Texas on Wednesday put to demise a man who fatally stabbed a suburban Dallas real estate agent greater than 16 years in the past, the second execution this yr in what has been the nation’s busiest demise penalty state.
Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 41, acquired a deadly injection on the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced useless at 6:33 p.m. He was condemned for fatally stabbing 40-year-old Sarah Walker in July 2006. She was discovered stabbed greater than 30 instances in a mannequin residence in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas.
In a quick assertion after he was strapped to the demise chamber gurney, Chanthakoummane thanked Jesus Christ, ministers with the Texas jail system and “all these people in my life that aided me in this journey.”
Although no kinfolk of Walker attended the execution, he supplied a message to them: “I pray my death will bring them peace.”
As the 5 grams of the highly effective sedative pentobarbital started flowing by way of IV traces into veins in every of his arms, he appeared towards a window by way of which his mom quietly watched a number of toes away and mouthed, “Mom, I love you.”
He then took 4 breaths, gasped barely and there was no additional motion. He was pronounced useless quarter-hour later.
Just earlier than the execution happened and at Chanthakoummane’s request, a Buddhist monk positioned his proper hand on the inmate’s chest and skim a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes that refers to “a time for everything.” He responded: “Amen.”
Prosecutors say Chanthakoummane entered the mannequin residence after which beat Walker with a wood plant stand and stabbed her earlier than stealing her Rolex watch and a silver ring, which had been by no means discovered. DNA proof confirmed Chanthakoummane’s blood was present in numerous locations contained in the mannequin residence, together with below Walker’s fingernails.
Walker had been a top-seller for residence builder D.R. Horton. She had two youngsters.
Chanthakoummane had acknowledged he was within the mannequin residence, however mentioned he solely went inside to get a drink of water. He had been on parole in Texas after serving time in North Carolina for aggravated kidnapping and theft.
“I am innocent,” Chanthakoummane had mentioned in a letter filed in federal courtroom in March.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to delay Chanthakoummane’s execution after his attorneys had challenged the DNA proof used to convict him. The proof had been described by the appeals courtroom because the “linchpin of the state’s case.” Eric Allen, one of his attorneys, mentioned earlier Wednesday he would not file a remaining enchantment with the U.S. Supreme Court.
His attorneys had argued new science raised the chance Chanthakoummane’s DNA may have been transferred to Walker’s fingernails with none direct contact between the 2.
But authorities mentioned prior DNA testing in his case had didn’t clear Chanthakoummane.
“Any belief by Chanthakoummane that further DNA investigation would yield results that will be helpful to his case is a fantasy,” legal professionals with the Texas Attorney General’s Office wrote in courtroom paperwork final month.
On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had declined to grant Chanthakoummane both a 120-day reprieve or a commutation of his demise sentence to a lesser penalty.
Chanthakoummane’s attorneys mentioned their issues concerning the DNA proof was half of a sample by prosecutors in utilizing defective proof within the case.
At Chanthakoummane’s trial, a forensic dentist testified the demise row inmate was the supply of a chew mark on Walker’s neck. Such bitemark proof has since been discredited and in 2016, Texas turned the primary state to name for banning chew mark evaluation in felony circumstances.
The two witnesses who mentioned they noticed Chanthakoummane close to the homicide scene had been hypnotized by officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, to assist establish him.
A 2020 report by the Dallas Morning News discovered most Texas judges nonetheless enable proof derived from hypnosis regardless of criticism it will possibly distort reminiscences and result in wrongful convictions. In January 2021, DPS stopped utilizing hypnosis. Last yr, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a invoice that may have banned individuals who have been hypnotized from testifying in a felony trial.
In October 2020, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals discovered that whereas the bitemark testimony would not be admissible in courtroom, Chanthakoummane’s attorneys had didn’t discredit the hypnosis-related testimony.
The appeals courtroom additionally discovered the DNA proof was nonetheless sturdy.
At his trial, Chanthakoummane’s legal professional, Keith Gore, instructed jurors his consumer was responsible “and he wanted to rob (Walker), and it didn’t go the right way, and he killed her.”
Walker’s father, Joseph Walker, who died final yr, had opposed Chanthakoummane’s execution and had instructed the Times Union in New York in 2013 he had forgiven his daughter’s killer.
Chanthakoummane was the ninth inmate put to demise this yr within the U.S.
While Texas has been the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, the use of the demise penalty within the state has reached close to historic lows. Juries have continued to challenge fewer demise sentences and within the final couple of years most executions have been delayed by the pandemic or by authorized questions over what religious advisers can do within the demise chamber.
story by The Texas Tribune Source link