Texas executes Stephen Barbee for 2005 Tarrant County murders

Sign up for The Brief, our each day e-newsletter that retains readers in control on essentially the most important Texas news.

Texas’ execution of Stephen Barbee Wednesday night was extended whereas jail officers searched for a vein within the disabled man’s physique, in line with a jail spokesperson.

Barbee, convicted within the 2005 murders of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her youngster, had extreme joint deterioration which prohibited him from straightening his arms or laying them flat, in line with court docket data. His legal professional had lately tried to halt his execution as a result of he feared the method with Barbee’s incapacity would end in “torture.”

But courts rejected the appeals, noting that jail officers had vowed to make particular changes to the dying chamber’s gurney to accommodate Barbee.

Still, it took way more time to hold out the execution than is typical in Texas. Reporters walked into the jail round 6 p.m., signaling the execution was about to start. But for an hour and 40 minutes, nobody got here again out, inflicting anti-death-penalty protesters exterior to develop apprehensive that one thing had gone improper. It is rare for executions to final greater than an hour.

“Due to his inability to extend his arms, it took longer to ensure he had functional IV lines,” jail spokesperson Amanda Hernandez mentioned in an electronic mail Wednesday night time.

Barbee was pronounced lifeless at 7:35 p.m., almost an hour and a half after he was strapped into the dying chamber’s gurney, in line with the jail’s execution document.

Within minutes of being strapped on the gurney, an IV was inserted into his proper hand, at 6:14 p.m., nevertheless it took one other 35 minutes for a further line to start flowing within the left aspect of his neck. All the whereas, his buddies waited in a jail holding room simply exterior, in line with a jail witness checklist and reporters on the scene. So did the buddies of the homicide victims — Lisa Underwood and her 7-year-old son Jayden — in addition to Underwood’s mom.

About quarter-hour after the IV was inserted into his neck, he gave his ultimate assertion because the witnesses watched by glass panes adjoining to the chamber. He thanked God, his minister and his family members.

“I just want everyone to have peace in their heart, make eternity with Jesus, give him the glory in everything you do. I’m ready,” he mentioned, simply earlier than a deadly dose of pentobarbital was injected at 7:09 p.m., 26 minutes earlier than he was pronounced deceased.

Barbee didn’t appear to react unusually as soon as the drug was injected into him, in line with Juan Lozano from the Associated Press and Brenda Poe from the Huntsville Item.

Hours earlier than the prisoner’s scheduled dying, Barbee’s execution was paused as courts battled as soon as once more over the state’s dealing with of the prisoner’s non secular rights within the dying chamber.

Federal courts this month went forwards and backwards over Texas’ execution coverage and the findings of multiple U.S. Supreme Court rulings largely requiring the state to permit prisoners’ non secular advisers to audibly pray and contact them of their ultimate moments. On Tuesday, a district decide primarily halted Barbee’s pending execution, stating Texas’ jail system can solely kill the dying row prisoner after creating and adopting a brand new execution coverage that clearly lays out his ultimate non secular rights. But after the federal appellate court docket and the U.S. Supreme Court each dominated in favor of the state early Wednesday afternoon, Barbee’s execution was put again on monitor.

Barbee, 55, was convicted of the 2005 murders in Tarrant County. Under police interrogation, Barbee confessed to the killings, saying he feared Underwood would inform his ex-wife he was doubtless the daddy of her unborn youngster and he must pay youngster help. Soon after, he recanted the confession, which his lawyer argued was “the product of fear and coercion,” and he had since maintained his innocence.

Instead, Barbee mentioned his co-worker Ron Dodd, additionally a defendant within the murders, dedicated the murders alone, and he helped Dodd conceal the our bodies. After Barbee was sentenced to dying, Dodd pleaded responsible to tampering with bodily proof and obtained 10 years in jail, acknowledging he helped Barbee eliminate the victims’ our bodies.

Barbee’s first execution date, set for 2019, was stopped by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to additional examine whether or not it was a violation of Barbee’s Sixth Amendment proper to counsel when his trial legal professional advised the jury he was responsible in opposition to his needs. In a Louisiana case, the U.S. Supreme Court had lately dominated that defendants have a proper to insist their legal professionals don’t admit guilt even when the attorneys imagine such a concession is the most effective shot at avoiding the dying penalty.

