Kenneth Bruce was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Helen Ayers
According to court documents Kenneth Bruce and three accomplices would force their way into the home of Richard and Helen Ayers. The couple would be tied up and shot leaving Richard Ayers paralyzed. Helen Ayers would be shot a second time causing her death
Kenneth Bruce would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. The three accomplices are all serving life sentences
Kenneth Bruce would be executed by lethal injection on January 14 2004
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When Was Kenneth Bruce Executed
Kenneth Bruce was executed on January 14 2004
Kenneth Bruce Case
A former pizza delivery driver was executed Wednesday for fatally shooting a woman after robbing her and her husband of inexpensive jewelry and less than $10. In the death chamber, Kenneth Eugene Bruce, 32, first addressed the family of his victim, Helen Ayers, and then spoke to his family. “To the family of Mrs. Ayers, I would like to apologize for all the pain and suffering and that God gives you closure. And I pray that he blesses you,” he said. Bruce then told his family, “I may not be with you in the physical but by grace my heart will be with you all and I know God loves every one of you all.” Bruce’s mother wept loudly and was allowed to sit in a wheelchair when she was unable to stand on her own. Bruce was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m. He was the second inmate executed in 2004.
The execution was delayed briefly as officials awaited a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied 5-4 a request from Bruce’s attorneys for a stay. The court did not explain its decision In their appeal, Bruce’s lawyers had raised concerns about the instructions given to jurors at his trial and questioned the constitutionality of the drugs used in a lethal injection, contending that the drugs, as administered, resulted in cruel and unusual punishment.
On Dec. 10, 1990, two young men knocked on the door of the home of Helen and Richard Ayers in rural Collin County, saying that their car had broken down and that they needed jumper cables. After Richard Ayers invited them inside to keep warm, two more men barged in, armed with guns. After turning over a wallet and a purse, the couple was taken to a bedroom and told to lie face down. Then they were shot. Helen Ayers, 54, was killed. Richard Ayers, 58, lay wounded on the floor for about three hours until a son arrived home from work.
Two of the four men, Eric Lynn Moore and Sam Andrews, turned themselves in to authorities within days. Bruce, then 19, and his cousin, Anthony Quinn Bruce, then 15, were arrested four days later. Kenneth Bruce and Moore each received the death penalty. The others were sentenced to life in prison.
Richard Ayers, paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, testified against each at their trials. The issue of the lethal drugs was raised last month in two other Texas cases, resulting in punishment delays. But the 5th Circuit later declined to rule on an appeal refiled in those cases, and execution dates for those two inmates were reset.
