On
this date, January 30, 2019, Robert Jennings was executed by lethal injection
in Huntsville, Texas. He was convicted of the July 20, 1998 shooting of Officer
Elston Howard.
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Robert Jennings (left)
served 30 years in jail for the murder of Elston Howard, and a mugshot
taken of him when he was initially charged in 1988 (right)
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'Be well, be safe and enjoy life's
moments, we never get those back': Cop killer's final words before he is
executed in Texas 30 years after killing officer during adult bookstore robbery
- Robert Jennings, 61, was executed Wednesday in Huntsville, Texas
- He is the first death row inmate to be executed in both Texas and the United States in 2019
- In July 1988, he fatally shot Houston Police Officer Elston Howard while attempting to rob an adult bookstore
- Supreme Court rejected Jennings' request for a last-minute stay of execution
- Robert Jennings, 61, was executed Wednesday in Huntsville, Texas
- He is the first death row inmate to be executed in both Texas and the United States in 2019
- In July 1988, he fatally shot Houston Police Officer Elston Howard while attempting to rob an adult bookstore
- Supreme Court rejected Jennings' request for a last-minute stay of execution
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 16:08 AEDT, 30 January 2019 |
UPDATED: 18:17 AEDT, 31 January 2019
A 61-year-old Texas inmate has been executed for killing a Houston police officer more than three decades ago.
Robert Jennings received lethal injection on Wednesday evening for the July 1988 fatal shooting of Officer Elston Howard during a robbery at an adult bookstore that authorities said was part of a crime spree.
As witnesses filed into the death chamber, Jennings asked a chaplain standing next to him if he knew the name of the slain officer.
The chaplain didn't respond, and a prison official then told the warden to proceed with the punishment.
'To my friends and family, it was a nice journey,' Jennings said in his final statement.
'To the family of the police officer, I hope y'all find peace. Be well and be safe and try to enjoy life's moments, because we never get those back.'
Outside the prison, more than 100 officers stood vigil. And a motorcycle club that supports police revved their engines, with the roar from the bikes audible in the chamber.
Jennings was pronounced dead at 6.33pm, 18 minutes after the drug started.
He became the first inmate put to death this year both in the U.S. and in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
'Justice has been rendered and my family can finally have the closure we deserve,' Michael Agee, Howard's nephew and a current Houston officer, said after watching Jennings die.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, asked about the 30-plus years between the crime and the punishment, said he thought 'justice delayed is, to an extent, an injustice continued.'
'But when the state takes a life, there has to be a process,' Acevedo said.
'In this case, the day of reckoning is here. It's a solemn occasion. For us it's a celebration of a life well-lived by Officer Howard. We're a family. That's why we're here.'
His attorneys had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution, arguing Jennings' trial attorneys failed to ask jurors to fully consider evidence - including details of his remorse for the officer's shooting and possible brain damage - that might have spared him a death sentence.
Jennings had received an execution stay in 2016. But the high court and lower appeals courts rejected his request to delay Wednesday's execution and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down Jennings' request to commute his sentence.
A twice convicted robber, Jennings had been on parole for about two months when prosecutors say he entered Mr. Peeper's Bookstore with the intention of robbing the business.
Since being paroled, Jennings had gone on a crime spree, committing about 10 robberies, including having already robbed the same adult bookstore 12 days before Howard's slaying.
Officer Howard, 24, was in the middle of arresting the store clerk for operating a pornographic video arcade without a permit when Jennings shot the officer twice in the head.
Howard, who had been wearing a jacket with the words 'Houston Police' on it, staggered for a few feet before falling to the ground, where he was shot twice more by Jennings.
The clerk later testified the shooting was so quick, Howard never had a chance to unholster his gun.
Jennings was arrested hours later when he went to a Houston hospital after being shot in the hand by his accomplice, who got angry at Jennings for shooting the officer.
Joe Gamaldi, the president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said Jennings has spent more time on death row than Howard was alive.
Howard 'was an honorable man full of integrity who did his job. He was absolutely one of the best and he was just taken entirely too soon by this animal who murdered him in cold blood,' Gamaldi said.
After his arrest, Jennings confessed to killing Howard, telling police in a tape-recorded statement he was remorseful about what happened and would 'face whatever punishment (he had) coming.'
