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Arthur Burton Executed In Texas

Arthur Burton was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Nancy Adleman in 1998

According to court documents Nancy Adleman was attacked while she was jogging by Arthur Burton who would sexually assault and murder the forty eight year old woman.

Arthur Burton would be arrested and initially denied being responsible for the brutal murder however he would later write a full confession

Arthur Burton would be convicted and sentenced to death

Arthur Burton would be executed by lethal injection on August 7 2024

Arthur Burton Execution

Texas executed death row inmate Arthur Lee Burton on Wednesday for the murder of a mother of three during an evening jog in Houston, making him the third man put to death in the state this year and the 11th in the nation.

Arthur Burton, 54, was executed by lethal injection in the Huntsville Unit north of Houston for the 1998 murder of 48-year-old Nancy Adleman, whose daughter described her as someone who “chose joy” every day of her life. Burton’s time of death was 6:47 p.m., according to Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Burton’s attorneys filed numerous appeals throughout his time on death row, including two in July that were recently denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Burton confessed to the murder to police and told a prison sociologist it was “something I couldn’t help,” according to court records.

Here’s what to know about Burton’s execution, his last words, the case and the victim.

Before Arthur Burton was executed, he spoke his last words in the death chamber.

“I want to say thank you to all the people who support me and pray for me,” he said. “For those of you I know and do not know, thank you for your support and prayers … And a full circle to all the guys at the Polunsky Unit (prison), I love you guy … Bird is going home.”

Burton also addressed those affected by his crimes.

“To all the people I have hurt and caused pain, I wish we didn’t have to be here at this moment, but I want you to know that I am sorry for putting y’all through this and my family,” he said. “I’m not better than anyone. I hope that I find peace and y’all can, too.”

Nancy Adleman was killed on July 29, 1997, while out jogging along Brays Bayou in Houston.

Harris County sheriff’s deputies found Adleman’s badly beaten body in a 4-foot hole in a heavily wooded area along the bayou the next day.

Burton was arrested by authorities 10 days after the murder, and although he initially denied killing Adleman, he eventually confessed in a written statement after officers found inconsistencies in his alibi.

In Burton’s written statement, he admitted to attacking Adleman, dragging her into the woods, choking her unconscious, removing her shorts and underwear and raping her, according to a 2004 court filing. When Adleman regained consciousness and began screaming, Burton choked her unconscious again and dragged her into the hole officials found her in.

When Burton was about to leave, he saw another person walking nearby, so he returned to the hole and strangled Adleman to death with her own shoelace, the court document says.

In his confession to police, Burton said that Adleman’s last words before her death were: “God forgives you and I do, too,” according to Adleman’s daughter, Sarah Adleman, who was 16 at the time and recently talked to USA TODAY about the crime.

“For any woman who has ever exercised alone, or walked to their car alone at night, this case is their worst nightmare,” Josh Reiss, chief of the Post-Conviction Writ Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, told USA TODAY.

Sarah Adleman told USA TODAY earlier this week that she would not be attending Burton’s execution, and would instead gather by a river with friends and family for an afternoon of “play and laughter.”

She was 16 years old when her mother was murdered while out on a jog in Houston. Now Sarah Adleman is 43 and a mother herself.

“I think the greatest way to honor my mother’s life is to be present with the joy in mind,” Sarah Adleman said. “We will have a gratitude and a forgiveness ceremony, a funeral of sorts. A letting go of the past 27 years.”

She recalled how her mother made it a point to choose joy.

“She woke most mornings to pray, meditate (and) write before anyone else was awake,” she recalled. “She understood that joy is a choice.”

Sarah Adleman said her brother, Geoff, and father, Mark, would be attending the execution. Geoff was 14 when his mother was killed, and Mark had been married to Nancy for 18 years.

The next execution is scheduled for Thursday, when Utah is expected to execute Taberon Dave Honie for the 1998 murder of 49-year-old Claudia Benn, who was the mother of his girlfriend at the time.

If the execution commences as planned, Honie will become the 12th inmate to be executed in the U.S. this year and the first executed in Utah since a 2010 execution by firing squad.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/08/07/arthur-lee-burton-executed/74708176007

Taberon Honie Executed In Utah

Taberon Honie was executed by the State of Utah on August 8 2024 for a murder committed in 1998

According to court documents following a breakup with his girlfriend Taberon Honie would break into the home of his ex girlfriends mother, Claudia Benn, and proceeded to slash the woman several times before slitting her throat and stabbing her to death

Police would arrive at the murder scene and find Taberon Honie in the garage with blood underneath his fingernails. Honie would admit to the brutal murder

Taberon Honie would be convicted and sentenced to death

On August 8 2024 Taberon Honie would be executed by lethal injection

This is the first execution in Utah since 2010. The majority of inmates on Utah death row have requested to be executed by firing squad including Troy Kell

Taberon Honie Execution

A death row inmate in Utah set to be executed on Thursday maintains that he never meant to murder his ex-girlfriend’s mother, saying he has always taken responsibility and is sorry for the life he took 25 years ago.

