Samuel Bustamante was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Rafael Alvarado
According to court documents Samuel Bustamante was targeting illegal aliens believing they would not go to the police. Samuel would target Rafael Alvardo who would be fatally stabbed during a robbery
Bustamante would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Samuel Bustamante would be executed by lethal injection on April 27 2010
Samuel Bustamante Photos
Samuel Bustamante FAQ
When Was Samuel Bustamante Executed
Samuel Bustamante was executed on April 27 2010
Samuel Bustamante Case
Condemned Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante was executed Tuesday evening for fatally stabbing an illegal immigrant from Mexico during an attempted robbery a dozen years ago.
Bustamante, 40, said nothing, shaking his head when asked by the warden if wanted to make a final statement. He took several nearly inaudible breaths as the lethal drugs took effect, then slipped into unconsciousness as four female friends he invited to the death chamber watched.
Eight minutes later, at 6:22 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead, making him the seventh prisoner executed this year in the nation’s most active death penalty state.
No friends or relatives of his victim were present.
Bustamante was convicted of the 1998 slaying of Rafael Alvarado, 27, a Mexican national in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, who became a target on what Bustamante and some of his friends called “shopping trips” where they would hunt illegal immigrants, then beat and rob them.
The punishment came about 90 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal from Bustamante’s attorneys. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, had refused a similar appeal Monday. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also declined a clemency request.
In their appeal, attorneys said Bustamante “clearly suffers from mental retardation” and should be spared under a Supreme Court ruling that bars execution of the mentally impaired. They also argued that earlier appeals lawyers were unconstitutionally deficient in not raising the claim.
State attorneys disputed the arguments, saying the evidence didn’t support the claims and there was no legal reason to delay the punishment.
“We are all human, and make mistakes, yet do we not deserve the benefit of the doubt?” Bustamante, who declined to speak with reporters, said on a website where prisoners seek pen pals.
https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Texas-executes-7th-prisoner-this-year-731183.php
