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

[Rick Halperin]

October 25



TEXAS----execution

Convict executed for slayings of parents, uncle


Inmate Gregory Summers was executed in the Texas death chamber today for
initiating a murder-for-hire plot that authorities said led to the fatal
stabbing of his parents and an uncle.

The lethal injection of Summers, 48, came more than seven years after the
execution of Andrew Cantu, convicted of taking the $10,000 offer and
fatally stabbing Gene and Helen Summers, both 64, and Billy Mack Summers,
60. Their home in Abilene was set on fire after they were attacked and
their bodies were found in the rubble.

Attorneys for Summers tried today to block the punishment by challenging
the constitutionality of the lethal injection method, accusing prosecutors
of hiding evidence and raising questions about testimony from a trial
witness who implicated Summers.

The U.S. Supreme Court three weeks ago refused to review his case, but
additional appeals under review in the courts delayed the execution nearly
3 hours past its scheduled time of 6 p.m. CDT. Three appeals went to the
high court late today and all were rejected.

"When I went to trial, all they proved was there were 3 murders," Summers
said in recent interview on death row. "But they can't show I did this
with Cantu because it never happened."

Gene and Helen Summers adopted their son when he was 3 days old. He was
their only child. Prosecutors said Summers had hoped to collect $24,000 in
insurance benefits. Relatives told authorities Summers was having
financial problems and Gene Summers finally had decided to stop bailing
him out financially.

Billy Mack Summers, Gene Summers' brother, was mentally retarded and was
living with the couple when they all were killed in June 1990.

"It's taken 16 years and it's time," Brenda Steele, a niece of the slain
victims, said. "All they were guilty of was loving him."

About 70 witnesses testified for the prosecution at Summers' trial, which
was moved from Abilene because of publicity and held in Denton, about 185
miles to the east.

"Using the West Texas vernacular, they didn't have a dog in this hunt,"
Miles LeBlanc, one of the trial prosecutors, said of the Denton County
jurors who convicted Summers and decided he should die.

"They didn't know this guy from Adam. And they believed, because of the
evidence we were able to present, that this guy secured the services of
Cantu to kill his parents and his disabled uncle, and after committing the
crime set the house on fire to cover it up."

Cantu, a paroled burglar at the time, was supposed to find his payoff in a
dresser drawer at the Summers' Abilene home, but no money was there.

Summers said he knew Cantu's brother, who had worked for his father. A tip
to police from Cantu's brother led to the arrest of Cantu and two
companions. Summers became a suspect after relatives told authorities
about his money troubles. Police also received a tip on a Crimestoppers
telephone hot line about Summers' scheme.

2 men who accompanied Cantu the night of the slayings testified against
him as part of a plea bargain. They told how Cantu slipped through a back
window, stabbed Gene Summers nine times in the chest, his wife eight times
and Billy Mack Summers seven times, then set the house on fire. Cantu
denied involvement and blamed the companions, who also testified Cantu
identified Greg Summers as the instigator.

Prosecutors also showed how Summers previously collected insurance payoffs
from fires at his grandmother's house and a vehicle. At his trial,
Summers' 2 ex-wives testified about his violence toward them and his 4
children and how they feared him.

Summers said from death row he loved his parents but described other
relatives as "estranged."

Cantu wasn't the 1st man approached by Summers to carry out the killings,
according to testimony. And a 4th man in the car with Cantu the night of
the slayings left when he learned of the activities planned for that
night. Both also testified against Summers.

"There was not one crucial piece of evidence," said Kent Sutton, another
of the prosecutors. "It was the totality of the evidence. It was the
overwhelming amount of evidence."

Summers becomes the 22nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 377th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Summers becomes the 138th condemned inmate to be put to
death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.

Summers becomes the 48th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1052nd overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)