The US Executions

(i)  Michael Gonzales: 

Convicted of fatally stabbing his elderly neighbors in 1994 after they awakened while he was burglarizing their home. In 2009, Gonzales received a new punishment trial because of testimony from a former psychologist for Texas prisons who cited race and ethnicity as reasons for his future dangerousness. A March 2013 execution date was set, but a federal judge issued a stay at the request of Gonzales's attorney, who sought time to prepare a motion to strike his death sentence on grounds of mental incompetence. A convicted and twice sentenced murderer received a stay of execution that will prolong his case even longer than the almost 20 years it's been in the system. Department of Criminal Justice executioner after 6 p.m. on March 21, 2013, but the actual date is a little murkier now. Federal District Judge Robert Junell granted Gonzales a stay of execution after three attorneys with the Texas Habeas Assistance and Training Project filed a motion to delay his death date until they could formulate proper motions to show his execution is not warranted. Gonzales, who was convicted in the 1994 stabbing deaths of Merced and Manuel Aguirre, was originally sentenced to death in 1995. However, that ruling was overturned and sent back to state court, where he was resentenced in 2009, again with the death penalty. After often being disruptive and displaying lewd gestures and foul language throughout his resentencing, Gonzales waived his right to state habeas appeal, one of the appeal options after his automatic direct state appeal. Fernando Aguirre, one of the sons of Manuel and Merced Aguirre, said that he is no longer holding out hope for a quick resolution and execution in this case. “It's very frustrating because we were told he'd exhausted all of his appeals and they set the date for the execution,” Fernando Aguirre said. “And then they said ,nope, guess what, he can file another appeal.” Fernando Aguirre said he was present at both the original trial and the times. Instead, Fernando Aguirre said he believes the continuing battle is mostly legalese, and harms the family members more than anything. “I've made it a point not to put my life on hold for this. It's not what's going to define me,” he said. “Otherwise, that bastard wins. He's not going to win.” Fernando Aguirre said he believes it will be at least another few years before the case is finalized, as he said the defense attorneys are just trying to prolong the situation. But the attorneys filing court documents on his behalf claim that Gonzales may have been mentally incapable of standing trial, explaining that drugs, alcohol
and abuse from his father played a role in deteriorating his psychological state. The document filed by the attorneys claims defense attorneys and the trial court did not explore Gonzales' competence well enough and that his original attorneys “saw Mr. Gonzales as bad, rather than mad.” In his order, Junell allowed defense attorneys until May 24 to present an amended federal habeas corpus petition. Fernando Aguirre said Gonzales made it up in his mind he was going to kill the elderly couple, despite a good rapport between the Aguirres and Gonzales'family. “Anytime his mom needed help on something, my parents were right there,” Fernando Aguirre said. “My parents were great folks. They were very good, hardworking people. They always helped people who asked for

Execution (State Sponsored Murder): Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 6:00 pm. (Stayed)

(ii) Kimberly McCarthy:

A former crack addict who was sentenced to death for the 1997 slaying of an elderly woman during a home robbery near Dallas. McCarthy, 51, is the former wife of New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels, with whom she has a son. She is one of 10 women on Texas death row. Since the date was announced Sept. 12, she has been the only one with a scheduled execution. Three of the nearly 500 people Texas has put to death in the modern era have been women. Hours before her scheduled execution Jan. 29, 2013, a Dallas judge put it off until April 3, based on her attorneys' assertions that jury selection in McCarthy's trial was tainted by racism.
Execution: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 6:00 pm.

(iii) Rigoberto Avila Jr:

The 40-year-old veteran from El Paso was convicted in the February 2000 slaying of his girlfriend's son while babysitting. On 02/29/2000, El Paso, Avila was babysitting a 19 month old Hispanic male and his sibling at their residence.  Avila struck the victim in the abdomen, causing the death of the child.Avila served in the military during Desert Storm. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2010 to hear an appeal filed by his attorney, Robin Norris. Avila, of El Paso, was born Aug. 5, 1972. He arrived on death row in 2001. Before being incarcerated, he worked as a laborer.

Execution: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 6:00 pm
(iv) Ronnie Paul Threadgill:

Threadgill, 38, was sentenced to death for a slaying in 2001 outside a Navarro County nightclub. He was convicted of firing two shots into a car, hitting a 17-year-old who was in the back seat. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2012 to review the case. Threadgill's appeal asserted that his lawyers should have negotiated for a felony murder charge instead of capital murder and should have rebutted an alleged shooting in Freestone County that was brought up during the trial. Judge John Jackson on Monday set April 16, 2013, as the date Ronnie Paul Threadgill will be executed for murder.
Threadgill, 38, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of a 17-year-old outside a Navarro County nightclub, sat quietly in the 13th District
Courtroom Monday to hear his execution date in a brief, 10-minute hearing.
Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson said Threadgill made no statement to the court during the hearing, answering “No” when asked by Jackson if he had any statement.

