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Thread: Adam Kelly Ward - Texas Execution - March 22, 2016

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    Adam Kelly Ward - Texas Execution - March 22, 2016


    Adam Kelly Ward


    Summary of Offense:

    On June 13, 2005, Adam Kelly Ward chased down and shot Commerce Code Enforcement Officer Michael "Pee Wee" Walker multiple times, killing him, after a disagreement outside Ward's home.

    Ward was sentenced to death in Hunt County in June 2007.

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    November 22, 2009

    Wrongful death suit filed in Commerce murder

    The family of a slain Commerce code enforcement officer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Commerce.

    Donavan Wayne and Marissa Elizabeth Walker, the surviving children of Michael “Pee Wee” Walker, along with their grandfather Richard A. Walker, filed the suit in the 354th District Court Friday. The City of Commerce had not responded to the suit as of Wednesday afternoon and Commerce City Attorney Jim McLeroy could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

    Adam Ward received the death penalty following his conviction on a charge of capital murder in connection with Michael Walker’s shooting death on June 13, 2005. Walker was taking photos of code violations at the home where the Wards lived on Caddo Street when he and Adam Ward had an altercation which ended with Walker being shot multiple times.

    The lawsuit alleged City of Commerce officials knew Adam Ward possessed a gun and had used it to threaten neighbors on previous occasions.

    The city was also alleged in the suit during the 10 years leading up to the shooting to have frequently threatened Ralph Ward, Adam Ward’s father, with action concerning reported code violations at the residence, with the regulations never being enforced.

    “During that period, the city established what can only be described as a policy of harassment and intimidation toward Ralph Ward,” the suit claimed. “Despite the City of Commerce’s knowledge of the potentially dangerous situation into which it was sending Michael Walker, it did not warn him of the danger. Neither did it take steps to protect him, prevent confrontation or avoid injury.”

    The suit argues that the City of Commerce now regularly provides police protection for utility meter-readers when they visit the residence where Ralph Ward still resides because, according to the suit, “ ... the city still considers Ralph Ward as dangerous; the city has even paid over time to the police to help protect other city-hall employees from Ralph Ward.”

    The suit seeks unspecified amounts of actual and exemplary damages. No hearing dates concerning the suit are currently scheduled.

    In June 2007, Richard A. Walker filed a wrongful death suit against both Adam and Ralph Ward, claiming they were negligent in causing the events which led to Walker’s murder. The suit claimed that both Ralph and Adam Ward incited the conflict that day and that Ralph Ward “intentionally and/or negligently provoked and provided direction” to his son prior to the shooting.

    In April of last year, Walker and Ralph Ward issued a statement noting a compromise had been reached and that the suit had been settled.

    No one was found liable for Michael Walker’s death through the settlement of the suit. Rather, according to the agreement, “this settlement is a compromise of a doubtful and disputed claim” and Ralph Ward’s payments to Walker’s children, “is not to be construed as an admission of responsibility.”

    Under the terms of the settlement, the Wards agreed to pay each of Michael Walker’s children a little more than $26,000 in a one-time annuity, with Donavan Walker receiving $8,125 per year for four years starting Nov. 5, 2012 and Marissa Walker receiving $9,355 per year for four years beginning April 15, 2015.

    The Wards also agreed to reimburse the Walker family for Michael Walker’s funeral expenses and for attorney’s fees.

    The Walker family won millions in May of this year, after Adam Ward, who currently is on Texas’ death row, was found liable in the earlier suit. Judge Richard A. Beacom granted a default judgment to the Walkers, as Adam Ward had never responded to the suit. Beacom awarded the family $1 million in actual damages, $5 million in exemplary damages, as well as $15,000 in attorney’s fees and interest.

    http://www.heraldbanner.com/local/lo...324012831.html

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    February 10, 2010

    Convicted killer of Texas officer loses appeal

    HOUSTON (AP) - A man condemned for gunning down a housing code enforcement officer in north Texas in a trash dispute has lost an appeal of his conviction and death sentence.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday upheld the case of 27-year-old Adam Kelly Ward. Ward was sent to death row for the 2005 fatal shooting of Michael "Pee Wee" Walker in Commerce, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas.

    Evidence showed Ward opened fire after the 44-year-old officer took pictures of his home as part of a code violation investigation. Walker was following up on complaints of trash in the yard.

    The inmate's appeal said the trial court judge improperly limited evidence of Ward's mental impairment and questioned the legality of the death penalty in Texas.

    http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/...aspx?id=414366

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    More Case Information

    Prosecutors told jurors in the 354th District Court Monday that Adam Kelly Ward gunned down Commerce Code Enforcement Officer Michael “Pee Wee” Walker in cold blood two years ago.

    “He shot him again, and again, and again,” said District Attorney F. Duncan Thomas. “Adam Ward did not stop shooting until the clip was empty.”

    Ward’s lead defense counsel, Dennis Davis, said Ward was the product of a “severely disfunctional family” and claimed he was only playing a role in an ongoing conflict between his father and the Commerce city government.

