Clarence Lackey was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Diane Kumph
According to court documents Clarence Lackey would attack Diane Kumph who would be abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered. Lackey would then rob her residence
Clarence Lackey would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Clarence Lackey would be executed by lethal injection on May 20 1997
Clarence Lackey Photos
Clarence Lackey Case
A man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a Lubbock, Tex., woman in 1977 was executed by injection tonight at the state prison, a prison spokesman said.
Clarence Allen Lackey, 42, was convicted of killing Diane Kumph by slashing her throat with a knife in July 1977, five months after he was released from prison on a previous burglary and attempted rape conviction, prosecutors said.
“I would like to thank my Lord Jesus Christ for keeping me strong all these years. I would also like to thank my mother for standing by me all these years. . . . I love you mom,” Lackey said as he lay strapped to a prison gurney with a Bible on his chest. He was injected with a dose of lethal chemicals and died shortly after 7 p.m.
Kumph’s partially nude and severely beaten body was found on a dirt road near Lackey’s house, prosecutors said. Traces of her blood and hair were found in Lackey’s house and truck, and bloodstains on his boots matched her blood type
Lackey’s roommate, Carol Johnson, testified she found blood all over their house after coming home from work the day of the murder. She said Lackey, after hearing radio reports about the search for the killer, admitted to killing the woman.
“Baby, I’ve got to tell you something — I’m the one they are looking for,” Johnson testified Lackey said to her.
Lackey had been released from prison five months before the murder after serving two years of a five-year sentence for burglary with intent to commit rape, prosecutors said. He spent 19 years on Texas’s death row.
The execution was the second one in the state this week — Richard G. Drinkard was killed by lethal injection Monday night — the 13th this year and the 120th since executions resumed in Texas in 1982. The state leads the nation in executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976