Posted on 12/14/2005 5:55:07 PM PST by NapkinUser
PARCHMAN, Miss. - Hired killer John B. Nixon Sr. was put to death Wednesday by lethal injection, but not before he claimed one of his sons carried out the 1985 murder of a Mississippi woman.
"I did not kill Virginia Tucker," Nixon said from the death chamber gurney. "I know within my heart, and it hurts to acknowledge, that it was a son of mine and a Spanish friend and another man from Jackson."
Nixon, 77, did not identify which of his sons he was blaming, but said he believed his oldest son, John B. Nixon Jr., did not know murder was the reason the group entered Tucker's home in Brandon.
Two of Nixon's sons - Nixon Jr. and Henry Leon Nixon - along with Gilbert Jimenez were convicted in the killing but were given lesser sentences. Corrections officials said the two sons, now out of prison, had not been in contact with their father.
A third son, Charles Lee Nixon, 37, of Davenport, Iowa, was found dead near Mount Vernon, Ill., on Nov. 26. His death was ruled a homicide.
Nixon Sr., the oldest person in the nation to be executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. nearly three decades ago, appeared to die quietly. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m.
Just before the fatal chemicals were injected, Nixon said: "Friends, I pray for everybody."
Nixon's execution on a rainy night at the sprawling state penitentiary in the rural Mississippi Delta came after a final steak-and-potato meal and visits with family. Prison officials said he appeared more withdrawn as the time for his death approached.
The one-time car mechanic died near the death row building where he had spent almost 20 years while appealing his conviction for the 1985 murder of Virginia Tucker of Brandon. Two of his sons and a third man had served time in the same prison for helping fulfill the $1,000 murder contract.
Tucker's ex-husband, Elester Joseph Ponthieux of Raymond, is serving a life sentence for hiring Nixon. Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps said Nixon on the eve of the execution had denied committing the murder, but expressed remorse shortly before his death. "'I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm sorry to the world. I'm sorry for myself and I'm sorry to the family,'" Epps quoted Nixon as saying. "At one time he even mentioned Mrs. Virginia Tucker's name."
Nixon's last chance for a reprieve ended Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Gov. Haley Barbour earlier had refused a request for clemency. Nixon issued a written statement that included an excerpt of the Mother Goose poem "Katy Cruel."
"If that I was where would I be, then should I be where I am not," the statement said. "Here am I where I must be and where I would be, I cannot."
Brian Toohey, a Cleveland, Ohio-based attorney representing Nixon, said several members of Nixon's family were on hand to witness the execution.
One of Nixon's daughters, Dorothy Nixon-Clark, remained at her home in Texas on Wednesday but released a written statement saying her father's execution "is just and called for."
"My sympathies go with the remaining family of the victim," said Nixon-Clark, who also wrote about her father's "violent outbursts towards anyone in his path." After Nixon and his companions entered the Virginia Tucker's home on Jan. 2, 1985, her husband, Thomas, apparently figured out the four attackers had been hired by Virginia Tucker's former husband. Thomas Tucker tried to bargain with them, but Nixon said the "deal's already been made."
Nixon pointed the .22 caliber pistol at Thomas Tucker but it misfired, allowing Tucker to escape outside. One of Nixon's accomplices then wrestled Virginia Tucker to the ground, and Nixon put the gun behind her head and pulled the trigger, according to the court records. She died the next day.
Nixon's attorneys had claimed a 1958 statutory rape conviction in Texas should not have been admitted as a mitigating circumstance in arguing for the death penalty. "Stepping back from this whole process, if John had been adequately represented, I think it's reasonably clear he would not have been sentenced to death," Toohey said.
Thanks, Dad.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
hes white move on now
He might have lasted longer on Death Row if he'd written a couple of vanity-press children's books...
No radar blip up at Rainbow Coalition Headquarters...
WOW....he used verse in his clemency please. He MUST be pardoned /sarc
Bye John, try to get a ride with Tookie.
Apparently there is not one guilty person on death row anywhere in America.
Jesse Jackson, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, and Joan Baez must have all been too busy to show up.
I've bemn tellin' youze, it's the guys with the middle name 'Wayne' and those with the last name 'Nixon' you gotta watch out for!
So, how come Nixon's plight wasn't plastered all over the MSM like Tookie's was?
Where were the all night vigils by the anti-death penalty crowd like Tookie got?
Is there a smell of racism in the air?
Uh, don't you mean aggravating circumstance, Mr. Mohr? No wonder these reporters can't get anything right - they're idjits!
The guy was 77. They sure cut it close. Whew!
Nixon's the One. More on the case from ProDeathPenalty.com
(scroll down...just under Tookie.)
December 14, 2005 Mississippi
Victim:Virginia Tucker, 45
Inmate: John Nixon
I'm a distant relative of Mr. John B Nixon Sr. I still talk to his 2 Sons in Texas, and their families. I can't believe he accused one of his sons, he's not the kind of person that would do that. I agree with his daughter, this exection was just. I'm glad he's finally executed, it's about time.
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