http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=58231
> Protests fail to halt Texas executions
>
> Tuesday, 18 January 2000 15:11 (ET)
>
> Protests fail to halt Texas executions
>
> HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Despite protests, Texas prison
> officials plan late
> Tuesday to carry out the first of six executions scheduled in the next
> two weeks.
>
> Spencer Corey Goodman, 31, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection
> shortly after 6 p.m. CST for the 1991 murder of Cecile Ham, 48, the wife
> of Bill Ham, manager of the rock group ZZ Top. Ham was beaten to death
> after her car was stolen from a Houston drug store parking lot. Her body
> was found in South Texas.
>
> Goodman was arrested about a month later following a high-speed chase
> along mountain roads in Colorado. He wrecked Ham's car after driving it
> over a low cliff. He later confessed to beating Ham to death for her
> car.
>
> Goodman, a two-time felon, was supposed to report to a half-way house
> in Houston on July 1, 1991, the day before the slaying. Instead, he
> walked away and pulled the carjacking the next day when he said he grew
> tired of walking in the heat.
>
> On Monday, a group of anti-death penalty protesters rallied at the
> state Capitol in Austin, asking Gov. George W. Bush to halt the six
> executions. They were angered by the accelerated pace of Texas
> executions, and Friday's execution of Larry Robison, who they say is
> mentally ill.
>
> Linda Edwards, a Bush spokeswoman, said Bush supports the death penalty
> and will not interfere with the courts. He has presided over 113
> executions since taking office. He cannot commute a death sentence
> unless the Texas Boards of Pardons and Paroles recommends the action.
>
> Robison, 42, received the death sentence after he was convicted of
> killing and mutilating five people in Fort Worth in 1983. His attorneys
> argue that he is insane and should not be executed. The Texas Court of
> Criminal Appeals has rejected his claim.
>
> Carl Villareal, a founder of the Austin chapter of Campaign to End the
> Death Penalty, said Bush would not be a front-runner in the presidential
> race if the public knew his record on the death sentence in Texas.
>
> "If people knew that he believes justice is being served by killing the
> mentally ill, but ignoring them when they need health care, then I am
> sure that Bush would have no political future," he said.
>
> If Goodman is executed, he will be the 201st convicted killer executed
> in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty in 1982. The state
> carried out 36 executions last year.
>
> --
> Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
> All rights reserved.
> -- >>
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=58231
>
> Protests fail to halt Texas executions
>
> Tuesday, 18 January 2000 15:11 (ET)
>
> Protests fail to halt Texas executions
>
> HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Despite protests, Texas prison
> officials plan late
> Tuesday to carry out the first of six executions scheduled in the next
> two weeks.
>
> Spencer Corey Goodman, 31, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection
> shortly after 6 p.m. CST for the 1991 murder of Cecile Ham, 48, the wife
> of Bill Ham, manager of the rock group ZZ Top. Ham was beaten to death
> after her car was stolen from a Houston drug store parking lot. Her body
> was found in South Texas.
>
> Goodman was arrested about a month later following a high-speed chase
> along mountain roads in Colorado. He wrecked Ham's car after driving it
> over a low cliff. He later confessed to beating Ham to death for her
> car.
>
> Goodman, a two-time felon, was supposed to report to a half-way house
> in Houston on July 1, 1991, the day before the slaying. Instead, he
> walked away and pulled the carjacking the next day when he said he grew
> tired of walking in the heat.
>
> On Monday, a group of anti-death penalty protesters rallied at the
> state Capitol in Austin, asking Gov. George W. Bush to halt the six
> executions. They were angered by the accelerated pace of Texas
> executions, and Friday's execution of Larry Robison, who they say is
> mentally ill.
>
> Linda Edwards, a Bush spokeswoman, said Bush supports the death penalty
> and will not interfere with the courts. He has presided over 113
> executions since taking office. He cannot commute a death sentence
> unless the Texas Boards of Pardons and Paroles recommends the action.
>
> Robison, 42, received the death sentence after he was convicted of
> killing and mutilating five people in Fort Worth in 1983. His attorneys
> argue that he is insane and should not be executed. The Texas Court of
> Criminal Appeals has rejected his claim.
>
> Carl Villareal, a founder of the Austin chapter of Campaign to End the
> Death Penalty, said Bush would not be a front-runner in the presidential
> race if the public knew his record on the death sentence in Texas.
>
> "If people knew that he believes justice is being served by killing the
> mentally ill, but ignoring them when they need health care, then I am
> sure that Bush would have no political future," he said.
>
> If Goodman is executed, he will be the 201st convicted killer executed
> in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty in 1982. The state
> carried out 36 executions last year.
>
> --
> Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
> All rights reserved.
> --
>
>
Title: UPI News Article: Protests fail to halt Texas executions
Protests fail to halt Texas executions
|
| Tuesday, 18 January 2000 15:11 (ET)
Protests fail to halt Texas executions
HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Despite protests, Texas prison
officials plan late
Tuesday to carry out the first of six executions scheduled in the next
two weeks.
Spencer Corey Goodman, 31, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection
shortly after 6 p.m. CST for the 1991 murder of Cecile Ham, 48, the wife
of Bill Ham, manager of the rock group ZZ Top. Ham was beaten to death
after her car was stolen from a Houston drug store parking lot. Her body
was found in South Texas.
Goodman was arrested about a month later following a high-speed chase
along mountain roads in Colorado. He wrecked Ham's car after driving it
over a low cliff. He later confessed to beating Ham to death for her
car.
Goodman, a two-time felon, was supposed to report to a half-way house
in Houston on July 1, 1991, the day before the slaying. Instead, he
walked away and pulled the carjacking the next day when he said he grew
tired of walking in the heat.
On Monday, a group of anti-death penalty protesters rallied at the
state Capitol in Austin, asking Gov. George W. Bush to halt the six
executions. They were angered by the accelerated pace of Texas
executions, and Friday's execution of Larry Robison, who they say is
mentally ill.
Linda Edwards, a Bush spokeswoman, said Bush supports the death penalty
and will not interfere with the courts. He has presided over 113
executions since taking office. He cannot commute a death sentence
unless the Texas Boards of Pardons and Paroles recommends the action.
Robison, 42, received the death sentence after he was convicted of
killing and mutilating five people in Fort Worth in 1983. His attorneys
argue that he is insane and should not be executed. The Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals has rejected his claim.
Carl Villareal, a founder of the Austin chapter of Campaign to End the
Death Penalty, said Bush would not be a front-runner in the presidential
race if the public knew his record on the death sentence in Texas.
"If people knew that he believes justice is being served by killing the
mentally ill, but ignoring them when they need health care, then I am
sure that Bush would have no political future," he said.
If Goodman is executed, he will be the 201st convicted killer executed
in Texas since the state resumed the death penalty in 1982. The state
carried out 36 executions last year.
--
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
--
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