MESSO A MORTE MARTINEZ, NONOSTANTE L�APPELLO DELLA MADRE DELLA VITTIMA

E' LA 13/A DELL'ANNO IN TEXAS

NEW YORK, 23 MAG - L'appello della madre della vittima non e' bastato a salvare la vita al condannato a morte  Johhny Joe Martinez, 29 anni, che e' diventato la tredicesima persona giustiziata con un'iniezione letale quest'anno in Texas.

   La madre di Clay Peterson, 20 anni, ucciso da Martinez nel 1993 durante una rapina, aveva cercato di salvare la vita del condannato, appellandosi alle autorita' perche' non togliessero ''inutilmente un altro figlio ad una madre''. Ma dopo che gli ultimi tentativi dei difensori del condannato di ottenere rinvii e di riaprire il caso erano andati a vuoto, l'esecuzione e' stata portata a termine nel carcere di Huntsville.

   Martinez e' morto poco dopo le 18:00 di ieri ora locale (le 1:00 di giovedi' in Italia). Prima dell'iniezione letale, il condannato ha accusato di nuovo i legali che lo avevano assistito all'epoca del processo di essere la causa della sua fine: ''Sono loro quelli che mi stanno uccidendo'', per i loro errori, ha detto Martinez. 

Dallas morning news

Martinez executed after giving thanks to mother of victim

Woman who sought commutation of his sentence doesn't attend

05/23/2002

By DIANE JENNINGS

Despite efforts by his attorney and the mother of his victim to stave off his execution, condemned killer Johnny Joe Martinez was put to death Wednesday night in Huntsville, Texas.

 Mr. Martinez, 29, was executed for the murder of Clay Peterson nine years ago during a convenience store robbery in Corpus Christi.

 In a final statement, Mr. Martinez apologized to Mr. Peterson's family and criticized his original state-appointed appeals attorneys.

 "I want to thank you," he said, referring to Lana Norris, Mr. Peterson's mother, who wrote a letter to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles asking that his sentence be commuted. "It meant a lot to me."

 His voice shaking, Mr. Martinez said he failed to call his own mother Wednesday.

 "Tell my mother I love her too. I didn't call her because I just couldn't," Mr. Martinez said.

 His mother, Mary Lou Chavera, was in Huntsville but did not attend the execution at her son's request, according to Mr. Martinez's attorney, David Dow. Mr. Martinez's sister, brother, a spiritual adviser and Mr. Dow witnessed the execution.

 Ms. Norris did not attend the execution, although she backs the right of victims to do so. Earlier this week she said, "I am as at peace as you can get when someone's life is on the line, but can anyone be totally at peace when someone's life is on the line?"

 Mr. Peterson's murder devastated Ms. Norris. A day after his 20th birthday, Mr. Peterson was stabbed repeatedly in the back and neck by Mr. Martinez in a crime that was caught on videotape.

 But Ms. Norris, who supports the death penalty, said she forgave Mr. Martinez after a face-to-face mediation session with him this month.

 At Mr. Martinez's request, she wrote a letter to the pardons and paroles board asking that his sentence be commuted to life so he could help rehabilitate other inmates.

 "There is no doubt in my mind that to execute Mr. Martinez would be a double crime against society," she wrote.

 Ms. Norris said she believed that Mr. Martinez had repented and could help rehabilitate other inmates if his sentence were commuted.

 'One more thing'

  Mr. Martinez, also 20 when he killed Mr. Peterson, had no criminal record.

 About 15 minutes after the stabbing, he called authorities, told them what he'd done, and waited for them to pick him up.

 Ms. Norris' efforts on Mr. Martinez's behalf were criticized by some victims' rights advocates, but Ms. Norris said she had no regrets. "What I did is what I believe was the right [thing]. ... It is just the power of an awesome God, and you can't regret that," she said.

 Ms. Norris almost got her wish: In an unusually close vote Monday, the pardons and paroles board voted 9-8 to reject commutation.

 The one-vote margin gnawed at attorney Dow, who had worked frantically in recent days to save his client's life.

 "You can't help but think that if I had just done one more thing, if I had done something different, if I had done one more argument, if I had changed one more mind on the Board of Pardons and Paroles," he said.

 Mr. Dow filed a request with Gov. Rick Perry for a temporary reprieve, to no avail.

 Mr. Dow said Mr. Martinez's execution was particularly tough because he didn't believe that Mr. Martinez ever had full access to the courts, because his first state-appointed attorney for the appeal process did little work.

 "He felt like nobody was listening to his grievances," Mr. Dow said, "which happens to be true. Nobody did listen to his grievances."

 'Lawyers ... killing me'

 Before the lethal injection, Mr. Martinez said, "I know I'm fixing to die, but not for my mistakes. My trial lawyers, they are the ones who are killing me."

 Mr. Martinez was the 13th Texas inmate executed this year and the fourth in the last four weeks. Two more are scheduled to die next week.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Texan executed despite plea from victim's mother

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, May 22 (Reuters) - A man who killed a convenience store clerk during a 1993 robbery was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, despite a plea from the victim's mother to spare his life.

      Johnny Joe Martinez, 29, was the 13th person executed this year in Texas, which leads the nation in capital punishment.

      Martinez was condemned for killing Clay Peterson, 20, while robbing a Corpus Christi, Texas, convenience store on July 15, 1993. He got $25.65, then stabbed Peterson 10 times with a pocketknife.

   The victim's mother, Lana Norris, visited Martinez on death row in Livingston, Texas, this month and left believing that he regretted the murder and was no longer a danger to society.

      At his request, she wrote a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles asking that his death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

      "Please do not cause another mother to lose her son to murder needlessly," Norris wrote. "There is no doubt in my mind that to execute Mr. Martinez would be a double crime against society." 

    The parole board voted on Monday to deny clemency for Martinez.

     In a final statement while strapped to a gurney awaiting the injection, he apologized for killing Peterson and in comments apparently addressed to Peterson's family, which was not present, said: "I want to thank you for everything you tried to do, it meant a lot to me."     He also complained about what he viewed as incompetent legal counsel during his trial.

      "I know that I am fixing to die, but not for my mistakes.

  My trial lawyers -- they are the ones that are killing me.

      "Tell Mama I love her ... I didn't call her 'cause I just couldn't," he said before dying.

      Martinez did not request a final meal.

      He was the 269th person executed in Texas since the U.S.

  Supreme Court lifted a national death penalty ban in 1976. 

  23 mag 2002

  By MICHAEL GRACZYK

HUNTSVILLE, Texas  - A   man who killed a convenience store clerk has been executed despite an   extraordinary plea by the victim's mother to commute the sentence.

Johnny Joe Martinez, who was executed Wednesday, was apologetic but bitter in a statement and blamed his lawyers for failing to get him off death row.

Appeals this week were rejected.

Martinez apologized to the parents of the slain clerk, Clay Peterson.

Peterson's mother, Lana Norris, lobbied for his sentence to be reduced to a  life term.

I want to thank you,> he said, referring to Norris, who did not witness the execution. <It meant a lot to me.>  Norris asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare Martinez, saying she believed he had repented.

The board rejected clemency in an unusually close 9-8 vote Monday.

Martinez said he was drunk and had smoked marijuana at a party when he walked into the store where Peterson was working alone about 3 a.m. July 15, 1993.

The robbery of dlrs 25.65 from the cash register and the gruesome killing of the 20-year-old Peterson were caught on videotape by the store's security camera.

Martinez was the 13th Texas inmate executed this year and the fourth in the past four weeks. Two more are set to die next week.