Killer of Austin store clerk set for execution

Associated Press ^ | January 28, 2003 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice

[judgeandjury]

Killer of Austin store clerk set for execution

I love the smell of a good execution early in the morning!

[luckodeirish]

Remember right before the presidential election, every paper would run each Texas execution on the front page with the title "Another Bush Execution" or "Bush Puts Another Inmate to Death". Funny how that lost steam, huh?

[Enterprise]

Killer of Austin store clerk gets final check-out.

[68skylark]

"There ain't no doubt about it," Curry said when asked about his regret for the crimes....

"If you don't feel regretful after that, something is wrong with you," he said.

This guy has a gift for understatement.

[Bonaparte]

"68skylark"

My dad had one of those, a white convertible, black interior. He loved it. Then it got stolen and totalled. :-((

[68skylark]

Sorry to hear that. My convertible is dark green, and I like it a lot.

[sinkspur]

My dad had one of those, a white convertible, black interior. He loved it. Then it got stolen and totalled. :-((

I had a yellow Skylark; '68 I believe.

Burned a quart of oil every 800 miles.

[Dick Vomer]

Good bye... I only wish his lawyer could join him.

[Bonaparte]

"...burned a quart of oil..."

Did you check it for engine wear, hot operation and leaks?

[Bonaparte]

It's a real nice ride, no doubt about it. I liked Dad's '61 Buick Le Sabre better, though. A lot easier to park.

[sinkspur]

Did you check it for engine wear, hot operation and leaks?

Nope. I was 23 years old, too stupid to know.

[Bonaparte]

LOL! Well, I can't say I was much better. I would stay right on top of things like worn seals and pistons, but then I'd go out and get into a testosterone-powered wreck. Same outcome.

[starboardside]

Time for him to take the Huntsville Express to the underworld.

[happygrl]

One thing you can say for him, he didn't go out whining.

[goldstategop]

It hardly matters to the victims. They're usually ignored while the killers receiving glowing and at times sympathetic coverage. This past Sunday the Los Angeles Times published a report on the chilling decades long carnage on going in South Central L.A where blacks kill blacks. For the liberal black leadership this kind of autocide in Black America is a complete non-issue. Its easier to say its Da Man's fault than to acknowledge glorifying da hood' is cutting a swath across law-abiding communities larger than the mere numbers suggest. We need more executions and yes especially when its done to killers of color. If there's one thing Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the NAACLP can do to end the horrific bloodshed is to support the death penalty.

[MeekOneGOP]

Update...

Killer of Austin store clerk executed

01/29/2003

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - An apologetic former gang member and drug dealer was executed Tuesday night for fatally shooting a convenience store clerk during a robbery in Austin more than 11 years ago.

Alva Curry's execution was delayed about two hours until the U.S. Supreme Court rejected final appeals in the case.

"I pray with the help of God that you will forgive me for the pain that I have caused your family," he said, looking at relatives of his victims who watched through a window.

"I'm truly sorry. I wish I could take it back. I just pray and ask you forgive me."

Also Online

	Texas Executions: Coverage from TXCN.com
	Offender profile: Alva Curry
Related links
	Texas Department of Criminal Justice
	Scheduled executions
	Offenders on death row

He nodded to the warden, then coughed and sputtered as the lethal drugs began taking effect. He was pronounced dead at 8:09 p.m., eight minutes after the drugs began flowing into his arms.

The slaying was one of two within a week committed by Curry, 33.

Curry was the fourth Texas inmate executed this year and the first of three scheduled on consecutive nights this week.

Curry was condemned for gunning down David Vela, 20, who was shot five times even though he was cooperating with Curry and a companion, Mark Davis. The pair, who got $220 in the robbery, was convicted of a second similar shooting death seven days later that got them $71.15.

The Oct. 16, 1991, attack on Vela was caught on tape by the store's security camera.

"I don't think I even had a goal," Curry said last week from death row. "I had been drinking but I'm not using that as an excuse."

"He derives sheer pleasure out of preying on the weak," Travis County Assistant District Attorney Robert Smith told jurors who convicted Curry and then decided he should be put to death.

Curry's attorneys contended in last-ditch appeals a judge who has ruled on petitions in his case should have disqualified himself because he was working in the Travis County district attorney's office at the time of Curry's trial, performing research for prosecutors on the case.

"The wrong choices in life took me down a destructive road," Curry, explaining his crimes, said. "I've never looked at this as punishment from God but you reap what you sow. Your choices in life have consequences."

Curry jumped over the store counter and put a gun to Vela's head. When the clerk couldn't open a store safe, he was shot in the head, then shot four more times.

A tip to police led to Curry. At his home, detectives found clothing he and Davis wore during the Vela shooting, one of the murder weapons and the cash register drawer.

"I did confess," said Curry, an unemployed restaurant bus boy who at the time of the killings was free on bond for assaulting his sister-in-law. "I'm the one that has to live with the reality of what happened."

Davis pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and is serving two life prison sentences. Curry also was tried for killing Brendon Proske, the 23-year-old clerk in the second robbery, and received a life term.

"There ain't no doubt about it," Curry said when asked about his regret for the crimes and the grief suffered by his family and the families of his victims.

"If you don't feel regretful after that, something is wrong with you," he said.

Another condemned inmate, Richard Dinkins, was set to die Wednesday for a double slaying in Beaumont 12 years ago. Granville Riddle was scheduled for injection Thursday for killing an Amarillo man during a burglary in 1988.

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/012903dntexexecution.330c9.html

[RushLake]

"I pray with the help of God that you will forgive me for the pain that I have caused your family," he said, looking at relatives of his victims who watched through a window. "I'm truly sorry. I wish I could take it back. I just pray and ask you forgive me."

As usual the dirty filthy criminal murderer calls upon God and the family to forgive his dirty filthy criminal murderer a$$. Why can't these trash be as tough as they were when they commit the crime and shut-up?

[LibKill]

The air we breath is cleaner today, for this man-shaped filth no longer pollutes it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Curry's attorneys, however, contended in last-ditch appeals a judge who has ruled on petitions in his case should have disqualified himself because he was working in the Travis County district attorney's office at the time of Curry's trial, performing research for prosecutors on the case.

Well why didn't the judge recuse himself from the case? Or get sanctioned himself for not doing so?