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05/19/99 - STAYED Stanely Allison Baker
06/01/99 - STAYED Hank Skinner
06/09/99 - STAYED Billy Wayne Coble

07/01/99 - Emanuel Kemp

07/01/99 - Charles Tuttle was convicted for the 1995 bludgeoning murder of Catherine Harris in Tyler, Texas.

07/04/99 - Michael Gonzalez was convicted of the stabbing deaths of his longtime neighbors, Manuel and Merced Aguirre, during a robbery. Merced, 65, was stabbed countless times while fighting for her life and Manuel, 77, was stabbed 11 times.

07/13/99 - Spencer Goodman, 30.

07/14/99 Michael Blair Seven-year-old Ashley Estell was playing at a park in Plano, TX when she was kidnapped, raped and strangled on September 5, 1993. He was caught after returning to her home to rape her a second time. Michael Blair was out on parole after serving only a year and a half of a ten year sentence for burglary and indecency with an 11-year-old girl.

08/01/99 - Charles Boyd

08/17/99 - Larry Robison On August 10, 1982, in Ft. Worth, Larry Robison killed his ex-lover, Bruce Gardner and four of his neighbors, including an 11 year old boy. All of the victims were shot in the head, repeatedly stabbed and their throats were slashed. Bruce was decapitated, sexually mutilated and cannibalized. Robison killed and robbed the other four victims for their car. Robison has a history of mental illness. His mother, Lois Robison said, "The first and only violence Larry was ever accused of occurred when he killed five people. We were, of course, horrified. We thought he would finally be committed to a mental institution, probably for life. We were wrong Larry was arrested, held a year without bail, not even given a competency hearing. In spite of his medical history, he was found sane. And he was sentenced to death." His parents maintain a website at home.surfree.com/Hermosa/ccadp/larryrobison.htm

08/12/1999 - Joe Trevino was convicted of raping and strangling Blanche Miller in Tarrant County on or about Jan. 17, 1983.

08/18/99 - Rickey Smith

06/01/99 - William Little, 38, a ninth-grade dropout who worked as a roofer, was executed for the rape, stabbing and strangling of 23-year-old Marilyn Peter more than 15 years ago. The murder took place in her Liberty County home in a rural area near Cleveland, about 30 miles northeast of Houston. Authorities said the woman had been raped, stabbed more than 19 times, then raped again after she was dead. Her body was found later in the day by two workmen who were supposed to install a clothes dryer at her home. The workmen entered after they spotted blood on a door jamb and heard a child crying. Inside they discovered the victim's 2-year-old son on a kitchen counter. The child was not injured but the room was covered with blood and Ms. Peter's ravaged body was on the floor in the living room, the Associated Press reported. In a confession, Little told authorities he knew the victim because she had sold him marijuana. About two pounds of the illegal drug were found at her home by police. Little had a history of drug use and of using a knife in burglaries, was on probation at the time of his arrest for involuntary manslaughter and had been ordered to a halfway house for drug rehabilitation but refused to comply.

05/05/99 Clydell Coleman, 62, a cocaine addict whose lengthy criminal career began when he was 18, was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m., eight minutes after an executioner started the flow of lethal drugs into his hands. Coleman declined to make a final statement while strapped to the death chamber gurney. He was the oldest person executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1982. Coleman was convicted in Waco for the 1989 murder of 87-year-old Leetisha Joe after breaking into her home looking for valuables to support his cocaine habit. Coleman's appeals claimed that his constitutional rights were violated because the jury was not able to give a mitigating effect to evidence regarding Coleman's learning disability and sixth-grade education in racially segregated schools. Coleman, a janitor, was a former neighbor of Joe's and had known her for many years. A witness testified that Coleman hit Joe in the head with a hammer after throwing a blanket over her and then strangled her with a stocking he ripped from her leg.

05/04/99 Jose De La Cruz, 31, a parolee who blamed his criminal behavior on inhaling spray paint fumes was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m., nine minutes after the lethal injection was started. De La Cruz was convicted and sentenced in 1988 for killing 24-year-old Domingo Rosas on June 1, 1987. The body of Rosas, who was partially paralyzed, was found in his Corpus Christi apartment with multiple stab wounds and a broken neck. The Friday night before the murder, De La Cruz was a guest in Rosas' home and played a drinking game called "quarters" with Rosas until early Saturday morning. After leaving Rosas' home, De La Cruz returned and killed Rosas in order to steal Rosas' television, VCR and stereo, a theft which yielded him approximately $80. ``You could say I was stupid,'' De La Cruz said in an interview two weeks before his execution. ``It's sad it took this. ``I had many opportunities to reform but never took them. I've made a hard struggle to educate myself. I was belligerent, hostile. But since I've come here, I've calmed down a lot. I have grown.'' According to Associated Press reports, De La Cruz said his addiction to inhaling spray paint, beginning at age 10, got him high and allowed him to fantasize.

