Penry prosecutor killed in tollway crash

Joe Price, district attorney of Polk, San Jacinto and Trinity counties known nationally for his three-time prosecution of Johnny Paul Penry, was killed in a one-vehicle accident in north Harris County late Thursday.

Price, 58, was on his way to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo barbecue cook-off when he lost control of his vehicle on the Hardy Toll Road near Farm Road 1960 and smashed into a pole about 11:50 p.m.

Deputies from Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office said Price's vehicle immediately burst into flames. Price, traveling alone, was unable to get out.

Investigation into the accident is still under way, but deputies believe Price's vehicle may have hit water on the road and hydroplaned out of control.

Price is survived by two adult daughters, a sister, Judy Burton, and his parents, Dean and Johnnie Price.

Price gained national recognition for his prosecution of Penry for the rape and murder of Pamela Moseley Carpenter in Livingston in 1979.

Price prosecuted the case first in April 1980, when a Trinity County jury convicted Penry of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

In June 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated Penry's sentence, saying jurors should have been told that Penry's alleged retardation could be considered as a mitigating factor.

Price tried the case again in July 1990, when a Waller County jury again sentenced Penry to death. That sentence was thrown out in June 2001 by the Supreme Court, which said botched instructions made it impossible for jurors to spare his life.

In April, a Montgomery County jury found Penry competent for a third death-penalty hearing, and in July, Penry was again sentenced to die for Carpenter's death.

"I've known him all of my adult life," said Trinity County Judge Mark Evans. "The loss of Joe Price leaves a void in so many places.

"If you wanted to see what a focused attorney looks like, you only had to watch Joe price preparing and prosecuting a case," Evans said. "He was focused like a laser beam. He could joke and focus at the same time."

Rest in peace, Joe Price.

Knowing Right from Wrong
http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2001-03-08/feature.html/1/index.html

Excerpt from this John Paul Penry article:

While Penry made sure no one was coming, Carpenter grabbed the pair of orange-handled scissors she had been using to make Halloween decorations and stabbed them into Penry's back. Penry then knocked the scissors out of her hand and pushed her to the floor. While she was on her way down, Penry whacked Carpenter's head on the stove. As she lay on the kitchen floor, Penry then stomped her with his work boots.

"We verified that later, because she had a perfect heel print on her side where he'd stomped her while she was on her stomach. It ruptured her kidney, and that's what actually killed her."

But Carpenter wasn't dead yet, nor was Penry through. After stomping her, he got down on the floor and raped her.

"Then he got up and went across the room and picked up those damn scissors," says Price. "Came back, sat down on her stomach and said, 'I'm sorry, but I've got to do this.' Said something about he couldn't have her squealing on him. And then he buried the scissors in her chest." That act, says Price, was a clear indication that Penry knew he had done something wrong and that he was in big trouble.

Even then, the notoriously strong-willed Carpenter refused to die.

"He thought that would kill her instantly," says Price, "but she reached up and pulled the goddamn scissors out. When she did that, it scared him and he jumped up and ran out of the house."

Carpenter managed to pull herself across the room to the telephone. First she called a friend, and then an ambulance. At the hospital, emergency room doctors were aware of only the stab wound. They mended the hole in Carpenter's chest and thought they had her stabilized. But when a catheter was inserted, her damaged kidney began hemorrhaging. Pam Carpenter immediately went into shock and died.

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