Robert Thompson was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Mansor Bhai Rahim Mohammed
According to court documents Robert Thompson and his accomplice would enter a 7-11 and in the process of a robbery would shoot and kill Mansor Bhai Rahim Mohammed
Robert Thompson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Robert Thompson would confess to two additional murders committed during robberies
Robert Thompson would be executed by lethal injection on November 19 2009
Robert Thompson Photos
Robert Thompson FAQ
When Was Robert Thompson Executed
Robert Thompson was executed on November 19 2009
Robert Thompson Case
Texas inmate Robert Lee Thompson was executed Thursday evening for his part in a fatal Houston store holdup after Gov. Rick Perry rejected a parole board’s recommendation to spare Thompson because he wasn’t the gunman.
Thompson, 34, was an accomplice to triggerman Sammy Butler when 29-year-old store clerk Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed was gunned down 13 years ago. Butler received life in prison. A jury gave Thompson death.
Thompson’s lawyer told the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles Thompson’s punishment wasn’t fair and the panel voted 5-2 Wednesday to recommend his sentence be commuted to life. Perry didn’t have to follow their rare recommendation and the execution was carried out about 45 minutes after his decision.
Thompson, in brief comments from the death chamber gurney, invoked Allah as his God, thanked friends and his mother for their love and support and urged his mother, who sobbed as she watched through a window: “Smile, be happy, don’t cry.” He said he had not meant any harm to his victims’ families, none of whom was present. “I know Allah will forgive me,” he said. “Allah is the forgiver.”
His mother cried uncontrollably, stomped her feet and finally demanded to be taken from the witness area before her son was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., nine minutes after he was injected with the lethal drugs. Thompson was the 23rd inmate executed this year in Texas and the second this week.
Earlier Thursday, Thompson also lost an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the punishment. The parole board’s 5-2 vote came in response to a petition from Patrick McCann, Thompson’s attorney, who argued the case was similar to that of Kenneth Foster, who also was convicted and sentenced to die under the Texas law of parties. Under that law, offenders conspiring to commit one felony like robbery can all be held responsible for another ensuing crime, such as murder. “After reviewing all of the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime,” Perry said in a statement. “There is no reason to set aside the capital murder conviction handed down by a Texas jury and upheld by numerous state and federal courts.”
Perry commuted Foster’s sentence to life two years ago. Foster became only the second inmate since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982 who won a recommendation from the parole board as his execution loomed. In the first case, in 2004, Perry rejected the board’s recommendation and mentally ill prisoner Kelsey Patterson was executed. Perry’s explanation for commuting Foster’s sentence was that Foster and his co-defendant were tried together on capital murder charges for a slaying in San Antonio. In Thompson’s case, he and Butler were tried separately.
At least half a dozen other Texas inmates have been executed under the law of parties. The U.S. Supreme Court since 1982 has barred the death penalty for co-conspirators who don’t themselves kill. The justices made an exception in 1987, however, ruling that the Eighth Amendment didn’t prohibit the execution of someone who plays a major role in a felony that results in murder and whose mental state is one of reckless indifference. McCann’s appeal before the Supreme Court raised questions about the competence of Thompson’s trial lawyers.
Evidence at his trial showed Thompson, who is black, told detectives he went on a two-month crime spree in 1996 because God told him to do something about Middle Eastern and Asian store clerks who discriminated against blacks. The killing was one of three he acknowledged to authorities. In two of the slayings, Thompson told detectives he was the gunman.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Thompson said he wasn’t against punishment for crime. “That’s the foundation of our system,” he said. “But I am against the unfairness of the system, the way it picks and chooses.” Thompson was 21 at the time of Mohammed’s shooting. Another clerk at the same store was shot four times by Thompson but survived. “I wasn’t thinking of this being wrong. It was more: You’re not doing us right,” he said of the store clerks. “They rob us. They watch us like crazy. We’re all victims.” Asked if he’d ever killed someone, he replied: “No one died in front of me. I’ve shot at people. Different things happen.”
Evidence showed he and Butler were responsible for at least eight other convenience store robberies, three of them resulting in deaths. Thompson blamed the spree on the recklessness of youth. “It was impulsive … nothing planned,” he said. “Just — Bam!”
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