Posted on 08/31/2006 8:34:26 PM PDT by DuxFan4ever
HUNTSVILLE — Insisting he was innocent, condemned inmate Derrick Frazier was executed this evening for the slayings of a South Texas mother and her teenage son at their home nine years ago. "I am innocent. An innocent man is being put to death. I've professed my innocence for nine years and I will continue to profess my innocence for another nine years," Frazier said.
--snip--
Frazier, 29, was the second convicted murderer to die for the shooting deaths of Betsy Nutt, 41, and her son, Cody, 15. Three months ago, Frazier's companion, Jermaine Herron, was executed.
He was the 20th Texas prisoner executed this year, one more than all of last year in the nation's most active death penalty state. At least seven other executions are scheduled for the remainder of year.
"He deserved just what he got, only a lot worse," Jerry Nutt, who lost his wife and only child in the killings, said after watching Frazier die. He also witnessed Herron's execution.
"I just wish I could have done it myself," he said. "I'd kind of liked to have been the one to push the button.
"I know that sounds pretty cold, but when you lose someone like I've lost, my wife and son, and you hear animals like that, playing the system, getting a stay, cruel and unusual punishment is us waiting on justice."
Less than an hour before his scheduled execution time, the justices rejected three petitions and requests for reprieves.
Frazier, who was born in Dallas and grew up in Galveston, blamed a coerced confession for convincing a jury to convict him of capital murder and the decision that he should be put to death.
"I wasn't there. I did not commit the crime," Frazier, also known by his Muslim name, Hasan al-Shakur, said last week from death row near Livingston.
But Michael Sheppard, the Refugio County district attorney who prosecuted Frazier and Herron, said Frazier was "cool as a cucumber" as he talked about the June 26, 1997, slayings.
"There are videotapes," Sheppard said of Frazier's discussions with detectives following his arrest. "He's sitting on a couch, drinking a Coke.
"In his confession he talked about details only someone in the house would know, where the bodies were, how many bullets were in them, where they were shot. They both said Herron shot Cody, handed the gun to Frazier, and Frazier shot Betsy Nutt. And bear in mind, they're giving these statements separately."
Evidence showed that when the pair knocked on the door of the Nutt family's mobile home, claiming car trouble and needing to make a phone call, the woman invited them in, gave them iced tea and offered to drive them in her pickup the 10 miles to town.
She was shot twice in the head. Her son was shot four times, including two shots to the head. Jerry Nutt found the bodies of his wife and son when he arrived home from work that day, June 26, 1997.
Frazier was scheduled to die April 27, three weeks before Herron, but won a reprieve from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. When the court lifted its reprieve two months later, the execution was reset for today.
Frazier blamed the slayings on Herron. Herron, testifying at his own trial, blamed them on Frazier.
According to court records, Frazier and Herron showed up at a home near the Nutt residence and inquired about work. Frazier's father once had been a ranch foreman in the area.
During the visit, they spotted guns in the house and decided to return to steal them. Evidence showed they came back the next day when the people who lived there were gone, broke in, sat around drinking in the house and watched as Betsy Nutt drove up to her place. Then they walked over and told her the story about their car breaking down.
After the shooting, they used her truck to carry loot from the neighbor's house, including some clothing Frazier was wearing when he was arrested in Victoria, about 30 miles to the north. The truck was found parked outside Frazier's apartment and items taken from the burglary were recovered from his girlfriend. Frazier's fingerprints were inside the truck.
Frazier had an earlier conviction for aggravated assault for shooting a man and a juvenile conviction for robbery. When he was arrested for the Nutt killings, he had assault charges pending against him.
Scheduled to die next is Farley Matchett, 43, facing lethal injection Sept. 12 for a robbery-slaying in Houston 15 years ago.
"My state put in an express lane"..Ron White.
L
Great news! Thanks for posting.
Umm, no you won't, but feel free to tell it to the worms.
Eerily similar to the confession of Mr Karr.
Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!
I will continue to profess my innocence for another nine years,"
make that nine heart beeps.
Too bad, he had a really funny show.
I liked the little dog.
Cosell would be laughing his toupee off too.
The criteria for capital punishment should be guilt beyond any doubt whatsoever, and the criminal representating a continuing danger to the public should he ever get out. I could feel pretty good about hanging Charles Manson, but some of these other cases I read about are nowhere near as clear cut.
Muslim creep. We need to execute more of them.
You're right it's NEVER been these innocent lambs who are doing all these killings. It's always someone ELSE. There's of course a "reasonable" explanation why this perp had the victim's clothing in his posession. Of course someone ELSE put the perps fingerprints on the murder weapon. Probably the racist cops who don't like black people and frame the first innocent one they can.
I didn't say this one was innocent; there seems to be very little chance of it. What I did say is that when you hang as many people as they do in Texas, you cannot avoid hanging the occasional innocent person once in a while.
Manson was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, never even accused of the actual murders. He's been up for parole but will never get out.
To my knowledge, Hitler never personally murdered anybody either.....
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