UN'ALTRA ESECUZIONE NEL TEXAS

 WASHINGTON, 18 SET - Un texano di 44 anni, Jessie Joe Patrick, condannato per lo stupro e l'omicidio di una donna di 80 nel 1989 e' stato giustiziato con un'iniezione letale a Huntsville, nel Texas.

   Dopo Patrick, la 25.a persona ad essere messa a morte nel Texas quest'anno, sara' giustiziato questa sera Ron Shamburger, 30 anni, condannato per aver ucciso una compagna di studi alla Texas A&M University nel 1994.

   Quella di Patrick, che non ha fatto alcune dichiarazione e non ha ordinato nulla per l'ultima cena, e' stata la 281.a esecuzione compiuta nel Texas dal 1982, quando lo Stato reintrodusse la pena di morte.

 18-SET-02

TEXAS - Parolee executed for 1989 Dallas slaying

In Huntsvile, a convict with a history of assaults was executed Tuesday for raping and fatally beating and slashing an 80-year-old Dallas woman during an attack at her home more than 13 years ago.

 Jessie Joe Patrick already was on parole when evidence showed he crawled through a window and killed Nina Rutherford Redd, who lived alone a few houses away from him.

 Patrick, 44, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. CDT, 7 minutes after the lethal dose began.

 He declined to make a final statement, but smiled and nodded to his wife, brother and other relatives as they entered the chamber.

 His wife, Hester Patrick, repeatedly said, "I love you."

 As he gasped and sputtered when the drugs began taking effect, his wife began wailing, and at one point she cried out: "Bastards!"

 Then in the moments after her husband lost consciousness and before being examined by a physician who pronounced him dead, Hester Patrick bitterly denounced the death penalty and criminal justice system.

 "I hope you all are satisfied now," she said. "You should be ashamed of yourselves."

 Patrick's attorneys filed last-ditch appeals in the federal courts to try to block the punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeals about an hour before he was executed.

 Earlier appeals also were unsuccessful to have DNA testing of some evidence in hopes of exonerating him. Prosecutors argued a state district judge who agreed to the tests had no authority to do so and evidence against Patrick was overwhelming.

 "This was not his first go-round with the law," recalled Jerri Sims, the former Dallas County district attorney who prosecuted Patrick for capital murder for the July 8, 1989, slaying. "It was so brutal. And, of course, he had no remorse."

 Patrick's Austin-based lawyer, Keith Hampton, also questioned Patrick's mental competence, saying the former landscaper was mentally retarded and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.

 There was no IQ test for Patrick, however, to quantify Hampton's contention.

 Sims said the possibility of mental retardation never surfaced at his trial.

 Patrick, his girlfriend and their infant son, had moved recently into the neighborhood in the Pleasant Grove section of southeast Dallas, and Redd had allowed them to use her phone and gave them milk for the child.

 On the night of the killing, court records show he had been drinking and had tried to rape his girlfriend.

 Redd's 78-year-old sister, who lived next door, discovered the body.

 "Our prayers are for the Patrick family during this sad time of grief," Redd's family said in a statement released after the execution. "This is not a vendetta or a social event. We all hurt and hope the Patrick's can understand our grief for the past 13 years waiting for justice to be done..."

 "Our family will always grieve for the way Nina die."

 Police questioning neighbors began suspecting Patrick when his girlfriend said it appeared the distinctive wood-handled and square-tipped butcher knife found lying next to Redd's body appeared to be his.

 Detectives found Patrick's palm print outside the victim's bathroom window sill. A sock in a trash can at Patrick's home was stained with blood that matched the victim. A dentist testified a bite mark on the slain woman's wrist matched Patrick's dental impression. Hairs at the slaying scene matched Patrick's hair.

 Police arrested Patrick 2 weeks later at his sister's home in Jackson, Miss. When officers arrived, he was hiding under a bed.

 Jurors deliberated about 50 minutes before convicting him of the slaying. It took the same jury less than 45 minutes to decide on the death sentence after 3 women testified Patrick either had assaulted or raped them in a drunken rage.

 Patrick, a Los Angeles native, 1st went to prison in September 1985 for aggravated assault. He was released on probation after serving less than 4 months of a 4-year term, but returned 6 months later as a parole violator. Less than 6 months later, in January 1987, was paroled to Dallas County.

 Patrick declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his execution date. On a Web site used by inmates to attract penpals, he offered assurances to potential correspondents that "I am not an animal, but rather a down-to-earth person."

 Another lethal injection was set for Wednesday. Ron Shamburger, 30, was condemned for the 1994 fatal shooting of Texas A&M University student Lori Baker during a burglary at her College Station home. Shamburger was a 5th-year senior at A&M at the time.

 Patrick becomes the 25th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 281st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982.

 Patrick becomes the 49th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 798th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.