Alvin Goodwin was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of James Tillerson
According to court documents Alvin Goodwin and an accomplice would force their way into the home of James Tillerson. Tillerson would be forced to walk into a nearby wooded area where he would be fatally shot
Alvin Goodwin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Alvin Goodwin would be executed by lethal injection on January 18 2001
Alvin Goodwin Photos
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When Was Alvin Goodwin Executed
Alvin Goodwin was executed on January 18 2001
Alvin Goodwin Case
14 years after a Conroe man was taken from his home and fatally shot in an aborted cash robbery, the parolee convicted of gunning him down was executed in the Texas death chamber today. He said goodbye in Gaelic and closed by saying “all right, warden.” Alvin Goodwin sputtered and grunted twice as he exhaled. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., 7 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his muscular, tattooed arms. Texas executed a record 40 prisoners last year and at least 7 other inmates already have execution dates for 2001.
Goodwin, who declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his execution date, had at least seven previous execution dates. About an hour before his execution, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, denied a request for an emergency stay. At the same time, a separate appeal from Goodwin was rejected with no dissent by the high court. He did not request relief from Gov. Rick Perry, who has the authority to issue a 1-time 30-day reprieve.
Goodwin, a former carpenter and press operator, already had a record when authorities said he and a companion burst into the home of an acquaintance in Conroe, guns drawn, to steal the man’s $600 Christmas bonus. When tool company worker Douglas Tillerson told the intruders he didn’t have the money, they took a video cassette recorder and some tapes, drove him about 2 miles from his Montgomery County trailer home and marched him into some woods, evidence showed. Accomplice Billy Aitkens Jr. tried to shoot Tillerson but his gun misfired twice. Goodwin’s didn’t. “It was for no apparent reason than just to see a man die,” Mary Ann Turner, a former assistant district attorney in Montgomery County who prosecuted Goodwin, said this week. “It was an unnecessary death. He killed just to kill in this particular case.”
Tillerson’s body was discovered by trail riders Jan. 17, 1987, 6 weeks after relatives reported him missing and his trailer ransacked. 4 days later, Goodwin and Aitkens were tracked down in Burlington, Iowa, where they had been under arrest on unrelated burglary charges. The murder weapon actually had been seized from Aitkens’ car the day after Tillerson’s Nov. 30, 1986, killing when Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies pulled over Aitkens, Goodwin and 2 other men during a traffic stop.
Testimony at his trial showed Goodwin had claimed ownership of the .357-caliber Magnum pistol. Ballistics tests tied it to the fatal wound suffered by Tillerson, who already had deposited his Christmas bonus in the bank when the 2 gunmen showed up at his home. Authorities also had videotaped and written confessions from Goodwin, who was no stranger to the Texas criminal justice system. In 1982, the 10th-grade dropout was convicted in Harris County of burglary and auto theft but was paroled to Galveston County after serving only 11 months of a 5-year prison term. Less than 2 years later, he was back in prison as a parole violator plus a new 2-year sentence for burglary from Walker County. After 14 months, he was released under mandatory supervision to Nueces County. 6 months later, the Tillerson murder occurred.
The propriety of the traffic stop and seizure of the weapon that connected Goodwin to the murder, along with questions about the legality of his confession to authorities in Iowa, led to numerous appeals over the years. “I don’t think it’s good for anybody,” former prosecutor Turner, who now works as a defense attorney, said of the lengthy process. “I don’t think it’s good for the defendant to not know his fate for 14 years and it’s definitely not good for the victims and the state in this particular case. “Capital punishment has its place and I wish somehow we could all be satisfied how it’s administered. And I don’t know we can ever do that.”
Aitkens, now 35, is serving a life prison term for the attack.
Goodwin becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 241st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Goodwin becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 689th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.