[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 22



TEXAS-----execution

Texas inmate executed for torture slayings of couple


An apologetic career burglar was executed this evening for torturing and
killing a retired couple during the break-in of their home 8 years ago.

"For all those that want this to happen, I hope you get what you want and
it makes you feel better and gives you some kind of relief," Newton
Anderson said as he looked at relatives and friends of the couple. "I
don't know what else to say."

Looking toward another window where his sister was sobbing, he said, "For
those that I have hurt, I hope after a while it gets better."

Anderson told them several times that he loved them. "I am sorry. That's
it. Goodbye."

Seven minutes later at 6:17 p.m. CST, Anderson was pronounced dead.

In a handwritten statement distributed after his death, Anderson again
apologized to the family of his victims.

"I only want to say that for the last 8 years I have had to leave with my
guilt and shame. I know I was wrong and now I give my life," he wrote.

He concluded, "I give my life. I hope it is enough for everyone. If things
could be undone, I would do it, I would do it!!:"

Anderson, 30, who said he began stealing from homes even before he was a
teenager, had been out of prison only about 4 months after serving 4 years
for burglary when he was arrested for the slayings of Frank Cobb, 71, and
his 61-year-old wife, Bertha, at their rural home near Tyler in Smith
County.

About an hour before he was scheduled to die, the U.S. Supreme Court
rejected an appeal that sought to delay the punishment. Anderson's
attorneys had argued he was denied due process because of erroneous
rulings in the trial court and overzealous prosecutors.

Anderson, in an interview on death row last week, acknowledged the
killings but said he was at a loss for why they happened. He did not
testify at his trial. The couple had been out running errands and returned
home to find him inside.

"I am guilty," he told The Associated Press. "I don't deny that. ... They
had good evidence. Witnesses saw me. What can I say?"

"The issue of guilt-innocence was absolutely moot," said Matt Bingham, who
prosecuted the case.

Firefighters responding to a blaze March 4, 1999, at the Cobbs' home in
New Harmony, about 10 miles northwest of Tyler, found the bodies. Frank
Cobb, a retired telephone company worker, was found face-down on the floor
with his hands bound with electrical tape behind his back. His wife, a
retired nurse, had her hands tied with tape and had her eyes, nose and
mouth covered with tape. Both victims had been shot in the head. Mrs. Cobb
had been raped.

Prosecutors said their house and bodies had been set on fire.

"This was a case where he didn't just kill them and take their property,"
Bingham said. "He really tortured them. It was just horrific."

The couple's son and daughter planned to witness the execution.

"Losing your mother and father and home all on one afternoon makes you
realize your life can change instantly, in one minute," Kevin Cobb told
the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

"It was traumatic," Carolyn Sanders, their daughter, said. "We tend to
forget and stick it to the back of our minds."

The scheduling of the execution "brought it back, but we face it and we
talk about it. It sort of helps," she said.

Witnesses saw Anderson driving away in the couple's maroon Cadillac.
Property taken from their home was found at the residence where Anderson
was living.

He was arrested in Dallas, where he fled the day of the slayings.

Anderson, who had at least four previous convictions for burglary and had
been arrested for burglary in California as a juvenile, said he viewed the
execution as "relief more than anything."

"Conditions aren't top-notch here," he said of death row. "Really, I'm
tired of being here."

When he got out of prison after serving about half of an 8-year term, he
said he couldn't find work.

"I went back to what I knew how to do," he said. "All I knew is how to
break into houses."

When asked about the slayings, he replied, "The rest of my case, I can't
explain why."

In California, Anderson escaped from his juvenile lockup. In Texas, he
also had been jailed for domestic assault. He twice was apprehended trying
to escape jail while awaiting trial on the capital murder charge.

On death row, the red-haired prisoner was caught trying to cut his way out
of his steel cell, earning him the nickname "Hacksaw Red" from his fellow
condemned inmates.

The next Texas inmate scheduled to die is Donald Miller, condemned for the
fatal shooting of 2 men during a 1982 robbery in Houston. Miller, 44, set
for injection Tuesday, has spent more than 24 years on death row, making
him among the state's longest-serving condemned prisoners. 2 more
executions are set for the following week.

Anderson becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 384th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Anderson becomes the 145th condemned inmate to be put to
death since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. A record 152 executions
were carried out during the tenure of George W. Bush, a national record
for executions carried out under a single governor, but that record will
be surpassed later this spring, as there are already 8 more executions set
in Texas in the upcoming months.

Anderson becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1063rd overall since executions resumed on January 17,
1977.

On the Web----Newton Anderson: www.deathrow-usa.us/newton_anderson.htm

Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule:
www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)