Taberon Honie, 48, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection for killing 49-year-old Claudia Benn, a substance abuse counselor for the Paiute Tribe who was killed on July 9, 1998, at her home in Cedar City in southwestern Utah.

If the execution proceeds as scheduled, he will become the 12th inmate to be executed in the U.S. this year and the first executed in Utah since a 2010 execution by firing squad. It will also come just two days after an execution in Texas.

“Yes, I’m a monster,” Honie told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole last month. “The only thing that kept me going all these years, the only thing I know 100%, this would never happen if I was in my right mind … I make no excuses.”

The board denied his request for a reprieve.

As his execution day approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at the crime, who Honie is and what led him down a path that ended in a woman’s horrific death.

On July 9, 1998, Taberon Honie was drunk and fighting over the phone with girlfriend Carol Pikyavit, who was staying at her mother’s house along with the daughter she shared with Honie, according to court records. At one point, records say, Honie threatened to kill everyone in her home and take the couple’s daughter if Pikyavit didn’t make time to see him, records say.

Not taking the threat seriously, Pikyavit left the home and headed to work.

Honie headed to the house, saying he had planned to sleep under the porch until Pikyavit came home. But as soon as he arrived, he began arguing with Pikyavit’s mother, Claudia Benn, who was babysitting her three granddaughters.

Taberon Honie told police that Benn started the argument and was calling him names through a sliding glass door before he snapped, broke through the door and went inside, saying he just wanted to scare Benn.

Benn had grabbed a butcher knife but was overpowered by Honie, who grabbed the knife and brought it to her throat, court records say. Honie says the two of them both tripped while the knife was at Benn’s throat and that she fell on the blade.

When police arrived shortly after, Honie − covered in blood − emerged from the home and said he had “stabbed and killed her with a knife,” court documents say. Benn was found face down in the living room, with numerous “stabbing and cutting wounds” to her neck and genitals, according to court documents.

All three grandchildren were found at the home with varying degrees of blood on their clothes and body. There was also evidence that one of Benn’s granddaughters was sexually abused at some point, court documents say.

Honie was arrested, charged and convicted of aggravated murder.

Honie was raised with five siblings in First Mesa, a village on the eastern side of the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona, and is considered Hopi-Tewa. His childhood was marked by “neglect, violence and chaos,” according to a commutation petition filed in June seeking to have Honie’s death sentence thrown out in favor of life in prison.

Life on the mesa was “extremely difficult,” as the family of eight survived without access to basic resources like running water or toilets for nearly a decade, the petition says.

“We had no recreation center, no after-school activities, nothing,” Honie says in the petition. “We lived at a poverty level below the city slums. We all had a view that, ‘I will never amount to anything. I will never be able to leave the mesa, so what is the use?’”

Honie and his siblings often were left to fend for themselves, with the older children starting fires to cook or warm the house since Honie’s parents were always “absent, drinking and fighting,” the petition says.

Honie began to act out at the age of 10, turning to alcohol and drugs after falling in with the “wrong people,” and later stealing things to obtain booze and drugs. His substance abuse problems continued into adulthood until his arrest.

Honie has also grappled with bouts of depression, getting a formal diagnosis in 2009 following various suicide attempts.

Honie’s traumatic childhood, brain damage, long-standing substance abuse and extreme intoxication all had a “synergistic effect,” impacting his ability to control his judgment and behavior on July 9, 1998, the commutation petition says.

“Honie also inherited generations of trauma from his parents, extended family, and his Hopi-Tewa community, which is referred to as intergenerational trauma,” the petition says.

Honie may have done a “horrible” thing but he has paid for it by serving nearly 25 years on death row, according to the petition. And even if his death sentence is thrown out, he will continue to pay by spending the rest of his life in prison

“Mr. Honie does not have to be executed and is worthy of mercy,” according to the commutation petition, which says Honie has led a positive and productive life in prison, earning a high school diploma, learning a trade (plumbing) and staying close with family.