Edward Mallett, one of Jennings' current appellate attorneys, said the inmate's trial attorneys failed to present sufficient evidence of his remorse as well as his history of brain damage, being abused as a child and drug addiction.
He said the trial attorneys also failed to provide an instruction to jurors that would have allowed them to give sufficient weight to these aspects of Jennings' life when they deliberated.
Mallett said a prior appellate attorney also failed to argue these issues in earlier appeals.
'There has not been an adequate presentation of his circumstances including mental illness and mental limitations,' Mallett said.
Jennings' trial in 1989 took place just as the Supreme Court issued a ruling that faulted Texas' capital sentencing statute for not allowing jurors to consider evidence supporting a sentence less than death.
The Texas Legislature changed the statute to address the high court's concerns but that took place after Jennings was convicted.
The Texas Attorney General's Office called Jennings' claim he had ineffective lawyers at his trial and during earlier appeals 'specious,' and said appeals courts have previously rejected allegations his personal history was not adequately investigated and presented at his trial.
'My hope is that on Wednesday (Howard's family gets) the closure that they've been searching for 30 years,' Gamaldi said.
INTERNET SOURCE:
The sound of justice: Dozens of cops rev their motorbike
engines outside execution chamber so cop-killer can hear them as he's put to
death by lethal injection 20 years after murdering officer in adult bookstore
heist
·
Robert Jennings was sentenced to death for the July 1988
slaying of a cop
·
Jennings, 61, died by lethal injection in Huntsville Unit
in Houston on Wednesday
·
Uniformed police revved their motorcycle engines outside
the state prison
·
Jennings
was the first inmate put to death this year both in the U.S. and Texas
·
His
last words to family and his partner were 'it was a nice journey'
·
In
July 1988, he fatally shot Houston Police Officer Elston Howard while
attempting to rob an adult bookstore
·
The
Supreme Court rejected his request for a last-minute stay of execution
|
Dozens
of uniformed police gathered and revved their motorcycle engines outside a
prison where a man was executed for killing an officer.
Robert
Jennings was sentenced to death for the July 1988 slaying of Officer Elston
Howard during a robbery at an adult bookstore in Houston, Texas.
The
61-year-old, who spent 30 years in jail, was pronounced dead at 6.33pm on
Wednesday, 18 minutes after the drug was administered.
Houston
Police Chief Art Acevedo, Elston Howard's mother Era and Jennings' partner
Evelyn Staus were among the witnesses present at Huntsville Unit before
Jennings received a lethal injection.
Outside
on the street, dozens of uniformed police gathered and revved their motorcycle
engines, sending up a noise that echoed into the death chamber.
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Outside on the street,
dozens of uniformed police gathered and revved their motorcycle engines as
inmates Robert Jennings died by lethal injection
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Thin Blue Line Law
Enforcement Motorcycle Club, whose members are law enforcement officers, make
their way to Huntsville Unit for Robert Jennings' execution on Wednesday
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Houston
Police officers also saluted to officer Elston Howard's mother and family as
they walked into the Huntsville Unit.
As
witnesses filed into the death chamber, Jennings asked a chaplain standing next
to him if he knew the name of the slain officer.
The
chaplain didn't respond, and a prison official then told the warden to proceed
with the punishment.
According
to the Houston Chronicle, Jennings said in his final
moments: 'Just briefly, to my friends and family, it was a nice journey.
'To
the family of the police officer, I hope this finds you peace, and be well and
stay safe. Enjoy life's moments because we never get them back.'
He
paused, then called out in a sing-song voice to his partner 'life-mate, see you
at the crossroads.'
When
asked about the 30-plus years between the crime and the punishment, Houston
Police Chief Art Acevedo said he thought 'justice delayed is, to an extent, an
injustice continued.
'But when
the state takes a life, there has to be a process,' Acevedo said.
'In this
case, the day of reckoning is here. It's a solemn occasion. For us it's a
celebration of a life well-lived by Officer Howard. We're a family. That's why
we're here.'
In his
final weeks, Jennings had decided he didn't even want a reprieve. He barely
slept the night before.
He'd
rather be dead, he told a loved one, than stuck on death row indefinitely with
no end in sight, his partner Evelyn Staus told the Houston Chronicle.
