Milton Mathis was executed by the State of Texas for two murders
According to court documents Milton Mathis would walk into a crack house in Houston and opened fire striking three people and killing two:
Milton Mathis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Milton Mathis would be executed by lethal injection on June 21 2011
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When Was Milton Mathis Executed
Milton Mathis was executed on June 21 2011
Milton Mathis Case
Milton Wuzael Mathis, who killed his best friend and an acquaintance in a fit of drug-fueled paranoia at a southwest Houston crack house, was put to death for his crime Tuesday night as a woman paralyzed in the shooting spree looked on.
Almost two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, Mathis, 32, was brought into the execution chamber. Behind a window in one of the witness rooms sat Melony Almaguer, who was shot by Mathis between the eyes on the morning of Dec. 15, 1998. She survived and later testified against him, but is paralyzed from the waist down.
Mathis, the sixth person executed in Texas this year, acknowledged Almaguer and said he had not wanted to hurt her. He said that he hoped doctors would continue to give her good medical care.
“You were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mathis said. “I won’t ask for your forgiveness. I only ask for the Lord’s forgiveness.”
Condemns system
Mathis looked up from the gurney to acknowledge two friends who had come as his personal witnesses, and in his last statement he thanked them, his supporters and family. He then denounced the state for executing him and hundreds of others.
“The system has failed me,” he said. “This is what you call a miscarriage of justice. I ask the Lord to have mercy on my soul and on the souls of all who are participating in this mass slaughter. Life shouldn’t end this way.”
Mathis did not apologize for his actions but repeatedly asked for divine assistance.
“God is bringing me home,” he said. “There will be no more frustration, no more dealing with the madness. Lord, when I come knocking, I just ask that you open your gates and let me in.”
He paused, leading prison personnel to begin administration of the first of the three-drug fatal cocktail. Mathis continued to speak for about 15 seconds, saying finally, “I can feel my life ….” He gasped several times, fell silent, then snored for 20 seconds. He was pronounced dead at 6:53.
IQ tests an issue
Mathis, who did not speak to reporters in the weeks before his execution, never fully explained why he began shooting those present in the known crack house in Fort Bend County. He killed his friend, Travis Brown III, 24, and Daniel Hibbard, 31. Mathis shot Almaguer at close range and tried to shoot several others, but his semi-automatic pistol jammed.
Two others who were at scene and could have been victims also testified against him, as did a Fort Bend County Jail inmate who said Mathis told him he wished he had killed everyone in the house.
Mathis’ lawyers never challenged the state’s version of events but claimed that he was mentally challenged to the point of retardation, which, if proved, would have exempted him from capital punishment. They said one of his IQ tests in prison returned a score of 62, suggestive of retardation.
The state argued that other tests had higher scores, and that his adult behavior demonstrated that he functioned above the level of a retarded person.
Toxic environment?
Mathis testified at trial that Brown, his friend, had pulled out the pistol and that he had wrestled it away from him, fearing for his life. Mathis’ trial attorney, Steven Rocket Rosen, contended at trial that the environment of the crack house was toxic and that Mathis had become paranoid that morning that he was going to be killed. But the testimony of the girl, whom he shot in the face, was too much to overcome, Rosen said.
Mathis’ conviction occurred before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution of the mentally retarded is no longer permissible, but Mathis was granted a hearing later to determine whether he met the criteria. A Fort Bend County district judge ruled that he did not, and a prosecutor dismissed Mathis as a “street-smart, conniving thug.”
