John Elliott was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Joyce Munguia
According to court documents John Elliott and two accomplices would grab Joyce Munguia as she waited for a bus. The woman would be carried underneath a bridge where she would be sexually assaulted. When Joyce told the men she was going to the police she was beaten to death with a motorcycle chain
John Elliott would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
JohnJohn Elliott would be executed by lethal injection on February 4 2003
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When Was John Elliott Executed
John Elliott was executed on February 4 2003
John Elliott Case
A British-born man has been executed for murder in Texas despite new evidence – which a young Melbourne woman recently unearthed – casting doubt on his conviction. John “Jackie” Elliott was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday after last-minute appeals were turned down.
Melbourne law graduate Eleni Antonopoulos was among a small group of family and supporters who spent time with Elliott during his final hours. Ms Antonopoulos, 25, a volunteer researcher with the anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, had uncovered evidence Elliott’s lawyers said proved his innocence.
His last remaining hope was that Texas Governor Rick Perry would heed appeals for clemency from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and scores of British MPs. To the shock and anger of Elliott’s defence team, the Texan, Federal and Supreme courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole refused to stay his execution. Richard Bourke, a Melbourne lawyer who was also part of Elliott’s Reprieve-funded defence team, said Elliott’s death was a frightful injustice. “I think the willingness of the system in this country to kill people is terrifying,” Mr Bourke said. “(Jackie Elliott’s death) has made it clear to me that the justice system here is not interested in administering justice.”
Ms Bourke and Ms Antonopoulos spent time with Elliott at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston hours before he was moved to the execution block at nearby Huntsville. “Jackie was in good spirits,” Mr Bourke said. “He still had hope that the courts would stop his execution but understood how grave the situation was. “One of the last things he did was call Eleni over to give her a message he hoped would help the case of another prisoner on death row.”
Elliott was executed for the 1987 murder and rape of Joyce Munguia, 18. Her body was found beneath the highway underpass where four men – one of them Elliott – had taken her. Very drunk and high, the teenage mother had been raped then beaten to a pulp with a belt made from a motorcycle chain. Elliott was one of several men who had sex with Ms Munguia before her death but he denied raping or killing her.
Ms Antonopoulos and British volunteer Gemma Badger found inconsistencies in the evidence of key witnesses, tracked down previously concealed statements and discovered Elliott’s trial lawyers were unprepared, underfunded and inexperienced. Mr Bourke said the defence team had found evidence that the key witness against Elliott had lied and that 40 police statements had not been disclosed to the defence.
On Monday, a Texas court rejected an application to test blood – which the defence believed to be from Ms Munguia – taken from the same key witness’ shoes. Elliott’s case had been hampered by his refusal to give a full account of what happened on the night of Ms Munguia’s death because “you don’t rat”.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/05/1044318669610.html