Jeffery Caldwell was executed by the State of Texas for the murders of his family
According to court documents Jeffery Caldwell would get into an argument with his father that turned into a bloodbath. Jeffery would Gwendolyn and Henry Porter Caldwell, Jr., and his sister, Kimberly Caldwell
Jeffery Caldwell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Jeffery Caldwell would be executed by lethal injection on August 30 2005
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When Was Jeffery Caldwell Executed
Jeffery Caldwell was executed on August 30 2000
Jeffery Caldwell Case
A paroled burglar who killed his parents and sister by beating them with a hammer and stabbing them with a butcher knife was executed in the Texas death chamber Wednesday evening. In a lengthy statement, Jeffery Henry Caldwell expressed love for his family, love to his daughter, thanks to his attorneys and urged fellow death row inmates to “keep your heads up.” To his brothers, who testified against him at his trial, he said he loved them with all his heart. “You will have to face the justice of God,” he said. “I can forgive you all but you must ask for forgiveness from God. I leave now to join my parents and my only sister.” As the drugs began taking effect, he coughed, gasped and then made a snoring sound. He was pronounced dead eight minutes later at 6:25 p.m. CDT. Caldwell, 37, was the sixth Texas prisoner to receive lethal injection this month and the 32nd this year.
He maintained his innocence in a statement he wrote shortly before he was given the lethal injection. “I still to this day scream out that I did not kill them,” he said. “I accept the blame for what happened to my parents and only sister but did not kill them or beat them or shoot them.” The three victims were found stuffed in a motor home parked in the driveway of their Dallas home.
Caldwell told police his parents, Henry and Gwendolyn Caldwell, and his 19-year-old sister, Kimberly, had run into his knife during an argument. It was remembered as “the ‘magic knife’ confession,” by former Dallas County assistant prosecutor Andy Beach this week. “But he forgot to say he had hit each of them a couple of times with a claw hammer,” Beach said. Caldwell, who moved with his family to Texas in 1980 from their native Chicago, already was known to authorities. He had been convicted of burglary and robbery and had been on parole for about four months when he murdered his family members. He repeated Wednesday claims that his criminal past prompted a jury to convict and condemn him and that the murders were committed by drug dealers he had ripped off. In late appeals to the courts, Caldwell’s lawyers contended he was incompetent and should not be put to death.
Caldwell’s execution attracted none of the attention given earlier this summer to condemned killer Gary Graham, whose claims of innocence and an unfair trial put the focus on Texas as the nation’s most active capital punishment state and on support of the death penalty by Gov. George W. Bush, now the Republican presidential nominee. Caldwell was arrested in a telephone booth while calling one of his brothers, who were helping police try to find him. Beach said Caldwell’s two brothers also convinced prosecutors to seek capital murder charges, which would make Caldwell eligible for a death sentence. His brothers testified at the punishment phase of the trial and told jurors they believed he would be a continuing threat to society, one of the elements a jury must consider before deciding on a death sentence. “They looked the jurors in the eyes and said ‘yes,’” Beach said. “It was a very emotional case. They’ve lost three family members and now they’re going to lose a fourth. But this was all about justice for them.” This week, one of the brothers talked to reporters about the execution.
“I don’t want my brother to die,” Henry Caldwell III told The Dallas Morning News. “But nevertheless, he committed a wrong. He has to face judgment for this. We knew this day was going to come.” In his statement to police, Jeffery Caldwell said the fatal knifings began with an argument with his father over money. Caldwell said he was upset because his father would give money to his sister but not to him. Years later, in an interview on death row, Caldwell blamed the fatal attacks on a Jamaican mob angry because he had stolen some of their drugs. “I had affiliated with drug individuals and I had ripped them off,” he said. “They came to my house and I wasn’t there.” He also insisted he didn’t realize his parents and sister were dead until he was arrested for the murders and that his criminal past was responsible for his arrest. “The phrase used in the court system is innocent until proven guilty but it’s totally reversed, especially for a parolee,” Caldwell said. He declined to speak with reporters in the weeks leading up to his execution, but said earlier he would die in peace. “The first few years I was bitter, angry because my own family had abandoned me,” he said. “I’ll let God handle everything. I don’t feel depressed or upset about being executed. I don’t say I’m glad about it. I know it’s going to happen someday.” At least seven more condemned murderers are scheduled to die in 2000. Their deaths would make this a record year, topping the 37 prisoners executed in the state in 1997