Early final yr, the Texas court docket lastly handed down a extremely technical ruling concluding Barbee wasn’t eligible for a brand new trial as a result of he didn’t inform his attorneys clearly sufficient that he needed to keep up his innocence. The judges mentioned that though Barbee repeatedly advised his legal professionals that he was harmless and wouldn’t plead responsible, and though he was shocked on the concession of guilt at his trial, he didn’t inform them his defensive technique included an innocence declare, so he wasn’t wronged below court docket precedent.

After the ruling, Tarrant County officers moved for a brand new execution date, set for October 2021. That time, it was canceled by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt of Houston whereas the U.S. Supreme Court weighed one other Texas man’s case in a series of rulings over the Texas jail system’s dealing with of prisoners’ non secular rights within the execution chamber. Barbee had requested that his non secular adviser pray over him and lay his hand on him as he died, a apply which had lately been barred by jail officers.

This March, the high court ruled that Texas’ execution coverage doubtless violated a prisoner’s non secular rights, and jail officers mentioned it could make changes to execute folks consistent with the court docket’s intent.

Before Wednesday’s execution, his legal professionals nonetheless argued there was an unacceptable lack of readability within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s execution coverage concerning non secular practices. Though the jail officers conceded to following the orders of the nation’s excessive court docket, the apply wasn’t put into the state’s execution coverage.

Hoyt agreed, saying earlier this month that Texas may perform Barbee’s execution provided that it up to date its execution coverage in a transparent and constant method with U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

“TDCJ is now operating under an unwritten policy where prison officials may unilaterally decide whether to allow an inmate’s requested accommodation … the accommodation may be withdrawn at the will or caprice of any prison official at the last moment,” Hoyt wrote in his ruling.

Prison officers swore in court docket affidavits that Barbee can be allowed to have his adviser contact him and pray as he dies. Federal appellate judges mentioned Friday that Hoyt’s ruling was too broad, extending past Barbee’s wants alone, and despatched it again to Hoyt to be revised. On Tuesday, Hoyt issued a brand new ruling mirroring his earlier one however making use of it to Barbee solely.

“Texas [TDCJ] may proceed with the execution of Stephen Barbee only after it publishes a clear policy that has been approved by its governing policy body that (1) protects Stephen Barbee’s religious rights in the execution chamber … and, (2) sets out any exceptions to that policy, further describing with precision what those exceptions are or may be,” Hoyt mentioned in his injunction.

On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. fifth Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the injunction, saying Hoyt can’t order the state to plot a brand new execution coverage. Instead, two judges mentioned a correct order would have been to require the jail to comply with its phrase and permit Barbee to have his non secular adviser current, audibly praying and laying fingers on him as he died.

Barbee’s legal professionals had additionally moved to cease his present execution as a result of they mentioned his disabilities would end in excessive ache if he’s strapped to a gurney as prisoners sometimes are in Texas executions.

For 15 years, Barbee had more and more misplaced his vary of movement in quite a few joints, leading to him being unable to straighten his arms. His incapacity had lengthy been documented in his jail medical data, leading to him utilizing a wheelchair and needing a instrument to wash himself after utilizing the lavatory, in line with court docket filings. The jail used handcuff extensions on him as a result of he couldn’t put his fingers behind his again.

“If someone wants my arms to straighten out in any way, I guess one would have to break my arms, because even forcing them, they won’t straighten,” Barbee mentioned in a written affidavit final yr. “It’s been like this for years and it’s getting worse.”

Last week, the jail warden mentioned in an affidavit that Barbee wouldn’t be required to straighten his arms on the gurney. Hoyt dismissed the case Tuesday afternoon, saying the jail had advised Barbee months in the past he can be accommodated.

“The leather straps that secure his arms to the arm rests are adjustable … which allows for his arms to remain bent,” Kelly Strong, the warden of the Huntsville Unit, mentioned in her affidavit.

“Moreover, while the crook of the elbow is the preferred location for the IV insertion during an execution, the IV lines have been inserted in other locations when a suitable vein could not be utilized,” she mentioned.