State (Texas) Executes Convicted Killer

KWTX ^ | June 6, 2006 | KWTX

[COEXERJ145]

(June 6, 2006)--Texas executed its eleventh death-row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening in Huntsville.

Thirty-four-year-old Timothy Tyler Titsworth was put to death for the 1992 slaying of his 26-year-old girlfriend in the mobile home they shared in Amarillo.

Christine Marie Sossaman was bludgeoned about 16 times with a dull ax as she slept.

Evidence showed Titsworth was high on crack cocaine at the time of the July 23,1992, attack.

[COEXERJ145]

[Izzy Dunne]

Dontcha know he took some crap for THAT name!

[COEXERJ145]

Ping to You.

[Izzy Dunne]

What the heck is "shock probation", anyway?

[Perdogg]

good riddance. Angel Ramirez is two and half weeks away!!!

[dighton]

Last words, “Don’t practice your alliteration on me.”

[tubebender]

GO TEXAS!!!

[Gay State Conservative]

I read once that one can't get the chair in Texas for *simply* killing someone.I think I read that another crime has to be committed along with the murder.

Does anyone know if this is true and,if so,how do you get the chair.Must you have kidnapped the person you killed,or raped her or something like that?

[sinkspur]

Does anyone know if this is true and,if so,how do you get the chair.Must you have kidnapped the person you killed,or raped her or something like that?

True. Murder cannot be a capital crime in Texas unless the accused was in the process of committing another crime at the same time, or the victim is a law enforcement officer or child under the age of 12.

[elcid1970]

I was at a party. A woman in a _very_ low cut dress sidled past and I thought to myself,

"Wow! Two pickets to Tittsburgh!

Anyway, justice was finally served.

[LibWhacker]

As good as Texas is, the process is still waaaaaaay too slow, imo. Guys like this should be executed within a few months, at most, of their convictions. If it was good enough for our forefathers, it's good enough for us.

[COEXERJ145]

(1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman;

(2) the person intentionally commits the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat under Section 22.07(a)(1), (3), (4), (5), or (6);

(3) the person commits the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;

(4) the person commits the murder while escaping or attempting to escape from a penal institution;

(5) the person, while incarcerated in a penal institution, murders another:

(A) who is employed in the operation of the penal institution; or

(B) with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;

(6) the person:

(A) while incarcerated for an offense under this section or Section 19.02, murders another; or

(B) while serving a sentence of life imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section 20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;

(7) the person murders more than one person:

(A) during the same criminal transaction; or

(B) during different criminal transactions but

the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct;

(8) the person murders an individual under six years of age; or

(9) the person murders another person in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court, or a municipal court.

(b) An offense under this section is a capital felony.

(c) If the jury or, when authorized by law, the judge does not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of an offense under this section, he may be convicted of murder or of any other lesser included offense.

[Lancer_N3502A]

I hope he slow roasts in hell.

[Gay State Conservative]

True. Murder cannot be a capital crime in Texas unless the accused was in the process of committing another crime at the same time..

So,in other words,if you break into someone's house and,after having done so,murder him/her you can get the chair but if you just shoot someone as they're walking down the street you can't?

Does the "other crime" have to be of a particular severity e.g.,felony vs misdemeanor?

[FlingWingFlyer]

Another "white non-Hispanic" killer bites the dust. He won't be missed.

[Gay State Conservative]

Thanks for the info! I love Ron White's line about the death penalty: "some states are trying to abolish the death penalty,in my state they're putting in an express lane".

[H. Paul Pressler IV]

With a name like Timmy Tittsworth anyone of us could be an axe murderer.

[SkyDancer]

(7) the person murders more than one person:

Which according to Ron White puts you in the express lane ....

[Frank_2001]

The "other crime" must have been the theft of the credit cards and automobile -anyhow why people steal credit cards is beyond me, it's basically telling everyone "Here I am! Come get me!!!"