Texan put to death in nation’s first execution of '09

[peejay 327]

Texan put to death in nation’s first execution of '09

By MICHAEL GRACZYK

Associated Press

Jan. 14, 2009, 7:00PM

HUNTSVILLE — A man convicted of murdering three people during a night of robberies more than 13 years ago in Fort Worth has been put to death in the nation’s first execution of the year.

Curtis Moore, 40, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. on Wednesday, eight minutes after the drugs began flowing in a lethal injection. He had exhausted his appeals in the courts, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this week refused a clemency petition that said he could be mentally retarded and ineligible for the death penalty. Courts earlier rejected similar mental retardation claims.

In a brief, final statement, Moore thanked a woman who administers to the spiritual needs of death row inmates.

“I want to thank you for all the beautiful years of friendship and ministry,” Moore told Irene Wilcox as she watched through a window a few feet from him. Moore never acknowledged a man who survived his attacks or five relatives of the three who died.

He already made one trip to the Huntsville death house, in 2002, but was returned less than three hours before he could have received lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed his mental retardation claims could be reviewed. In October 2008, the high court refused his appeal, clearing the way for Wednesday’s punishment date.

Moore was condemned for the fatal shootings of Roderick Moore, 24, who was not related to him, and LaTanya Boone, 21, both of Fort Worth. The two were found shot to death in a roadside ditch across from a Fort Worth elementary school in November 1995.

That same night, firefighters summoned to put out a car fire found Darrel Hoyle, 21, of Fort Worth, and Henry Truevillian Jr., 20, of Forest Hill, shot and burned.

Truevillian, robbed of $5, was dead. Hoyle, robbed of $150, survived and helped lead police to the arrest of Moore and his nephew, Anthony Moore, then 17.

The three men were abducted after agreeing to meet Curtis Moore and his nephew at a stable where Roderick Moore boarded and trained horses. Boone was abducted from the apartment she shared with Roderick Moore, her boyfriend.

Testimony at Curtis Moore’s trial showed the shootings culminated a drug ripoff, that he doused Hoyle and Truevillian with gasoline and ignited them as they were bound and in the trunk of a car.

Hoyle, who regained consciousness six days after he was attacked, gave information that led authorities to Moore’s nephew, who also was known as “Kojak.” Hoyle also told authorities he didn’t know the name of “Kojak’s” partner but that he drove a pink truck.

Curtis Moore had such a vehicle and he and his nephew were both arrested about two weeks later.

Moore’s hands and arms still showed burns he suffered when, authorities said, he tried to keep Hoyle from fleeing the flames.

At the punishment phase, prosecutors showed jurors Moore’s violent past, including prison time for theft, robbery and weapon and drug possession. Testimony showed he was responsible for a stabbing while in jail awaiting trial.

“He kept giving us more evidence,” Joetta Keene, who prosecuted Moore, recalled.

Moore blamed his nephew, who pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in exchange for two life prison terms, for the slayings and contended he tried to rescue the victims from the burning car. But he acknowledged holding them at gunpoint and ordering them hogtied and stuffed into the trunk of the car.

Moore’s trial lawyer, George Gallagher, said once jurors convicted Moore, there was little he could do to prevent them from deciding on the death penalty because Moore wouldn’t allow him to put on an aggressive case during punishment.

“When he was found guilty, he said if they want to kill me, let them kill me,” Gallagher, now a state district judge, said. “He told us: Don’t put on any mitigating stuff.”

He also didn’t want family members put on the stand for him or any kind of psychiatric testimony that might be favorable to him.

Moore is the first of six prisoners scheduled to die this month in Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6211656.html

[Danno 1,228]

Hard to believe Justice was delayed 13 years before it finally caught up to him.

We should be able to do better than that.

God Bless Texas

[mox 298]

Dammit. I misread this initially as "Texas put to death in nation’s first execution."

Now I'm just pissed off.

[luckytxn 2,265]

God bless Texas for getting it right eventually.

[Jasman0717 9]

Texas is good at it

[Danno 1,228]

Texas is good at it

Well, practice makes perfect!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Bush fried a lot while he was governor, didn't he?