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Houston Police Chief Art
Acevedo (left) accompanies Era Howard, (right) mother of murdered officer
Elston Howard into Huntsville Unit to witness her son's murder being
executed
|
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Houston Police officers
saluted to officer Elston Howard's mother and family as they walk into the
Huntsville Unit on Wednesday to witness their loved one's killer's final
moments
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'You get
to a point where you accept whatever happens and he's at that point,' Staus
said.
Jennings
is the first inmate put to death this year both in the U.S. and in Texas, which
is the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
'Justice
has been rendered and my family can finally have the closure we deserve,'
Michael Agee, Howard's nephew and a current Houston officer, said after
watching Jennings die.
Jennings lost
a last-ditch appeal pending in the U.S. Supreme Court in which he argued that
he suffered 'an improbable succession of bad lawyering.'
In
another appeal, he asked for a stay because the jury didn't properly consider
reasons to give him a lesser sentence, such as his low IQ and show of
remorse.
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|
Joe Gamaldi, the
president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said Jennings has spent more
time on death row than Howard was alive
|
In 1988,
Jennings and a friend went to the nearby Stop-N-Go and bought a six-pack in
Houston.
At the
time, Jennings was still on parole from a sentence for his second aggravated
robbery bid.
But the
then 30-year-old and his friend, David Lee Harvell, wanted a night on the town,
so they drove to a nearby strip club.
With no
IDs, the pair got turned away, according to court records obtained by the
Houston Chronicle.
Jennings
and David Lee Harvell then decided to rob an adult book store and were in
possession of weapons.
Vice
officer Elston Howard, who was standing at the counter, was filling out
paperwork when Jennings made his way inside.
Howard
and his undercover partner had just arrested the store owner for showing
pornographic films without a permit.
Howard,
who was then 24, was waiting for a squad car to take the man downtown to
booking when Jennings came inside and fired his gun at him.
Two
bullets hit Howard in the neck. He tried to flee but collapsed, according to
court records. Jennings shot him two more times as he lay face down.
Jennings ran
outside and hopped in the getaway car, shoving the gun between the seats before
telling Harvell that he'd just shot a 'security guard.'
A clerk
later testified the shooting was so quick, Howard never had a chance to
unholster his gun.
Jennings
was arrested hours later when he went to a Houston hospital after being shot in
the hand by his accomplice, who got angry at Jennings for shooting the officer.
At the
time court records reveal he said: 'I shot him in the back two times.
'After I
shot him, the dude went to the ground between my legs, and he was still holding
me by my legs, and I had to push him all the way down to the floor, and I then
stepped over his body, and I went directly to the cash register.'
Joe
Gamaldi, the president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said Jennings has
spent more time on death row than Howard was alive.
Howard
'was an honorable man full of integrity who did his job. He was absolutely one
of the best and he was just taken entirely too soon by this animal who murdered
him in cold blood,' Gamaldi said.
After his
arrest, Jennings confessed to killing Howard, telling police in a tape-recorded
statement he was remorseful about what happened and would 'face whatever
punishment (he had) coming.'
Edward
Mallett, one of Jennings' current appellate attorneys, said the inmate's trial
attorneys failed to present sufficient evidence of his remorse as well as his
history of brain damage, being abused as a child and drug addiction.
He said
the trial attorneys also failed to provide an instruction to jurors that would
have allowed them to give sufficient weight to these aspects of Jennings' life
when they deliberated.
Mallett
said a prior appellate attorney also failed to argue these issues in earlier
appeals.
'There
has not been an adequate presentation of his circumstances including mental
illness and mental limitations,' Mallett said.
Jennings'
trial in 1989 took place just as the Supreme Court issued a ruling that faulted
Texas' capital sentencing statute for not allowing jurors to consider evidence
supporting a sentence less than death.
The Texas
Legislature changed the statute to address the high court's concerns but that
took place after Jennings was convicted.
The Texas
Attorney General's Office called Jennings' claimed he had ineffective lawyers
at his trial and during earlier appeals 'specious,' and said appeals courts
have previously rejected allegations his personal history was not adequately
investigated and presented at his trial.
'My hope
is that on Wednesday (Howard's family gets) the closure that they've been
searching for 30 years,' Gamaldi said.
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