Honie’s execution would only “create more pain,” devastating his daughter Tressa and his granddaughter Alana, who have spent years worried about “Mr. Honie and his circumstances in the prison.”

“His family loves him very much,” the petition says. “His family has suffered much throughout their own lives and losing Mr. Honie to an execution would be devastating to them.”

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes argued against Honie’s clemency petition, citing “Honie’s horrific acts, their life-long impact on Claudia’s family and her tribal community.”

He said combined, they all demonstrate a “failure to own up to the terror and gravity of his conduct.”

One of Honie’s daughters, Benita Yracheta, told USA TODAY that she’s feeling relief that she can soon put her mother’s death behind her, saying that justice for her mother is “finally happening.”

“I had told them that I had cried for this man that killed because now that he knows his death date, he’s trying to throw everything out there to stop it,” she said. “My mom, she never knew her death date. She didn’t know she was gonna die that night, but I know that he needs to end it.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/08/07/taberon-dave-honie-utah-death-row-execution/74679003007

Keith Gavin Execution In Alabama

The State of Alabama executed Keith Gavin for the murder of William Clayton Jr during a robbery in 1998

According to court documents William Clayton Jr was taking money out of an ATM when he would be robbed and fatally shot by Keith Gavin.

Kevin Gavin who previously served seventeen years in prison for another murder would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Keith Gavin would insist that he is innocent of the murder and would say his cousin was the one who fatally shot William Clayton Jr.

During the lead up to the execution Kevin Gavin made a request that his body would not be autopsied after his death as that would be a violation of his Muslim faith

On July 18 2024 Keith Gavin would be executed by lethal injection

Keith Gavin Execution

Alabama executed death row inmate Keith Edmund Gavin on Thursday, more than two decades after he fatally shot a father of seven who had stopped at an ATM to get money for a date night with his wife.

Gavin, 64, was executed by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, becoming the third inmate to be put to death by the state this year and the 10th in the nation. He died at 6:32 p.m., prison officials said.

An Alabama jury found Gavin guilty of murdering William Clinton Clayton Jr., whose youngest son described him as a hard-working “gentle giant” in an interview with USA TODAY this week.

Gavin had maintained his innocence since 1998, pointing the finger at a cousin who who was at the crime scene with him.

Gavin’s execution comes just two days after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the Texas execution of Ruben Gutierrez in the 1998 murder of an 85-year-old retired schoolteacher. The high court ruled Tuesday that a lower court must look at Gutierrez’s arguments for DNA testing before his execution can be scheduled, if at all.

Here’s what to know about Gavin’s execution, his last meal, the case and the victim.

The day before Gavin’s execution, he refused breakfast, lunch and dinner but ate a bag of Ruffles cheddar sour cream potato chips, a bag of Lay’s plain potato chips and a chocolate Hersey Bar with almonds, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.

Gavin refused his final meal Thursday and did not make any special requests, the corrections department said. He did eat some ice cream and drank Mountain Dew as a snack.

Also Thursday, a spiritual advisor and his attorneys, Neil Conrad and Daniel Epstein, visited Gavin and were among the witnesses to the execution.

On March 6, 1998, Clayton was preparing to take his wife of 38 years out to dinner. The courier van driver stopped to withdraw money from an ATM at Regions Bank in Centre, about 85 miles northeast of Birmingham.

Around the same time, Gavin had driven to the region from Chicago with his cousin, Dewayne Meeks, arriving in downtown Centre just as Clayton went to the ATM, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.

While the men were stopped at an intersection near Regions Bank, Meeks testified that Gavin got out of the car, walked up to the driver’s side of Clayton’s van and fired two shots. Meeks, saying he was scared, then drove off in his car, while Gavin got in Clayton’s van − with Clayton still in it and bleeding out − and followed Meeks, court records say.

A police pursuit of the van ensued but ended with Gavin’s capture in the woods where police later discovered the murder weapon, a 40-caliber Glock pistol. An officer who heard about the shooting on his radio found Clayton “barely alive” in the van and he was pronounced dead shortly after at a hospital.

Meeks was arrested weeks later in Chicago on a murder charge in the case but prosecutors later dropped it. Gavin’s conviction was in part due to Meeks’ testimony.

Gavin detailed in several appeals for a new murder trial that Meeks was the one who shot Clayton and not him. Meeks has never been convicted in the crime, and two other witnesses positively identified Gavin as the shooter.

Matt Joseph Clayton, William Clayton’s youngest child, told USA TODAY on Tuesday that he would be attending Gavin’s execution to “represent his family” and recognize the efforts of the state officials who “brought Mr. Gavin to justice.”

