David Long was executed by the State of Texas for the murders of three women with an axe
According to court documents David Long would be living in a home with the victims when an argument broke out and Long would murder the three women with an ax and a steak knife: Donna Sue Jester, Dalpha Lorene Jester and Laura Lee Owens
David Long would later confess to the murder of James Carnell during a robbery and his former boss Bob Neal Rogers
David Long would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
David Long would be executed by lethal injection on December 8 1999
David Long Photos
David Long Case
With several high-profile death penalty cases in Texas in coming weeks, the execution of a convicted murderer, David Martin Long, was not expected to generate much fanfare. He had been scheduled to die by lethal injection this evening, making him the 32nd person executed in Texas this year.
But when death row guards found him unconscious from a drug overdose on Monday morning, Mr. Long himself became a high-profile case. Placed in intensive care on a ventilator in a Galveston hospital, Mr. Long suddenly presented a politically delicate question for Gov. George W. Bush, even as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination today in New Hampshire:
Would the state of Texas remove an inmate from intensive care so that he could meet his date with the executioner rather than stay the execution for 30 days? The answer is yes.
After the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Long’s final petition for a delay tonight, Texas officials took him to the death chamber in Huntsville and executed him by lethal injection.
Because Mr. Long’s doctor deemed such a move ”risky,” state officials used an airplane staffed by medical personnel to ensure that he arrived in good health after the 25-minute trip. With Mr. Bush out of state tonight, the decision on Mr. Long’s fate technically fell to Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, but Mr. Bush’s spokeswoman said the governor agreed the execution should proceed
A staunch advocate of the death penalty in a state that strongly shares that view, Mr. Bush has made no pretense of extending his campaign theme of compassionate conservatism to death row. But the Long case and other upcoming cases might present politically ticklish moments for Mr. Bush as death penalty opponents try to paint a grim picture of the system in Texas.
On Thursday for example, the state is scheduled to execute another convicted murderer, James L. Beathard, whose accuser has recanted and whose original lawyer now admits he had a conflict of interest. In January, three inmates who committed homicides as juveniles are scheduled to die. That same month, Johnny Penry, a convicted murderer who is considered mentally retarded, is scheduled for lethal injection.
”These cases challenge our assumption of the death penalty as fairly and justly administered,” said Maurie Levin, executive director of the Texas Capital Defense Project, a nonprofit group that helps death row inmates.
In Texas, which leads the nation with 195 executions since 1982, public support for the death penalty is very high, and Mr. Bush’s Democratic predecessor, Ann Richards, was also a strong advocate.
The Long case, however, presented unusual circumstances. Convicted of the 1986 hatchet slayings of three women, one of whom was blind, Mr. Long ingested an overdose of anti-psychotic drugs on Monday morning. Doctors in Galveston placed him on life support and found themselves in the odd situation of trying to restore to good health a man with only two days left to live
Dr. Alexander Duarte, the physician in charge of the case, said David Long, 46, was removed from the ventilator on Tuesday, and by today his condition had improved to serious from critical. Dr. Duarte said Mr. Long still required oxygen and continual medical care. Under normal circumstances, he said, he would probably keep Mr. Long in the intensive-care unit for another day or two.
Instead, Dr. Duarte said state officials asked him to sign an affidavit stating that Mr. Long could be safely transported to Huntsville, a request he said he refused. But Dr. Duarte said he signed an affidavit stating that Mr. Long’s health had improved, that he had suffered no seizures and was responding to questioning — but that transporting him could be risky without appropriate medical care.
David Long’s lawyers argued before a state court judge this afternoon that their client was no longer competent enough to be executed. Lawyers for the state attorney general, John Cornyn argued the opposite, and Judge Edwin V. King agreed.
With that, and rejections by the Supreme Court (a 6-to-3 vote) and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (a 4-to-3 vote), Mr. Long’s appeals were all but exhausted. Earlier in the week, the state Board of Pardons and Parole had rejected his clemency application. So his last chance was the governor. With Mr. Bush in New Hampshire, Mr. Perry rejected Mr. Long’s request for a 30-day stay of execution. Under Texas law, when the board rejects clemency, the governor has two options: reject clemency or grant a 30-day stay.
Why not just delay the execution 30 days? ”Mr. Long has been convicted of three murders,” said Ray Sullivan, Mr. Perry’s spokesman. ”The Texas Department of Criminal Justice determined that transporting him from Galveston to Huntsville is not life threatening. He has received his court appeals and, barring any additional court actions, we expect the execution to go forward.”
One of David Long’s lawyers, John Blume, disagreed. ”It seems like a pretty sick process when you jerk a guy out of intensive care on a ventilator,” he said, adding, ”What’s the huge rush?
