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Thread: John Russell Thompson - Texas Execution - July 8, 1987

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    John Russell Thompson - Texas Execution - July 8, 1987




    Summary of Offense: Convicted in the 1977 slaying of Mary V. Kneupper, 70, during the robbery of a San Antonio public storage locker

    Victim: Mary V. Kneupper

    Time of Death: 12:20 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

    Last Meal: Freshly squeezed orange juice

    Final Statement: He made no last statement from the execution chamber. A prison chaplain who talked with Thompson said he planned to pray rather than talk to the gathered witnesses. "He wanted his last words to be with God and not anybody here."

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    July 8, 1987

    Thompson executed for killing woman in 1977

    HUNTSVILLE - After nearly a decade on Texas' death row, John Russell Thompson, 32, was executed by injection early today as the judge who presided at his trial lobbied on his behalf at the Texas death chamber.

    Thompson, convicted in the 1977 slaying of Mary V. Kneupper, 70, during the robbery of a San Antonio public storage locker, was pronounced dead at 12:20 a.m.

    His final bid for a stay of execution was turned down late Tuesday by a 6-2 vote of the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Thompson walked silently to the gurney and was strapped down shortly after midnight. He made no last statement as the mixture of drugs was administered.

    A prison chaplain who talked with Thompson said he planned to pray rather than talk to the gathered witnesses. "He wanted his last words to be with God and not anybody here."

    San Antonio Judge Peter Curry, who signed Thompson's death warrant, joined Thompson's relatives and friends in the witness chamber. He insisted before the execution that Thompson should not be put to death.

    The 166th District Court judge told reporters that Thompson had changed while in prison and didn't deserve to die.

    "I do not think it is an injustice," he said of the execution. "I make no excuse for the crime he committed. It was bad. But, if anybody deserves a commutation of his sentence this guy does."

    Curry, who said he drove to Huntsville on the spur of the moment to witness the execution, said he wrote a letter to the Board of Pardons and Paroles urging a commutation. "I've kind of followed this guy's history," he said, adding that Thompson's attitude more than a claim of death row religious conversion made the judge change his mind.

    Curry, a death penalty supporter, said Thompson requested that he witness the execution.

    In an unexpected move earlier this week, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, with one member absent, initially voted to recommend a reprieve and commutation for Thompson. On Tuesday, however, the full board voted 3-3, which reversed the first finding.

    Although the board earlier this year recommended - and Gov. Bill Clements - granted the commutation of a death row inmate's sentence to life in prison, the panel has not asked for an emergency reprieve since Texas resumed executions in 1982.

    Emergency appeals by Thompson also were denied by U.S. District Judge D.W. Suttle of San Antonio and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Thompson's final appeal, filed by attorneys Mark Stevens and Nick Rothe of San Antonio, challenged Thompson's death sentence on 10 grounds, including insufficient evidence to prove he acted deliberately or intentionally and that prosecutors reneged on a promise not to seek the death penalty.

    Thompson also asked Clements for a 30-day reprieve.

    The condemned man spent his final day talking to prison clergy, attorneys, friends and relatives. Included in the group were his fiancee, Nancy Ford, and parents, John and Etta Thompson. None of the relatives would comment.

    Thompson chose only freshly squeezed orange juice when offered a last meal.

    Thompson's first conviction in 1978 was thrown out on appeal, but a second trial in 1982 also resulted in a death sentence. Thompson, of Cibolo, contended the May 21, 1977, killing was an accident.

    On the day of the shooting, Thompson, a paroled burglar and drug addict, was looking to rob a business in order to buy narcotics, said Ed Shaughnessy, a Bexar County assistant district attorney.

    Thompson and three friends drove by the public storage facility where the Kneuppers lived and worked. Accomplice Christi Sparks testified that Thompson went in alone.

    Thompson said his gun went off by accident. No one saw the murder, but Kneupper and a neighbor heard the shots.

    No money was taken in the incident. Sparks and another accomplice were arrested within months of the shooting and gave statements that linked Thompson to the case.

    Thompson later was arrested in a Plano burglary.

    Also early today:

    Connie Ray Evans, 27, who killed a convenience store clerk during a robbery, was executed Wednesday in Mississippi's gas chamber.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1987_474390

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    July 9, 1987

    Thompson execution gets unusual reactions from relatives, officials

    HUNTSVILLE - Dottie McCammon thought the execution Wednesday of her mother's murderer would relieve a decade of tension in her soul.

    It didn't.

    "I'm very surprised at myself," she said, minutes after John Russell Thompson, 32, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday for the 1977 slaying of 70-year-old Mary Kneupper of San Antonio. "There is a life gone. It's just unfortunate."

    One of the first things McCammon's family did after the execution was telephone and offer condolences to Thompson's attorney, Nick Rothe, asking that the message be passed to the executed man's family.

    McCammon's reaction was one of several uncommon responses to the execution, the fifth in Texas this year and the 25th since the state reinstated the death penalty.

    State District Judge Peter Curry, who presided over Thompson's 1982 retrial for Kneupper's slaying and who signed the death warrant for the execution, drove to Huntsville from San Antonio to show his support of Thompson. A day earlier he had requested commutation of the condemned man's sentence from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

    The board, with one member absent, initially voted to recommend a reprieve and commutation for Thompson. Tuesday, however, the full board voted 3-3, which reversed the first finding.

    Although the board earlier this year recommended - and Gov. Bill Clements granted - the commutation of a death row inmate's sentence to life in prison, the panel has not asked for an emergency reprieve since Texas resumed executions in 1982.

    A shaken Curry, standing in the Texas Department of Corrections administration building minutes after Thompson died, defended his change of heart about Thompson and his seemingly contrary but continuing support of the death penalty.

    "It's a terrible thing," he said of the death penalty. "But it's a necessary thing in certain instances. I've presided over other capital murder cases where the death penalty was more appropriate but not given."

    For that reason, he added, Thompson's sentence should have been commuted to life in prison.

    McCammon, who said repeated reversals, appeals and mistrials have taken a toll on her family, said she would have accepted a life sentence for Thompson if there had been assurances he would remain in prison for the remainder of his life.

    "We couldn't be assured that he wouldn't be walking the streets in 20 years, ready to do this again," she said Wednesday. "We're not resigned to an `eye-for-eye' attitude. We just didn't want him to ever do this again." Her mother was killed during a robbery attempt at a public storage locker.

    Witnesses said Thompson entered the execution chamber at the Walls Unit prison shortly after midnight, was administered the lethal dose at 12:11 a.m. and was pronounced dead nine minutes later.

    Thompson, who said in his last court appearance that he experienced a religious conversion and was willing to accept his fate, made no final statement, said Attorney General Jim Mattox, who witnessed the execution.

    "He wanted his last words to be with God and not anybody here," Mattox said.

    On the day of Kneupper's shooting, Thompson, a paroled burglar and drug addict, was looking to rob a business in order to buy narcotics, said Ed Shaughnessy, a Bexar County assistant district attorney.

    Thompson, riding in a car with friends, entered the business - managed by Kneupper and her husband - alone. He later claimed his gun went off accidentally.

    After the execution, Mattox said he was in favor of filming or televising executions on a limited basis.

    "If we are going to have executions like this, it's not something we should have hidden away," he said. "If this is something we are going to have, we shouldn't be ashamed of it."

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1987_474392

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