“No one wants to view an execution, so let’s be clear about that,” he said. “However, I cannot choose to not attend given the work that has been put forth.”

Matt Clayton said his mother, who is 94 years old, lives independently and is “very healthy and very vibrant.” He did not say if she or his other siblings attended the execution on Thursday.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/07/18/keith-edmund-gavin-execution-alabama/74458512007

Richard Rojem Oklahoma Execution

Richard Rojem was execute by the State of Oklahoma for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a seven year old girl

According to court documents seven year old Layla Cummings was taken from an apartment that she had shared with her mother and brother. Hours later the little girl would be found dead in a farmer’s field and she had been sexually assaulted, mutilated and killed

Soon the focus would land on her stepfather Richard Rojem who had previously been convicted of the sexual assault of two teenage girls and whose relationship with the mother of Layla Cummings ended months before after Layla told her mother he had been sexually abusing her.

Police would tie evidence found at the murder scene to evidence found at the home of Richard Rojem

Richard Rojem would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Richard Rojem would be executed by lethal injection on June 27 2024

Richard Rojem Execution

Oklahoma executed a man Thursday who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing his 7-year-old former stepdaughter in 1984.

Richard Rojem, 66, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was declared dead at 10:16 a.m., prison officials said. Rojem, who had been in prison since 1985, was the longest-serving inmate on Oklahoma’s death row.

When asked if he had any last words, Rojem, who was strapped to a gurney and had an IV in his tattooed left arm, said: “I don’t. I’ve said my goodbyes.”

He looked briefly toward several witnesses who were inside a room next to the death chamber before the first drug, the sedative midazolam, began to flow. He was declared unconscious about 5 minutes later, at 10:08 a.m., and stopped breathing at about 10:10 a.m.

A spiritual adviser was in the death chamber with Rojem during the execution

Rojem had denied responsibility for killing his former stepdaughter, Layla Cummings. The child’s mutilated and partially clothed body was discovered in a field in rural Washita County near the town of Burns Flat on July 7, 1984. She had been stabbed to death.

Rojem was previously convicted of raping two teenage girls in Michigan, and prosecutors said he was angry at Layla Cummings because she reported that Rojem sexually abused her, leading to his divorce from the girl’s mother and his return to prison for violating his parole.

Rojem’s attorneys argued at a clemency hearing this month that DNA evidence taken from the girl’s fingernails did not link him to the crime.

“If my client’s DNA is not present, he should not be convicted,” attorney Jack Fisher said.

In a statement read by Attorney General Gentner Drummond after the execution, Layla’s mother, Mindy Lynn Cummings, said: “We remember, honor and hold her forever in our hearts as the sweet and precious 7-year-old she was.

“Today marks the final chapter of justice determined by three separate juries for Richard Rojem’s heinous acts nearly 40 years ago when he stole her away like the monster he was.”

Rojem, who testified at the hearing via a video link from prison, said he wasn’t responsible for the girl’s death. The panel voted 5-0 not to recommend to the governor that Rojem’s life be spared.

“I wasn’t a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don’t deny that,” said Rojem, handcuffed and wearing a red prison uniform. “But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind.”

Prosecutors said there was plenty of evidence to convict Rojem, including a fingerprint that was discovered outside the girl’s apartment on a cup from a bar Rojem left just before the girl was kidnapped. A condom wrapper found near the girl’s body also was linked to a used condom found in Rojem’s bedroom, prosecutors said.

A Washita County jury convicted Rojem in 1985 after just 45 minutes of deliberations. His previous death sentences were twice overturned by appellate courts because of trial errors. A Custer County jury ultimately handed him his third death sentence in 2007.

Oklahoma, which has executed more inmates per capita than any other state in the nation since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, has now carried out 13 executions since resuming lethal injections in October 2021 following a nearly six-year hiatus resulting from problems with executions in 2014 and 2015.

https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-execution-richard-rojem-57ca75b05212ecb59247747080fbce9e

Ramiro Gonzales Oklahoma Execution

ramiro gonzales execution — ramiro gonzales

Ramiro Gonzales was executed by the State of Texas for the sexual assault and murder of Bridget Townsend

According to court documents Ramiro Gonzales would go to the home of his drug dealer in order to rob him of his drugs and money. However when he arrived at the residence he would be surprised by eighteen year old Bridget Townsend, the girlfriend of the drug dealer

Ramiro Gonzales would sexually assault and murder Bridget Townsend before robbing the home and fleeing

Ramiro Gonzales would be arrested on another sexual assault charge and when he was in custody would admit to the murder of Bridget Townsend and lead police to her body

Ramiro Gonzales would be convicted and sentenced to death

Ramiro Gonzales would be executed on June 26 2024 by lethal injection

Ramiro Gonzales Execution

Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales by lethal injection on Wednesday for a 2001 murder, the state Department of Criminal Justice said, following unsuccessful appeals to the US Supreme Court that argued, in part, he should have been ineligible for the death penalty under state law because he is no longer dangerous.

