February 28
TEXAS----execution
Texas executes man for killing wife's family
A Texas inmate has been executed nearly 30 years after killing his estranged
wife's parents and her brother, who was a police officer.
Billie Wayne Coble received lethal injection Thursday evening at the state
penitentiary in Huntsville.
The 70-year-old Coble was the oldest inmate executed by Texas since the state
resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
He was condemned for the August 1989 shooting deaths of Robert and Zelda Vicha
and their son, Bobby Vicha, at separate homes in Axtell, northeast of Waco.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Coble's delay request about two hours before
his execution.
Coble becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 560th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982.
Coble becomes the 42nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Greg
Abbott became the state's governor in January 2015.
Coble becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA
and the 1,493rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
******************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----42
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----550
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
43---------Mar. 28----------------Patrick Murphy----------561
44---------Apr. 11----------------Mark Robertson----------562
45---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------563
46---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------564
47---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------565
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*************************
USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution
With the execution of Billie Coble in Texas on February 28, the USA has
now executed 1,493 condemned individuals since the death penalty was
relegalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia
decision. Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January
17, 1977. Below is a list of scheduled executions as the nation
approaches a terrible milestone of 1500 executions in the modern era.
NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.
1494-------Mar. 28------------Patrick Murphy------------Texas
1495-------Apr. 11------------Mark Robertson------------Texas
1496-------Apr. 24------------John King------------------Texas
1497-------May 2--------------Dexter Johnson------------Texas
1498-------May 16-------------Donnie Johnson-----------Tennessee
1499-------May 29-------------Cleveland Jackson--------Ohio
1500-------July 10--------------Kareem Jackson----------Ohio
1501-------Aug. 14-------------Gregory Lott---------------Ohio
(source: Rick Halperin)
Tonight, they will kill my friend ... Abolitionist's pen pal faces death
penalty
Agnes Steenssens broke down in tears shortly after midday Thursday.
"Tonight, they will kill my friend," she muttered through a microphone inside a
meeting room of Belgium's Egmont Palace.
Steenssens was among more than 100 participants at a workshop on death row
prisoners and their families in the Belgian capital during the 7th World
Congress on the death penalty.
For the past 27 years, the 66-year-old retired communications professional with
the Belgium government has been writing to death row convicts in the United
States.
Three times a year she travels on two weeks holidays to the United States,
particularly Texas, to see the convicts and she says her husband understands.
Billie Wayne Coble is among the people on death row Steenssens goes to see.
But at six o'clock this evening, the 70-year-old Coble will face an executioner
in Texas, 29 years after he was convicted of the 1989 slayings of the parents
of his estranged wife and her brother in McLennan County.
Coble is the oldest man in Texas history to be put to death.
Agnes sat to tell her story about helping people waiting to die.
D.M.: Who is this man who will be executed tonight?
A.S.: He is Billie Coble. I have been writing to him for one year. He sends me
the most beautiful testimonies about unconditional love and hope. It’s amazing.
I don’t know how he changed but he changed and it’s a shame that they kill
those types of people. They don’t give them the opportunity to add something to
the community even though they have done wrong things. This man killed three
people. That’s wrong but how can you tell people that killing is wrong by
killing them?
D.M.: How did you start this outreach of writing to people on death row?
A.S.: In 1992, I found an article by David, a black man on death row in Georgia
and he said: I’m just wondering if somebody still cares about me being alive or
dead and someone who also wants to see that I am a human being, that I am not
only a criminal. It was really because of the second part of his article that
he is also a human that I started to write to him. I didn’t expect him to write
back but he did and he asked me also to contact other people who had been
writing to him and now we have a group of people like a pen pal organisation. I
went to see him before he was executed in 2001 and I witnessed his execution.
It was his last will to keep fighting to end the death penalty. David was
accused of killing a drug dealer. He was not guilty but he was black, he was
poor and he couldn’t afford a lawyer. I thought that being innocent on death
row and being executed was the worst thing that could happen to you. For David,
his innocence was his strength. Now I go to Texas to see David’s friend, James
Henderson. He arrived on death row when he was 19 and now he is 44. He is not
innocent. He was a member of a gang and killed someone with one shot. I don’t
try to find any excuse for him, but he said: “I was wrong. I not only killed
one person, but I killed a whole family and in a way, I also hurt the community
and I have flashbacks all day.
D.M.: How many death row prisoners have you written to over the years?
A.S.: Over the years I have written to like 30 people… I don’t even know.
Sometimes when they get the date for their execution, they stop writing. They
are usually told the date of their execution 90 days ahead. Nowadays, I am
writing to six people on death row in Texas and one man on life without parole
in Florida and I also have one exonerated ex-convict who came off death row and
is now in a mental health institution. Of course, the visit is great because
most of them don’t get any visitors at all apart from me but to get a letter in
that solitary confinement that makes the hell a little bit let hot. They have
no television, they cannot work and they are in that cell all day long. I go to
back to Texas on March 20 for two weeks. The prisoners’ visits are limited.
They only get to see me for eight hours for the month and they are never
allowed to have contact-visit. It is always from behind the glass. That’s one
of the hardest things on Texas death row.
D.M.: Have you been anywhere else to visit death row prisoners?
A.S.: I have been to Georgia, Texas and to Florida as well to see my friends.
All of them are not close friends but it’s so amazing. Like James who is on
Texas death row. I started writing with him 18 years ago. He was David’s
friend. James was hardly able to write because he only spent a few years in
school. Over the years to see people on death row other than as criminals and
to give them the opportunity to write to you is amazing. I see David how much
he has changed in a good way. He tells me that the first letter he got from his
family, he couldn’t read it himself. He said: “I knew gang language.” I still
have his letters. Now, I also go to the women’s prisons in Antwerp, Belgium to
give convicts foot massages. Since I have been having close contact with
prisoners, I am richer and I am happier. Richer in experiences (chuckles). It
costs me a lot of money but some of my friends do support me.
D.M.: What have you learn from this experience?
A.S.: I have learned to be patient. The word 'wait' is the most important word
on death row. I am so grateful. Every morning I can do what I want to do. I
cannot complain about the little things. I cry at times but most of the times I
don’t cry with the people on death row. We are equal. We are so open. Some of
them know more about my personal life than my husband does. They have taught me
to laugh through your tears. If you ever have to stop your tears, you must
laugh and it helps.
D.M.: Has there been enough progress in the campaign to abolish the death
penalty?
A.S.: Definitely not enough. But politics will change the death penalty. What
we need to do is to begin restorative justice on death row.
(source: Jamaica Gleaner)
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