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Thread: Thomas Bartlett "Bart" Whitaker - Texas

  1. #41
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    October 10, 2017

    Man condemned in family murder plot loses high court appeal

    By Michael Graczyk
    The Associated Press

    HOUSTON — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to consider an appeal from a suburban Houston man on Texas death row who arranged the killings of his mother and brother in 2003 so he could collect a $1 million inheritance.

    Attorneys for 37-year-old Thomas "Bart" Whitaker went to the high court after losing a federal court appeal earlier this year. He claims his trial lawyers were deficient and that Fort Bend County prosecutors engaged in misconduct by improperly referring to discussion of a plea deal that never was reached.

    According to court records, Whitaker offered to take responsibility for the killings and accept life sentences but his attorneys said prosecutors rejected it because it contained no expression of remorse for the shooting deaths of his mother, Patricia Whitaker, 51, and his brother, Kevin, 19, at the family's Sugar Land home. Whitaker's father was shot but survived.

    The justices provided no explanation for their refusal.

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in its ruling in April, pointed to court records consistently showing trial lawyers initiated the plea bargain offer and that prosecutors said they would promise "to consider" not seeking the death penalty.

    A jury decided he should be put to death.

    Evidence showed Whitaker orchestrated the plot and that it was at least his third attempt to kill his family.

    As part of the scheme with two friends, Whitaker was shot in the arm to draw attention away from him.

    The gunman, Chris Brashear, pleaded guilty in 2007 to a murder charge and is serving life in prison. Another man, Steve Champagne, who drove Brashear from the Whitaker house the night of the shootings, took a 15-year prison term in exchange for testifying at Whitaker's trial.

    Investigators said they made the shooting look as though the family had interrupted a burglary when they returned from a dinner to celebrate Thomas Whitaker's graduation from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Whitaker never graduated.

    Whitaker does not yet have an execution date.

    In a second case involving a Texas death row inmate, the Supreme Court ordered the 5th Circuit to review the case of 36-year-old Obie Weathers, who was convicted in a robbery-slaying in San Antonio in 2000.

    The 5th Circuit last year rejected arguments that Weathers is mentally impaired and shouldn't be put to death. That decision, however, preceded a similar case earlier this year in which the high court decided that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ignored current medical standards and required use of outdated criteria when ruling on the mental disabilities of capital murder convicts.

    Weathers was 19 in February 2000 when he shot 63-year-old Ted Church twice in the head and once in the abdomen as Church tried to break up the robbery at the bar on San Antonio's east side. Church was a customer. Weathers fled with about $200.

    http://www.middletownpress.com/news/...h-12266506.php

  2. #42
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  3. #43
    Senior Member Member DStafford's Avatar
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    Pretty boy. He’s safer on Death Row than in general population.

    -Dawn

  4. #44
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Judge sets execution date for Sugar Land man who had family killed for $1 million inheritance

    A Sugar Land man convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme to off his own family in hopes of snagging a plump $1 million inheritance is now slated for execution early next year, according to court papers filed this month.

    A Fort Bend County judge on Wednesday signed the papers that could send Thomas Whitaker, who used the cover of a faked burglary to mask the murder of his mother and brother, to the Huntsville death chamber on Feb. 22.

    "This is a case in which retributive justice plays no part," attorney James Rytting said late Monday. "The victim in this case is father who does not want his child to die. It seems that this case shows that the only victim's right that counts is the right of vengeance - you don't have a right to mercy."

    Just after a 2003 celebratory dinner marking his supposed graduation from Sam Houston State University - a milestone that never happened - Whitaker arranged for two friends to wait at the family home for a burglary set-up.

    When the family of four returned home from the restaurant, a gunman opened fire as they walked through the door, killing 51-year-old Patricia Whitaker and 19-year-old Kevin. Only Whitaker's father survived the attack.

    Afterward, as police probed the killings, Whitaker stole $10,000 from his father and fled to Mexico.

    When authorities picked him up 15 months later, his father hired an attorney to argue against the capital case.

    The pair of slayings came after three years of planning and at least one previous murder attempt, according to court papers.

    Triggerman Chris Brashear pleaded guilty to murder a decade ago and took a life sentence, while the getaway driver - Steve Champagne - agreed to a 15-year plea deal.

    But a Fort Bend jury settled on a death sentence for the mastermind behind the plot, and after more than a decade of legal battles, the condemned man lost out in the Supreme Court last month.

    He does not have any pending appeals, Rytting said.

    Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey declined to comment.

    http://m.chron.com/news/houston-texa...n-12336728.php
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #45
    phil77
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    "Pretty boy. He’s safer on Death Row than in general population.