Gonzales, 41, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for the sexual assault and killing of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, court records show. His execution was the first of two – the other in Oklahoma – scheduled this week in the United States.

Gonzales was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m., the state criminal justice department said.

The department provided Gonzales’ last statement before he was executed, in which he repeatedly apologized to the Townsend family and said he “never stopped praying” for their forgiveness: “I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt what I took away that I cannot give back.”

“I hope this apology is enough. I lived the rest of this life for you guys to the best of my ability for restitution, restoration, taking responsibility,” Gonzales said. “I never stopped praying that you would forgive me and that one day I would have this opportunity to apologize.”

During the penalty phase of Gonzales’ trial, jurors were required to find, as they are in all capital cases in Texas, a “probability” Gonzales would continue to “commit criminal acts of violence.” Without this determination, capital defendants in the Lone Star State are not eligible for the death penalty, per state law.

In their appeals to the Supreme Court, Gonzales’ attorneys said his track record these last 18 years shows he is not dangerous, pointing to his commitment to his Christian faith, ministry to others behind bars and his unsuccessful attempts to donate a kidney to a stranger in need.

Additionally, they said the evidence relied upon to make the finding of future dangerousness was false: An expert witness who diagnosed the inmate with antisocial personality disorder relied on recidivism data later found to be incorrect, and he has since evaluated Gonzales and walked back his testimony.

In a pair of brief orders Wednesday, the US Supreme Court gave no comment in its denial of Gonzales’ requests. There were no noted dissents.

Gonzales’ attorneys, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann, said in a statement Monday: “Ramiro not only has disproven the jury’s prediction – he has never committed a single act or threat of violence since he was sentenced to death in 2006 – but in fact actively contributes to prison society in exceptional ways. He should not be executed.”

The state of Texas had also opposed Gonzales’ appeals, arguing in part his team had misconstrued the eligibility requirement and contending the question of whether Gonzales would continue to be a threat is not limited to the inmate’s behavior on death row.

Even when his behavior post-conviction is taken into account, “there’s undoubtedly sufficient evidence to uphold the finding of future dangerousness,” attorneys for the state wrote, pointing to the subsequent kidnapping and rape of another woman and a litany of transgressions he committed while in jail.

“Even if a jury could somehow consider events that had not happened yet, i.e., Gonzales’s behavior on death row, the jury could still have rationally believed Gonzales would be a danger in the future,” they said.

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency in a 7-0 vote. Without that recommendation, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is limited by state law to issuing Gonzales a one-time 30-day reprieve.

CNN has reached out to the Medina County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, and members of Townsend’s family for comment.

In his final statement before execution, Gonzales also thanked his family and friends, along with two officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for “the opportunity to become responsible, to learn accountability and to make good.”

Gonzales murdered Townsend in January 2001, after he called the home of his drug supplier, her boyfriend, in search of drugs, according to a 2009 Texas appeals court opinion affirming the inmate’s conviction and death sentence.

When Townsend told Gonzales her boyfriend wasn’t home, he went to the house in search of drugs. He stole money, then kidnapped Townsend, tying her hands and feet before driving her to a location near his family’s ranch, the opinion states. There, he raped and fatally shot her, it says.

The case went unsolved for 18 months. Then, while sitting in jail after pleading guilty to the rape of another woman, Gonzales confessed to Townsend’s killing and led authorities to her body.

Gonzales’ execution was the nation’s eighth this year, with the ninth slated for Thursday in Oklahoma, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that tracks capital punishment in the US and has in the past been critical of the way it’s administered.

Oklahoma intends to execute Richard Rojem for the 1984 kidnapping, rape and murder of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Layla Cummings, court records show. The state’s parole board voted last week against recommending clemency for Rojem, who claims he is innocent, according to CNN affiliate KOCO.

Rojem, like Gonzales, would be the second person executed in their respective states so far in 2024, according to the center’s data. By this time last year, 13 inmates had been put to death in the US, the data shows.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/us/texas-death-row-ramiro-gonzales/index.html