[tallcoolone 102]

"Moore was the first of six prisoners scheduled to die this month in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state."

The more the merrier.......

[peejay 327]

Someone only has to read the local newspapers here in TX to realize there is no lack of capital murders occurring here. So much for deterent, but the death penalty isn't a deterent...it is a punishment for committing a capital crime that fits the criteria for execution. Whether is deters or not is irrelevant.

It really doesn't bother me that the death penalty exists in the USA as long as the guilty receive due process. There is no doubt this guy did the crimes he was convicted of perpetrating. He deserves all the credit for putting himself in the position he got himself in. This is one less murderer that will continue to kill in prison or to get out on parole to kill again after getting assessed a misnamed and deceptive "life sentence".

Some humans are just beyond redemption and have to be dealt with accordingly. A perfect example is Jack Henry Abbott. He fooled a lot of liberal writers with his intellect and their naivety. The blood of his last victim is on their gullible hands. Read In the Belly of the Beast by old Jack if you have any doubts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abbott

[Ban Hammer 14,271]

i'm afraid to ask what kinda meal this guy is eating now

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=171208

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm sure this is business as usual for Texas, but there's a fair few dubiously prosecuted cases out there where the victim's guilt was in doubt where new evidence came to light and was rejected by the authorities.

[tallcoolone 102]

Hope they fry this girl next.

She is one of the most hatest woman in the Dallas Area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie_Routier

[peejay 327]

I'm sure this is business as usual for Texas, but there's a fair few dubiously prosecuted cases out there where the victim's guilt was in doubt where new evidence came to light and was rejected by the authorities.

If at all possible under existing legal framework, these cases should be investigated. Nobody wants innocents executed or incarcerated. The US criminal justice system is not based on any tolerance for errors or the belief that it is acceptable to punish the innocent.

That said, in this case this guy had 13 years to appeal his case. His guilt is not in question so he claimed to be "retarded" and ineligible for execution.

Unfortunately the courts are not bogged down with reviewing new evidence, but are bogged down with mulling through endless frivilous proceedural appeals for obviously guilty murderers that drag on for a decade or even longer. But the lawyers love it. $$$ Nothing like job security.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm sure this is business as usual for Texas, but there's a fair few dubiously prosecuted cases out there where the victim's guilt was in doubt where new evidence came to light and was rejected by the authorities.

If at all possible under existing legal framework, these cases should be investigated. Nobody wants innocents executed or incarcerated. The US criminal justice system is not based on any tolerance for errors or the belief that it is acceptable to punish the innocent.

That said, in this case this guy had 13 years to appeal his case. His guilt is not in question so he claimed to be "retarded" and ineligible for execution.

Unfortunately the courts are not bogged down with reviewing new evidence, but are bogged down with mulling through endless frivilous proceedural appeals for obviously guilty murderers that drag on for a decade or even longer. But the lawyers love it. $$$ Nothing like job security.

It isn't, no - but there are ambitious, lazy or incompetent prosecutors who would rather "someone" be in the frame, rather than the right person and risk having an open, unsolved murder on their hands.

[peejay 327]

I'm sure this is business as usual for Texas, but there's a fair few dubiously prosecuted cases out there where the victim's guilt was in doubt where new evidence came to light and was rejected by the authorities.

If at all possible under existing legal framework, these cases should be investigated. Nobody wants innocents executed or incarcerated. The US criminal justice system is not based on any tolerance for errors or the belief that it is acceptable to punish the innocent.

That said, in this case this guy had 13 years to appeal his case. His guilt is not in question so he claimed to be "retarded" and ineligible for execution.

Unfortunately the courts are not bogged down with reviewing new evidence, but are bogged down with mulling through endless frivilous proceedural appeals for obviously guilty murderers that drag on for a decade or even longer. But the lawyers love it. $$$ Nothing like job security.

It isn't, no - but there are ambitious, lazy or incompetent prosecutors who would rather "someone" be in the frame, rather than the right person and risk having an open, unsolved murder on their hands.

If and when proven they should be prosecuted and punished for malfeasance.