    -Dawn "

    Not really!

    PS
    Great choice by the State of Texas!

  6. #46
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    I am very curious how this will turn out. Thomas is the poster child DP candidate—a deeply heinous premeditated multiple murderer whose guilt is not in question, and whose trial was fair. He deserves the gurney.

    But his one surviving victim is his father who wants him to live. I know he’s gotten some publicity before. I just wonder if there’s some weird legal avenue Whitaker can pursue to buy himself time, or if he’ll fade away and be executed in february as planned.

  7. #47
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Well Paul Storey in Texas was stayed this year over the victims family's objections. We can only hope this goes through. He's a coward and a good-for-nothing loser that contributed nothing and had his family slaughtered to feed his greed.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #48
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Storey got stayed because the family claimed that the prosecutor lied at trial on their stance on the death penalty. That family was either paid by an org or didn't pay attention at all during his trial, the timing of their claims was highly suspicious. Whitaker won't get stayed over the family issue.
    Last edited by Mike; 11-12-2017 at 09:51 AM.

  9. #49
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Texas man with scheduled execution uses letters from fellow death row inmates to argue for reprieve

    By Keri Blakinger
    The Houston Chronicle

    A Fort Bend death row prisoner scheduled for execution in February for his role in a plot to kill his own family is begging for a reprieve in a request bolstered by 58 letters of support - including seven fellow death row prisoners.

    Thomas "Bart" Whitaker is slated to die on Feb. 22 for the 2003 slayings of his mother and younger brother, who the Sugar Land man had killed in a murder-for-hire scheme aimed at snagging a hefty $1 million inheritance. The attack wounded Whitaker's father, who has since fought against his son's death sentence and serves as the centerpiece of the commutation request now before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

    "There is only one person on Earth who is intimate with the murderous attack, the lives and deaths of the other victims, and the life of Thomas Whitaker - Mr. Whitaker's father, Kent. Kent was there," the condemned man's attorneys wrote in their petition.

    For the rest of us, the case against commutation to a life sentence seems clear. We can't forgive; we have no sympathy. But clemency is not about something so simple as sympathy or as formidable as forgiveness."

    The petition describes the deaths in graphic detail, draws comparisons to the story of Cain and Abel and lays out a scene of the grieving father on his knees begging prosecutors to spare his son.

    But Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey defended the decision to continue pursuing the state's harshest punishment and pushed back against Whitaker's petition for clemency.

    "Bart Whitaker is a master manipulator of reality," he said. "And this approach doesn't surprise me at all."

    The 2003 killings took place just after celebratory dinner marking Whitaker's supposed graduation from Sam Houston State University - a milestone that never happened. Before the ruse of a dinner, Whitaker had arranged for two friends to wait at the family home for a burglary set-up.

    When the family of four returned home from the restaurant, a gunman opened fire as they walked through the door, killing 51-year-old Patricia Whitaker and 19-year-old Kevin.

    Afterward, as police probed the killings, Whitaker stole $10,000 from his father and fled to Mexico.

    When authorities picked him up 15 months later, his father hired an attorney to argue against the capital case.

    The pair of slayings came after three years of planning and at least one previous murder attempt, according to court papers.

    Triggerman Chris Brashear pleaded guilty to murder a decade ago and took a life sentence, while the getaway driver - Steve Champagne - agreed to a 15-year plea deal.

    Over his father's protestations, Whitaker was sentenced to death. But in the intervening years, his attorneys argue in Wednesday's petition, he's had an awakening described by other death row inmates, teachers, extended family and international pen pals.

    "Of all the people I have met over the years Thomas Whitaker is the person I believe deserves clemency the most," wrote death row inmate William Speer, who described him as "one of the best-liked inmates" who has "worked the hardest" to rehabilitate himself.

    "Killing him would be a crime, because the system needs men like him out on the farms keeping everyone calm and looking forward," Speer wrote. "Please give him another chance."

    Healey was not impressed to hear of Whitaker's letters from fellow prisoners.

    "What a noble group of supporters," he said. The decision to seek death over Kent Whitaker's objections, he said, stemmed from the need to represent "society as a whole" instead of solely weighing the opinions of the victims' family.

    "My conscience and that of the prosecutors, I'm certain, has been clear."

    https://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...s-12492275.php
    Last edited by Aaron; 01-12-2018 at 10:36 AM. Reason: Posted the WHOLE article

  10. #50
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    "What a noble group of supporters." That might just be my favorite rebuttal ever.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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