Johnny Martinez was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Clay Peterson
According to court documents Johnny Martinez would rob a convenience store in Corpus Christi. He would demand money from the clerk Clay Peterson before stabbing the twenty year old to death
Johnny Martinez would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Johnny Martinez was executed by lethal injection on May 22 2002
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When Was Johnny Martinez Executed
Johnny Martinez was executed on May 22 2002
Johnny Martinez Case
Convicted killer Johnny Joe Martinez was executed Wednesday evening for fatally stabbing a Corpus Christi convenience store clerk nine years ago.
In a lengthy final statement, Martinez was apologetic and bitter, blaming his state-appointed appeals lawyers for his death. “I know I’m fixing to die, but not for my mistakes,” Martinez said. “My trial lawyers, they are the ones who are killing me.”
Martinez had insisted that his initial appeals lawyers were incompetent and inexperienced and failed to take the proper steps to get him off death row. Late appeals, including some to the Supreme Court this week, were rejected.
He apologized to the parents of his victim, Clay Peterson. Peterson’s mother, Lana Norris, lobbied for his sentence to be reduced to a life term. “I want to thank you,” he said, referring to Norris. “It meant a lot to me.” His voice shaking, Martinez said he failed to call his own mother Wednesday. “Tell my mother I love her, too. I didn’t call her because I just couldn’t,” he said.
Dallas Morning News
“Board Affirms Killer’s Execution by One Vote; ‘We’re sad about it,’ says victim’s mom, who had sought life for inmate,” by Diane Jennings. (May 21, 2002)
Despite a plea from the mother of the man he murdered nine years ago, Johnny Joe Martinez fell short by one vote Monday in his request for commutation of his death sentence. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 9-8 to reject life imprisonment for Mr. Martinez and 12-5 against a temporary reprieve. The one-vote margin is unusual in a death case.
Mr. Martinez is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Wednesday for the 1993 stabbing death of 20-year-old convenience store clerk Clay Peterson in Corpus Christi. Mr. Peterson’s mother, Lana Norris, had written the board this month asking that members commute the death sentence to life. “Please do not cause another mother to lose her son to murder, needlessly!” she wrote. Monday afternoon, she said she supported whatever decision the board made, “even though we’re sad about it.” “We will be praying for Johnny and for his family,” Ms. Norris added.
Ms. Norris wrote the letter, at Mr. Martinez’s request, after a lengthy and intense face-to-face mediation session with him on death row in Livingston. Mr. Martinez’s mother, Mary Lou Chavera, started crying when informed of the board’s vote. “My son lost?” she asked. “So he will be executed? Oh, my God.”
Members of the board said death penalty decisions are always difficult. Ms. Norris’ letter was a factor, but not the determining one, in their respective decisions, they said. Member Paddy Burwell said he voted to commute Mr. Martinez’s sentence because he didn’t agree that Mr. Martinez was a danger to society. Mr. Martinez, who was 20 at the time of the crime, had no previous criminal record. He considered Ms. Norris’ letter carefully, he said, but, “You have to watch the emotion thing.” He said the mother’s feelings weren’t the only consideration. Mr. Burwell said he hoped the close vote would make people realize “we work these things hard, and we’re not ‘rubber stamping,’ [which is] what we’ve been called.”
Board member Filiberto Reyna said he voted against commutation because “my perspective is more of a societal issue than just the wishes of the victim’s family.” “I try to look at every aspect of the case,” he said. “Unfortunately, in the past we’ve been accused of basically rubber stamping things. I think sometimes people get the impression I’m sitting at home in my bathrobe drinking my breakfast coffee, [saying] ‘Fax this down there.’ That’s not the case at all.” Board members generally vote by fax instead of meeting in person.
A public hearing was not held in the Martinez case because not enough board members requested one, Chairman Gerald Garrett said last week. Mr. Garrett also voted to deny a commutation or reprieve for Mr. Martinez but declined to explain why. “We’re at a point right now that is always delicate,” he said. “We have rendered our decisions, and the date still looms ahead. And litigation is always a strong possibility, so I’m not going to pontificate on this.” Commutations, recommended by the board and approved by the governor, are rarely granted in a death case. Mr. Garrett said he could recall only one in recent years.
Johnny Martinez’s lawyer, David Dow, was stunned by the close vote. “I am gratified that eight members of the board voted to recommend that Mr. Martinez’s life be spared, but eight votes do not accomplish justice in this case,” he said. Mr. Dow has said repeatedly that the merits of Mr. Martinez’s case have never been reviewed by an appellate court because the previous appellate lawyer appointed by the court had little experience in post-conviction work and did little on the case. “I am appalled that nine members of the board … would vote to execute someone whose access to the courts has been repeatedly and consistently denied,” he said.
Mr. Dow filed a lawsuit on behalf of Johnny Martinez and two other death row inmates with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, claiming that their civil rights were violated by the appointment of incompetent attorneys for state appeals. He also has two pleadings on file with the U.S. Supreme Court. A separate effort was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday. Mr. Dow said it was heartbreaking to lose a bid to save someone from the death chamber by one vote. “In a way, it’s easier to lose by a decisive margin than by a close vote,” he said. “I was prepared to be outraged by a decision of 12-5 or 11-6, but a 9-8 decision, I think, indicates pretty strongly that the complaint that Mr. Martinez had about whether he’s received access to the judicial process in this case was not an invented or an exaggerated claim.”
The Nueces County district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Johnny Martinez, could not be reached for comment on the board’s vote. Death row inmates typically are moved from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to Huntsville, where the execution chamber is housed, the day before a scheduled execution.
