found dead. She'd been raped, strangled, her throat cut at least eight times and an "X" etched into her chest."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3285402
sorry.....I know I need to pay better attention.
Thanks for the link.
God bless the victim. I hope the perpetrator was able to confess his sins and be forgiven before he died. He sounds like an evil man that the paper is making excuses for. Only God knows the truth.
I imagine if he'd committed the crime in Minnesota that he'd probably die of old age.
NEXT!
They should fry his daddy, too.
I waiting for this POS to be executed. He plead guilty, said he wanted to waive his right to appeal. His execution date was set.
And then that group which advocates against the Death Penalty talked him into going through with his appeal.
This sub-human, Perry Austin, murdered a 9-year boy who lived in this neighborhood.
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/austinperry.htm
This link indicates that the execution of Perry Austin was was carried out in 2003 -- but this link hasn't been updated. Instead the execution has been stayed -- to allow for an appeal.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/03/sep03.htm
I saw it in the Houston Comical this afternoon.
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