Execution: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(iv) Elroy Chester III:

A jury sentenced him to death after he pleaded guilty to the 1998 fatal shooting of a Port Arthur firefighter who was was slain after arriving at his sister's home during a robbery. The high court (The Supreme Court) refused to hear an appeal from Elroy Chester. Lawyers for Chester say he is mentally impaired, making him ineligible for execution under the U.S. Supreme Court guidelines for the 1998 shooting death of Willie Ryman III. Ryman was trying to keep Chester from raping his two nieces at their Port Arthur home when he was killed.Prosecutors have argued that Chester was not mentally impaired.Chester, who has been linked to at least five murders and three rapes, pleaded guilty to Ryman's slaying.

Execution: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(v) Richard Cobb:

One of two men condemned in a 2002 robbery-slaying in the small, East Texas town of Ruskin. He and Beunka Adams (executed April 26, 2012) were convicted of forcing three convenience-store workers into a car, driving them to a field, raping one of the women, and shooting all three with a shotgun. One worker, a mentally disabled man, died. The women survived by playing dead. Prosecutors said the murder happened after Adams and another man robbed the store in the small east Texas town of Rusk in September 2002. On September 2, 2002, in Cherokee County, Texas, Cobb and co-defendant, Beunka Adams, abducted three victims: a man and two women. They fatally shot the man, Kenneth Wayne Vandever, sexually assaulted and shot the two women and left their bodies in a field.  Cobb was sentenced to death in January 2004.
Execution: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 6:00 pm.

Summary:
Beunka Adams (Executed April 26, 2012 06:25 p.m. CDT by Lethal Injection in Texas): Along with accomplice Richard Cobb, Adams robbed a convenience store in Rusk, Texas. At the time of the robbery, Candace Driver and Nikki Dement were working in the store, and the only customer present was Kenneth Vandever. Adams and Cobb were wearing masks and after getting cash from the register, forced the two employees and the customer into a Cadillac parked in the lot and drove to a remote location. After forcing Driver and Vandever into the trunk, Adams and Cobb sexually assaulted Dement. They later made all three victims kneel on the ground, shooting all three with a shotgun. Believing all were dead, both fled the scene. Vandever died from his wounds, but Driver and Dement survived and testified against Adams and Cobb. Accomplice Cobb was convicted and sentenced to death in a separate trial eight months before Adams. Evidence tied the two, met as ninth-graders at a boot camp, to a string of robberies that happened around the same time.
Final/Special Meal:Texas no longer offers a special "last meal" to condemned inmates. Instead, the inmate is offered the same meal served to the rest of the unit.
Final/Last Words:"To the victims, I'm very sorry for everything that happened. Everything that happened that night was wrong. If I could take it back, I would ... I messed up and can't take that back." Adams expressed love to his family and asked his victims and their families not to be taken over by hate. "I am not the malicious person that you think I am. I was real stupid back then. I made a great many mistakes."

(vi) Carroll Joe Parr:

Condemned for the shooting death of a man in a drug deal outside a North Waco convenience store in 2003. Parr and his fall partner, Earl Whiteside, were accused of approaching two men sitting in a car, forcing them to the side of the building at gunpoint, and robbing and shooting them. The second victim survived. Whiteside is serving a 15-year prison term after pleading to aggravated robbery. As he was led from the courtroom after the date was set, he yelled, “Death is a prize.”Members of his family were crying and some called out words of encouragement to him.
Parr and Earl Whiteside were accused of approaching the two teenagers outside of the store, pointing guns at them and ordering them to get out of their car. They forced the two victims to the side of the building and demanded money, authorities said. The two teenagers handed over their wallets and then were shot after one of the
victims told Parr they didn't have any more money. Parr was convicted of capital murder on May 21, 2004 and was sentenced to die five days later. Whiteside entered a guilty plea in March 2004.
Execution:Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(vii) John Quintanilla Jr:

Arrested in a Victoria, Texas, robbery that turned deadly, Quintanilla was convicted - along with Jeffrey Bibb - of slipping into an amusement arcade wearing a mask and brandishing a rifle, demanding cash from a worker and ordering customers to lie down on the floor. The murder victim, a former sheriff's deputy, was shot three times when he stood up and grabbed Quintanilla's weapon. Bibb and Quintanilla were charged with capital murder in the 2002 slaying. Bibb received a lengthy prison sentence.
From his prison cell he writes: 
Dear reader,
Hi, my name is john m. Quintanilla Jr. I am an inmate on the Texas Death Row. I’ve been here for a little over 3 years. I try to fill my time with things like drawing, writing poems, writing letters and listening to my radio.On Texas Death Row I am confined to a cell for 22 hours a day. i was born in Port Lavaca Texas.  But I have lived in places like Texas City, Palacios, Bloomington and Victoria. but mostly in Texas City and Victoria.
I was born on December 9, 1976. I have about 22 tattoos and a few piercings. I am on Death row for a robbery/murder that `i did not commit although i did claim responsibility. but I did have my reasons for that and if your interested in finding out, all you got to do is write and I’ll explain it.
As you can guess there is not much to do in this small cell and sometimes 22 hours a day can seem like a very long time. So I am asking anyone and everyone with a little tome to drop me a few lines. It would really be nice. thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
John M. Quintanilla Jr.
#999491
Polunsky Unit
3872 F.M. 350 South
Livingston, Texas, 77351
USA
Execution: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(viii) Jefferey D. Williams:

