James Demouchette was executed by the State of Texas for two murders committed during a robbery
According to court documents James Demouchette would rob a Pizza Hut where he would murder 19-year-old Scott Sorrell and 22-year-old Robert “Chuck” White. A third employee would be shot however would survive his injuries
James Demouchette would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
While on death row James would fatally stab another death row inmate, Johnny E. Swift. He would also attack three correctional workers with a knife along with setting numerous fires in the prison
James Demouchette would be executed by lethal injection on September 22 1992
James Demouchette Photos
James Demouchette Case
Texas early Tuesday executed a condemned killer who had a reputation among guards as the ‘meanest man on death row.’
James Demouchette, 37, died from lethal injection at 12:33 a.m. CDT, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied him a stay. Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens indicated they disagreed with the ruling.
Demouchette, the tenth convict executed in Texas this year, had been on death row since August 1977.
During that time, he threw lye in a guard’s face, stabbed an inmate to death, beat and stabbed at least two other inmates, stabbed three guards, twice set fire to his cell, and destroyed a television set and commode.
Prison spokesman Charles Brown said Demouchette’s activities had prompted guards to take special precautions whenever they moved him from one place to another.
‘I guess you can say that when it comes to violence and assaultive tendencies, James is in a class by himself,’ Brown told The Houston Post. ‘If he’s not the meanest man on death row, he certainly looks the part.
On Monday, prison spokesman David Nunnelee declined to comment on Demouchette’s reputation, saying only, ‘I think he’s demonstrated that he isn’t the safest guy to be around.’
A judge sentenced Demouchette to death for the 1976 shooting deaths of a 19-year-old Pizza Hut assistant manager and his 20-year-old roommate, who Demouchette killed during a robbery in a northwest Houston restaurant.
Tuesday, the condemned man had no last words before his execution.
Although the Supreme Court allowed Texas to carry out Demouchette’s death sentence, a state court Monday stayed the execution of fellow condemned inmate Ricardo Guerra, 30, who had been slated to die early Thursday.
The Texas State Court of Appeals in Austin ordered the stay after State District Judge Woody Densen denied a request to postpone the execution by four months.
Densen’s denial prompted criticism from Guerra supporter Alvaro Luna, who called it ‘an outrage,’ and ‘white-racist justice,’ adding, ‘The man is innocent.’
Prosecutors and defense lawyers alike had asked for a later execution date to give them more time to work on Guerra’s appeal.
A court sentenced Guerra to death for killing a Houston policeman in 1982.
A Mexican national, Guerra had moved to Houston only a short while before the slaying, and was an undocumented worker seeking a job at the time of the crime
Guerra claims he is innocent. His supporters and lawyers claim Robert Carrasco Flores, who died in a shootout with police on the day of the killing, actually murdered the policeman.
Flores and Guerra had been driving around together on the day when police officer James Harris stopped their vehicle.
Someone shot Harris and the pair fled, with Flores killed in an ensuing shootout with police.
Guerra’s case has become an increasingly important public cause in Mexico, with President Carlos Salinas de Gortari appealing earlier this year to Texas Gov. Ann Richards to grant clemency.
However, Richards traditionally does not act on clemency requests until an inmate’s appeals have been exhausted.
Mexican Counsel General Francisco Gonzalez, who attended a Monday hearing on the matter, said Mexico ‘wants justice,’ and would do everything in its power to ensure Texas upholds Guerra’s rights.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/09/22/Meanest-man-on-death-row-executed-in-Texas/7201717134400/