    “Adam Ward, through his father Ralph Ward, had been at war with the City of Commerce since before he was born,” Davis told the jury during opening arguments in Ward’s capital murder trial. “On that fateful morning ... the first footsoldier of that war, Michael Walker, died.”

    Meanwhile, Walker’s father, Dick Walker, recalled how while serving with the Commerce Emergency Corps he arrived on the scene to find his son near death.

    “I dropped to my knees and I told him his dad was here and would take care of him,” the elder Walker said. “I told him I loved him and that he would be all right. He wasn’t.”

    Ward, 24, is facing the potential of death by lethal injection, if he is convicted of capital murder. Ward remains in custody at the Hunt County Jail in lieu of $2 million bond. He has pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to take about three weeks.

    Walker was working as a code enforcement officer for the City of Commerce when shortly after 10 a.m. on June 13, 2005, he was taking photos of alleged code violations at the home where Ward lived on Caddo Street.

    Thomas said Ward objected and the two argued, with Ward spraying Walker with a hose. Walker called 911 on his cell phone while Ward allegedly ran into the house, grabbed a .45 caliber pistol and two loaded clips. Thomas said Ward returned to the scene and began chasing Walker, shooting him as many as eight times as they ran. Thomas said Ward was attempting to reload the gun before Ralph Ward took the weapon away.

    “Michael ‘Pee Wee’ Walker was brutally murdered, execution-style, simply because he was doing his job,” Thomas said.

    Davis characterized the Ward household as one in which the family believed that the City of Commerce, the Commerce Independent School District and the Commerce Police Department were all conspiring against them, and that years of paranoia had reached a boiling point.

    “What Michael Walker did not know is that he was walking into a war that day,” Davis said, noting that there had been several recommendations made to Ward’s parents that their son should receive treatment, advice which Davis said was ignored.

    “But for the conspirators in his life, he’d be fine, says his dad and mom,” Davis said.

    Dick Walker serves as the volunteer chief of the Commerce Emergency Corps and as an emergency medical technician. He said the initial call came in that a police officer had been shot and that he didn’t realize until his unit was enroute to the location that the city’s only code enforcement officer, his son, was the victim.

    Walker said he arrived to see several police cars in the street.

    “I started hollering out, ‘Is it my son? Is it my son?’, and no one would answer,” he said.

    He and the other emergency personnel did their best, Walker said, but there was no chance.

    “They were devastating wounds, devastating,” Walker said. “I knew I was going to lose my son when I first saw him.”

    Prosecutors said there were several witnesses to the shooting. One of them, Joseph Hamilton, also testified Monday. Hamilton said he was setting up a metal building down the street from the scene when he began hearing gunshots. He said he watched Walker being chased by Ward, with Walker first trying to get into his truck and drive away, and then getting out of the vehicle.

    “He just kept getting shot until he finally died there on the sidewalk,” Hamilton said.

    http://www.commercejournal.com/local...163123234.html

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    Convicted killer in North Texas hoarding case loses appeal

    A federal appeals court has refused an appeal from a 32-year-old man sent to death row for gunning down a North Texas city's code enforcement officer in a trash dispute nearly 10 years ago.

    Attorneys for Adam Kelly Ward argued his lawyers were deficient during the sentencing phase of his 2005 trial in Hunt County, that some of his jurors improperly contacted someone while having lunch during his trial, and that his death sentence was unconstitutional because he's severely mentally ill.

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday rejected the appeal.

    Ward was convicted of fatally shooting 44-year-old Michael Walker in Commerce, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas. Walker had taken pictures of Ward's home, where court documents say rubbish was hoarded inside and outside.

    http://www.12newsnow.com/story/27923...e-loses-appeal
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    On March 2, 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit DENIED Ward's petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...s\14-10033.htm

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Ward's petition for certiorari.

    Docketed: June 2, 2015
    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (14-70015)
    Decision Date: January 22, 2015
    Rehearing Denied: March 2, 2015

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...s/14-10033.htm

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    Execution date set for Texas death row inmate

    HUNT COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - A "death warrant" has been issued and an execution date set for a death row inmate convicted in the 2005 killing of a City of Commerce Code Enforcement Officer.

    Adam Kelly Ward, 33, was convicted of capital murder in the death of Michael "Pee Wee" Walker. His execution is set March 22, 2016.

    On Wednesday, Hunt County Sheriff's Office said Sheriff Randy Meeks was en route to serve the warrant.

    A death warrant is an official order for the execution of a condemned person. The warrant was signed by Judge Richard Beacom of the 354th District Court. According to state codes, the sheriff of the county in which a "death warrant" is issued must deliver that warrant to the Texas Department of Corrections.

    The sheriff's office released a statement on the warrant and Walker's death, saying:

    "Sheriff Meeks would like the public to remember the real victim in this senseless tragedy. ... Michael "Pee Wee" Walker was not armed and worked alone as all Code Enforcement as they routinely do and was simply doing his job. Michael "Pee Wee" Walker loved his job and is survived by two children and his father."

    On June 13, 2005, Walker was taking pictures of a house on Caddo Street for city code violations. Ward, the homeowner's son, confronted him and shot him with a pistol. Walker got in his car and backed away, and a co-worker called him on his cell phone. He told them he needed an officer.

