Posted on 08/24/2007 9:01:45 PM PDT by Dubya
HUNTSVILLE -- Apologizing directly to his victim's relatives but calling his punishment unjust, Johnny Ray Conner was executed Wednesday evening for killing a Houston convenience store clerk during a failed robbery in 1998.
Conner was the 400th person executed in Texas since executions resumed in December 1982.
Conner, 32, asked for forgiveness repeatedly and expressed love for his family and the family of Kathyanna Nguyen, the woman he killed.
He first asked the warden his name and for permission to speak longer than the usual two to three minutes and to have Nguyen's daughter pointed out to him through the windows to the witness rooms.
He specifically asked one of her relatives to look at him, but she remained turned to the side with her hands clasped in prayer.
"This is destiny. This is life. This is something Allah wants me to do," he said in his lengthy statement.
"I want you to understand. I'm not mad at you. When I get to the gates of heaven I'm going to be waiting for you. Please forgive me."
He went on: "What is happening to me is unjust, and the system is broken."
He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Conner's contention that his trial attorneys were deficient for not investigating a leg injury that left Conner with a limp. The disability would have prevented him from running from the store.
Witnesses who identified Conner as the gunman told of seeing a man running from the scene. None mentioned a limp.
A federal judge agreed with the argument and granted Conner a new trial. A federal appeals court disagreed and overturned that ruling this year, clearing the way for Conner's execution.
Conner's trial lawyers said the injury was never an issue because Conner told them his broken leg had long been healed.
Lyn McClellan, the Harris County prosecutor who tried the case, said Conner's complaint was a fabrication.
"They had video of him in jail walking down the hallway just fine without any limp," he said. "That's the problem with some made-up defense. You've got to live it out all the time or you get caught."
The prospect of Texas executing its 400th prisoner prompted an outcry from death penalty opponents.
"Johnny Conner's execution represents 400 instances of failed public policy for Texans," the Austin-based Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said.
The European Union, which opposes capital punishment and bans it in its 27 nations, urged Gov. Rick Perry to stop Conner's execution and impose a death penalty moratorium.
Perry spokesman Robert Black brushed aside the criticism.
"Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens," he said.
Nguyen, 49, was shot in the head on a Sunday afternoon in May 1998. Julian Gutierrez, a customer walking into the store to pay for gas, interrupted the holdup, tried to run back outside and was shot in the shoulder.
"The clerk was in one of those cubicles where they have this bulletproof glass," McClellan said. "He was able to get his gun in there, and it was kind of like being in a shooting gallery."
Gutierrez survived and was among at least three people to identify Conner, whose fingerprint was found on a bottle.
The next scheduled execution is Tuesday. DaRoyce Mosley was condemned for his part in the slayings of four people during the robbery of a bar in Kilgore in 1994.
Exactly so. Any apology that has the word “but” in it is no apology at all, BUT a precurser to an excuse for one’s behavior.
” Why is it that Texas is so successful in executing these killers compared to all the other pathetic states including my own state (Florida)?”
Because we do not care what others think of us. Doesn’t even register on the chart.
The rule is quite simple: You kill a Texan, we kill you.
I used to believe that, but every year I see more power in Christ.
Part of the reason is that in a capital murder case in Texas, there are actually two trials. First, the trial to determine guilt, followed by a separate trial to determine punishment. Both are jury trials. This leaves less grounds for appeal on judge bias, etc. It also has the effect of telling other courts that not only one, but two juries found the perp guilty and meriting death - which has a lot of merit in appeals cases. In addition, the jury is allowed to select their own terms within guidelines; life without parole is always an option. In addition, the death penalty case is then automatically kicked up to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which does seem to clear through these cases quickly - and if they decide so, then that’s THREE courts and two juries that have decided this perp needs to die.
Typically, appeals get exhausted faster on a Texas case for these and other reasons.
Finally, they only have three appeals left after the Court of Criminal Appeals hears the case - the Texas Supreme Court (which usually says no, we aren’t going to hear it, go away), the US Circuit Court of Appeals, and then the US Supreme Court (which except for the mental retardation case has shown itself as singularly uninterested in Texas death penalty cases).
We also had the Texas Seven escape episode, where one of the the first things the escaped condemned prisoners did is kill Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. That kind of made us want to clean Death Row out, so there is a concerted effort here to make sure appeals are heard and decided quickly.
Georgia has the same system - they don’t seem to have a pressing desire to clean out Death Row, though.
That, too. Sympathy for criminals in Texas is very low to non-existent.
Glad the bastard’s dead.
Sorry he was allowed “special” ANYthing.
BINGO!
Threats and power plays to the end.
Fry, pig.
Thanks for the info!
Thanks for this post!!! What a remarkable story - this incredible woman gets to works sooooo hard but lives the American dream until a depraved animal snuffs out her life. Why the EU and US liberals care so much more about that kind of animal than about the victims of such hideous murders I’ll never understand.........
Yes, the scumbag is imposing himself upon them even in his last moments...... he still lacked genuine contrition and humility, so far as I can tell......... what nerve, to believe he’s going to heaven!!!!!!!!! I don’t presume to know where he’s going, but no murderer should be full of confidence that they will go to heaven...... I’d rather hope he’s experiencing the start of eternal damnation and hellfire now........
Thank you for that. Clearly, we lost a true American nine years ago. The killer of Kathyanna Gon Thi Nguyen wasn’t fit to tread the same earth as she was. That she suffered so much and loved this country so dearly, only to die at the hands of this human filth, makes me want to kill him over and over.
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