Condemned in the 1999 shooting death of a Houston Police Officer who was trying to arrest him for driving a stolen Lexus. The officer was alive when backup arrived but died later of his wounds. A delay in the arrival of an ambulance sparked a probe of the Houston Fire Department's dispatching procedures. The contention was that the officer might have survived had he received treatment sooner. Investigators found that the dispatcher initially misdirected the ambulance to a location miles away. Jeffrey Demond Williams, 23, was arrested moments after the shooting and charged with capital murder. Police have retrieved the 9mm handgun they believe was used to kill Blando.
Execution: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(ix) Robert Lynn Pruett:

An argument with a prison guard who had written him up for a minor infraction of the rules led Pruett to stab the guard to death with a shank, according to prosecutors in Corpus Christi who obtained the death penalty against him. The guard was killed in the maximum-security McConnell state prison unit in Bee County, where Pruett was serving a life sentence he began when he was 16. At the time, he was believed to be the youngest person in the state's adult prison system. Most of those in the courtroom were armed security personnel when Texas Department of Criminal Justice correctional officers walked in with Robert Lynn Pruett. Senior District Judge Ronald Yeager sat on the bench, presiding over the 156th District Court. Yeager was only minutes away from telling Pruett he was scheduling his execution by lethal injection for May 21.
Pruett turned 33 in September and has been on death row since he was convicted in a Corpus Christi courtroom on April 30, 2002, of murdering 37-year-old Daniel Nagle. Nagle had been discovered, lying in his own blood, near a multipurpose room in the William G. McConnell maximum security unit in Bee County on Dec. 17, 1999. He had been stabbed repeatedly with an inmate-made “shank,” a steel bar sharpened on one end and wrapped with cloth on the other end..
Execution: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(x) Vaughn Ross:

A former architecture student at Texas Tech, he was condemned in the 2001 murders of an 18-year-old woman he was feuding with and a Texas Tech associate dean who happened to be with her. Ross's attorneys argued that police contaminated DNA testing by mishandling it and suggested the slayings stemmed from Birdsall's visits to "a high-crime area" to patronize prostitutes. Family members of the victims said the death sentence brought them little peace. The relatives included Birdsall's son, Nat, who opposes the death penalty and said his father did, too. A murder victim's sister ex pressed empathy for the mother of Vaughn Ross after a jury sentenced him to die for killing two people last year. "My heart goes out to his mother," Liza McVade said. "We lost something, and today she lost something too." The same jury convicted Ross for the Jan. 30, 2001, capital murder of Douglas Birdsall and Viola Ross McVade. He faced only two possible punishments —life in prison or death. Ross showed no reaction when District Judge Cecil Puryear read the sentence. Ross' mother and sister, who attended the entire trial, were not in the courtroom.
Execution: Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
(xi) Douglas Feldman:

The former financial analyst from Richardson, Texas, was convicted of shooting to death two truck drivers in separate road-rage incidents in 1998. A federal appeals court in September rejected Feldman's appeal, in which he claimed his trial lawyers were deficient, the jury received incorrect instructions, and a prospective juror was improperly dismissed. In his appeal, Feldman contended that he had deficient legal help at his trial, that the jury received improper instructions and that a prospective juror was improperly dismissed. Feldman, testified at his 1999 trial that he carried a 9mm handgun when riding his motorcycle because he thought his life was in danger. His lawyers presented evidence showing that he had been treated earlier for substance abuse and paranoia. He told jurors he was cruising on his Harley-Davidson on southbound Central Expressway in August 1998 when a truck “came out of nowhere, just flying.” He said he feared for his life and became angry. Feldman testified that he fired at Everett's truck “because I felt like I needed to try to stop that man.” When the truck continued on the highway, “I chased Mr. Everett down, and I shot him to death” near the Plano-Allen line. Moments later, he spotted Velasquez at a gas station at Hillcrest and Arapaho roads, “exploded again in anger” and shot him, even though Velasquez had done nothing to him. “I felt emotionally compelled,” Feldman told jurors. “I was consumed by anger.” A third man was shot at a northwest Dallas restaurant parking lot, but he survived. The jury took 24 minutes to convict Feldman of capital murder. Among evidence were letters Feldman wrote to prosecutors in which he confessed to the shootings and referred to jurors hearing his case as “a bunch of fat, ignorant slobs.”
Execution: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 at 6:00 pm.

Courtesy:
(i) Execution Watch
(ii) Prison Pen Pals
(iii) Prosecuting Attorney, etc.