Joseph Starvaggi was executed by the State of Texas for a murder that took place during a robbery
According to court documents Joseph Starvaggi would break into the home and in the process of robbing it would shoot and kill the homeowner
Joseph Starvaggi would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Joseph Starvaggi would be executed by lethal injection on September 10 1987
Joseph Starvaggi Photos
Joseph Starvaggi FAQ
When was Joseph Starvaggi executed
Joseph Starvaggi was executed on September 10 1987
How was Joseph Starvaggi executed
Joseph was executed by lethal injection
Joseph Starvaggi Case
A man who spent 10 years on death row was executed early today for murdering a probation officer.
Joseph Starvaggi, a 34-year-old cement finisher and native of Champaign, Ill., was pronounced dead shortly after midnight by Charles Brown, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections.
Mr. Starvaggi, who made no last statement, was executed by lethal injection for the slaying of John Denson, who was killed during a 1976 burglary at his home as the victim’s wife and daughter huddled under a nearby blanket. Late Appeals Fall Short
Federal Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans denied last-minute appeals Wednesday. The United States Supreme Court refused on a 6-2 vote to halt the execution late Wednesday.
In an interview Wednesday, the victim’s wife, Grace Denson, said that she and her husband were watching television, and that their 13-year-old daughter, Susan, was upstairs the night of the murder.
”They rang the doorbell,” she said. ”I started going upstairs. On the third step, I heard something and looked around and this guy was pushing inside with a gun.”
One of the burglars ordered that she and her daughter remain upstairs, throwing a blanket over them.
”He went downstairs and we heard a shot,” she said, adding that he later ordered them downstairs but kept the blanket over their heads.
Susan, however, could see through a hole in the blanket. She testified that her father, shot once, begged for mercy while one of the burglars shouted, ”Kill him, kill him.” Mr. Denson was shot twice more. Refused to Kill Others
Mrs. Denson recalled how one of the men insisted that Mr. Starvaggi also kill her and her daughter, but that he refused.
Mr. Starvaggi was one of three men convicted in the slaying of Mr. Denson. G.W. Green of Houston also is on death row, while Glen Earl Martin of Houston is serving a life prison term.
The three were convicted of breaking into the Montgomery County juvenile probation officer’s home in Magnolia, 50 miles north of Huston, and stealing $6,000 worth of guns Nov. 19, 1976.
Joseph Starvaggi was the 26th Texas inmate put to death since the state resumed the death penalty in 1982 and the sixth in Texas this year.
