UPDATE
Oct 27, 2023 8:23 AM CDT
Texas' top criminal appeals court stopped Thursday evening's scheduled execution of an inmate who had been condemned for killing another prisoner more than 26 years ago. The victim's sister and religious leaders had recently asked authorities to spare the life of William Speer, 49. His attorneys had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stop his execution over allegations that prosecutors at his 2001 trial failed to disclose evidence and presented false testimony, and that his trial lawyers failed to present evidence about Speer's troubled childhood. His lawyers said Speer has transformed while in prison, expressed regret for his actions, and now helps lead a religious program that ministers to other death row inmates, the AP reports. The request was granted less than five hours before Speer was due to be executed.
Oct 26, 2023 10:45 AM CDT
A Texas inmate faces execution Thursday for killing another prisoner more than 26 years ago, but the victim's sister and religious leaders have asked authorities to spare his life. William Speer, 49, is set to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, per the AP. He was condemned for strangling to death Gary Dickerson in July 1997 at the Telford state prison, located near New Boston in northeast Texas. "I am so aware of the things that I've done," Speer said in a video submitted as part of his clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "I'm so aware of the pain and the hurt that I've caused. I could just say that I'm sorry." Speer's lawyers say he has transformed while in prison, expressed regret for his actions, and now helps lead a religious program that ministers to other death row inmates.
Speer's attorneys have asked state and federal courts to halt the execution. One request for a stay focuses on allegations that prosecutors at his 2001 trial failed to disclose evidence and presented false testimony, and that his trial lawyers failed to present evidence about Speer's troubled childhood. They say Speer was physically and sexually abused as a child. Prosecutors have denied the allegations against them. Speer's attorneys had also asked to stop his execution over claims the state's supply of pentobarbital, the drug used in executions, was exposed to extreme heat during a recent fire, making it unsafe. A federal judge and Texas' top criminal appeals court this week denied appeals on this claim. A similar allegation made by another inmate, Jedidiah Murphy, was unsuccessful and he was executed earlier this month.
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At Speer's trial, Sammie Martin, who's Dickerson's only living sibling, told jurors her mother was devasted by her brother's death. But Martin now asks that Speer's life be spared. "I have spent much time reflecting on what justice my brother and my family deserved," Martin wrote in federal court documents filed this week. "In my heart, I feel that he is not only remorseful for his actions but has been doing good works for others and has something left to offer the world." In their own filings this week, lawyers with the Texas Attorney General's Office said that despite Martin's feelings about Speer's execution, "the state retains its interest in deterring gang murders and prison violence, as well as seeing justice done for Dickerson." A group of religious leaders have also asked that Speer be spared. Speer would be the seventh inmate in Texas and the 21st in the US put to death this year. More here.
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