11/03/03

TEXAS/USA

Repeat burglar is 299th inmate executed in Texas

A convicted burglar and thief paroled from prison numerous times apologized and then was executed Tuesday for robbing and fatally shooting a sleeping East Texas fisherman 10 years ago.

In a brief statement, Bobby Glen Cook said he would like to tell his victim's family that he knows "they've got grief and I know with this execution it will not be any relief to them. With my death, it will just remind them of their loved one." None of the victim's relatives were there to witness the execution.

Cook asked for forgiveness and repeated his assertion that the shooting was in self-defense.

"I was never able to get up on the stand to tell them," he continued, his voice choking with emotion. "I know this is wrong, but I'm going home to the Lord."

He gasped slightly as the drugs began taking effect. 8 minutes later, at 6:20 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

Cook, 41, of Corsicana, had been free for 10 months on his fourth parole when he was arrested for the slaying of Edwin Earl Holder, 42, of Buffalo.

Cook's appeals were exhausted.

Another inmate, Delma Banks, faces execution tomorrow night.

But Banks, 44, convicted 23 years ago of fatally shooting a Texarkana- area youth and stealing his car, had an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court that questioned his trial lawyer's competence, the testimony of two prosecution witnesses and the racial makeup of his jury. His appeal, being pushed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a Washington, D.C.- based organization called The Justice Project, additionally was supported by 3 former federal judges, including William Sessions, a former FBI director.

In the Cook case, the former painter, heavy equipment operator and concrete truck driver admitted being a thief but said he was no killer.

"I've never been violent," he said in a recent interview. "Just thefts."

At the time of the slaying, Cook had 5 convictions -- 3 for burglary and 2 for theft -- had been to prison 4 times and was paroled 4 times, committing another crime each time while on parole.

"When people are speaking of the mythical nonviolent offender who can be released with no adverse consequence, one has to at least think there may be a Bobby Cook among those nonviolent offenders," Gerald Garrett, chairman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said. "His record was really amazing to look at, the number of opportunities he was afforded to get his life together before ultimately going down a path of extreme violence."