    Police arrived shortly after. Sgt. Jeff Haines said Walker's father, Dick, was an emergency first responder who was one of the first to arrive at the scene.

    Haines recalled the incident, saying, "It was just horrible."

    Walker was taken to a hospital, where he later died of gunshot wounds.

    Dick said dealing with his son' s tragic death has been a terrible ten and a half year process.

    "I've lost all my anger toward Adam Ward, I'm working on forgiveness," Dick said. "I'm hoping the [execution] gives me a little more closure. [Michael] was not only my son, he was my best friend."

    Dick said one blessing at the time of his son's death, is that he was able to spend the final moments with his son in his arms.

    "I was able to be with him when he took his last breath," Dick said. "And the last thing he was able to hear was his daddy telling him he loves him."

    http://www.kltv.com/story/30434786/e...ath-row-inmate

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    High court weighs whether to spare Texas man from execution

    By MICHAEL GRACZYK | March 22, 2016 | 3:35 PM EDT

    The U.S. Supreme Court was considering whether a Texas man who killed a city worker in 2005 should be spared from a lethal injection, as his lawyers argue that a ban on executing mentally impaired prisoners should be extended to him.

    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/high...-man-execution
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    Media Advisory: Adam Kelly Ward scheduled for execution

    Pursuant to a court order by the 354th District Court of Hunt County, Adam Kelly Ward is scheduled for execution after 6:00 p.m. on March 22, 2016.

    In 2007, a Hunt County jury found Ward guilty of murdering Michael Walker, a City of Commerce Code Enforcement Officer.

    FACTS OF THE CASE

    The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit described the facts surrounding Ward’s murder of Michael Walker as follows:

    Ward was convicted of capital murder for an incident involving a code citation for unsheltered storage that went tragically and horribly wrong. Ward was living with his father Ralph at the time. Ward had an unusually close relationship with his father, and, according to expert trial testimony, they suffered from similar shared delusions. They apparently believed that there was a conspiracy among the governing bodies in the City of Commerce against their family, and that the “Illuminati,” an apocryphal secret society of enlightened individuals, essentially controlled the majority of government. The record indicates that the Ward family hoarded rubbish inside and outside their home, together with an arsenal of guns and ammunition.

    The Ward family was cited numerous times for failing to comply with the City of Commerce’s housing and zoning codes. Michael Walker, a City of Commerce Code Enforcement Officer, went to the Ward home to record a continuing violation for unsheltered storage on June 13, 2005. Wearing his City of Commerce work shirt and driving a marked truck, Walker approached the residence unarmed and carrying only his digital camera. When Walker arrived, Ward was washing his car in the driveway.

    After Walker walked the perimeter of the property taking pictures, Walker and Ward began to argue. Ward’s father came outside and attempted to calm the men down. Ward then sprayed Walker with water from the hose that he was using to wash his car. Walker then used his cell phone to call his office to request officer assistance. When Ward’s father noticed that Ward was no longer outside, he advised Walker that it might be “best if he left the property.” Ward’s father then ran to look for Ward, believing that Ward kept a gun in his room. Ward’s father did not warn Walker about this. Walker remained near the property waiting in the back of his truck for officer assistance to arrive.

    Before Ward’s father could intervene, Ward ran out of the house toward Walker and fired a .45 caliber pistol at him. Despite Walker’s attempts to escape, Ward shot Walker several times. After Walker fell, Ward shot him again at close range. Walker sustained nine gunshot wounds in total and died.

    Ward confessed to killing Walker shortly thereafter, explaining that he believed “the City” was after his family. He believed that Walker and the former Code Enforcement Director had threatened to tear down the family home. He claimed that he feared for his life because Walker had “threatened to call the cops,” and to believe that, if the cops showed up to arrest him, he would probably end up dead. Ward believed this because he claimed to have been beaten up by the local police previously—though, there was no evidence to substantiate this claim.

    PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

    During the penalty phase of Ward’s trial, jurors learned that Ward had previously pled guilty to committing an assault on a public servant.

    PROCEDURAL HISTORY

    On August 26, 2005, a Hunt County grand jury indicted Ward for murdering Michael Walker.

    On June 15, 2007, a Hunt County jury convicted Ward of capital murder. After a separate punishment proceeding, the same jury sentenced Ward to death on June 26, 2007.

    On February 10, 2010, Ward’s conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas on direct appeal. Ward did not appeal the state court’s decision to the Supreme Court of the United States.

    Ward filed an application for habeas corpus relief, which was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals on October 6, 2010.

    On October 6, 2011, Ward filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. The federal court denied Ward’s petition on March 6, 2014.

    On January 22, 2015, the Fifth Circuit rejected Ward’s appeal and affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas corpus relief.

    Ward filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court, which was denied on October 5, 2015.

    On November 2, 2015, the 354th state district court issued an order setting Ward’s execution date for March 22, 2016.

    On March 3, 2016, Ward filed in state court a subsequent application for habeas corpus relief and a motion for a stay of execution. The application and motion remain pending.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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