Fletcher Mann was executed by the State of Texas for a double murder
According to court documents Fletcher Mann and an accomplice went to an apartment where they would force the two victims: Christopher Bates and Barbara Hoppe to go with them to a grocery store to cash a couple of checks. When the two victims were back at the home the woman would be sexually assaulted before the pair was murdered
Fletcher Mann would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Fletch Mann would be executed by lethal injection on June 1 1995
Fletcher Mann Photos
Fletcher Mann Case
Fletcher Thomas Mann, who killed two people and wounded one in Dallas in 1980, was put to death by lethal injection today.
Mr. Mann expressed love for his family and gratitude to his lawyers before he was executed just after midnight.
I would like to tell my family I love them,” he said. “My attorneys did their best. All my brothers on death row, those who died and those who are still there, hang in there.”.
His mother and two sisters sobbed quietly a few feet away.
Mr. Mann, 34, was convicted of the shooting death of Christopher Lee Bates, 22, at a Dallas apartment in September 1980. He told the police that he also raped, stabbed and strangled Barbara Hoppe, 22, and shot and wounded Robert Matzig.
The police said Mr. Mann and an accomplice, Martin Verbrugge, were looking for money and cocaine when they broke into the apartment where the three victims were watching a football game. Mr. Verbrugge was convicted of attempted murder and given a life sentence.
At Mr. Mann’s trial, a witness who was jailed with Mr. Mann said he had bragged about the killings and expressed admiration for Charles Manson. Defense lawyers called no witnesses. The jury took one hour to convict Mr. Mann and two hours to sentence him to death.
The Supreme Court rejected arguments that Mr. Mann’s 13 years on death row amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Gov. George W. Bush refused to delay the execution for 30 days so Mr. Mann’s family could attend the high school graduation on Wednesday of a relative in Kentucky.
Although Fletcher Mann refused recent requests for interviews, he earlier expressed little anxiety about his execution.
“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he said. “What can I do? They’ve got you chained down. It can’t hurt. I go to church every Sunday.”