04/28/99 Aaron Christopher Foust, 26,was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., six minutes after the lethal drugs were released into his arms. He had demanded that no appeals be filed on his behalf, clearing the way for the 10th execution this year in Texas. `Adios, amigos,'' Foust said in a brief final statement, according to the Associated Press report. ``I'll see ya'll on the other side. That's it. I'm ready, ready when ya'll are.'' Foust, a former welder and carpenter who dealt drugs on the side, was a week away from entering the Army when the May 18, 1997 murder occurred at the Fort Worth apartment of David Ward, 43, a hospital administrator. In a death row interview last week, Foust said he felt no remorse. ``Sometimes I wish I did kind of feel something,'' he said. ``The bottom line is, if I was the type to feel remorseful, I wouldn't have done this in the first place. It takes a good deal of determination to put a man in a chokehold and choke the life out of him.'' UT Arlington Engineering sophomore Jamal Brown, 21, and Foust, then 24, were arrested after police traced Ward’s stolen credit card, which had been used to buy a beer in an Arlington restaurant a day after his death.

03/30/99 Robert Excell White , 61, the state's longest-held death row inmate, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. On May 10, 1974, Robert White began drinking alcohol at a Waco tavern around noon and continued until 1:00 a.m. He then took his wife home and went to visit his friend Roy Perryman, and continued to drink. After drinking and talking for a while, White pulled a knife and stabbed Perryman to death, stating, "Roy, I hate for it to end like this, but its your time to go." White then stole several firearms belonging to Perryman and left his home.

Shortly after killing Perryman, White left Waco with Gary Dale Livingston and subsequently met up with his brother, James Livingston and they decided to rob a store. They drove to a gas station and convenience store about three miles down the road.

The station owner, 73-year-old Preston Broyles, began pumping gas into White's car. Gary Coker and Billy St. John, both eighteen years old, had stopped to put oil in their truck at the station. White exited the car with a machine gun and ordered Broyles, Coker, and St. John into the station office. White ordered Broyles to open the cash register and ordered all three victims to hand over their wallets. One of the robbery victims made a comment that apparently angered White. White responded, "I wished you hadn't said nothing, I'm going to kill you." James Livingston aimed a .22 caliber pistol at the victim who had made the comment, and White shoved him out of the way, stating, "He's mine."

White then repeatedly shot Broyles, Coker, and St. John, killing all three of them. Just prior to shooting the last of the victims, who was begging for his life, White stated, "Goddammit, you've got to go too, I'm not going to leave any witnesses." White and the Livingstons then returned to Waco, and the three divided up the proceeds of the robbery, with each of them receiving $65.

After returning to Waco, James Livingston parted company with White and Gary Livingston, who left town for California. They made it as far as Abilene, Texas and then decided to return to Waco. While in Waco, White and Gary Livingston threw the machine gun used in the Hill Top Grocery murders into the Brazos River. They then got some clothing and headed for Mississippi. Somewhere along the way, White got angry at Gary Livingston and threatened to shoot him. Gary Livingston asked to get out of the car, and White left him in Tyler, Texas.

White arrived at his cousin Johnny White's home in Cleveland, Mississippi on May 14, 1974. White told Johnny White about what had happened at Hill Top Grocery and also stated that he intended to kill a Mississippi judge known as Judge Micky, who had convicted White of DWI a year before. Johnny White convinced him to surrender to law enforcement authorities at the Boliver County Sheriff's Department.

3/25/99 Charles Rector Charles Rector, claiming his innocence to the end, was executed Thursday night for the abduction, rape, shooting and drowning of Carolyn Kay Davis more than 17 years ago during an attempted burglary, kidnapping, and robbery. Rector expressed love to members of his family, who watched through another window. He ended his statement by reciting the words to a song he wrote, called "God Living With Us 24 Hours." Rector, 44, was convicted of killing the 22-year-old Davis, who disappeared from her Austin apartment Oct. 17, 1981. "Tonight does not give our family any feeling of closure or satisfaction," Joe Irvin, Davis' stepfather, and her two sisters, Kim Cole and Katherine Matthews, said in a statement released after the execution. "Katy is still gone and nothing can change that or bring her back. We do feel that justice has been served. . . . There is also a great sense of relief that the man who murdered Katy will never commit any other acts of violence." Rector spent more than 16 years on death row, which made him among the longest-serving condemned prisoners in Texas. An eighth-grade dropout who had spent time in reform schools as a teen-ager, Rector first went to prison in 1974 for the drug-related shooting death of an Austin man. He was paroled from a 14-year sentence just three weeks before Davis was killed.

2/24/99 Norman Evans Green - 38, was was the seventh person put to death in Texas this year. He was convicted 14 years ago for fatally shooting an electronics store clerk in a botched robbery. Nineteen-year-old UTSA engineering student Timothy Adams was shot four times at a Dyer Electronics store on Perrin-Beitel Road in San Antonio on February 13, 1985. Green's accomplice, Howard Bowens, testified against Green in exchange for a life sentence; he is still in prison. Green, who was previously imprisoned for burglary, vehicle theft and parole violations, denies that he was the triggerman, although fingerprints on the pistol matched his. Green's first conviction for this murder was reversed in 1989 when the Court of Appeals said that the trial judge improperly disqualified a prospective juror who was against the death penalty. Green was again convicted in a second trial in 1990. The execution by lethal injection is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

2/16/99 Andrew Cantu - 31, was pronounced dead at 9:39 p.m., seven minutes after the lethal injection began flowing into his arms. His leg trembling as he lay strapped to the death chamber gurney, Cantu declined to make a final statement. He gasped once and appeared to snore as the drugs took effect. The lethal injection was delayed by more than three hours as the U.S. Supreme Court considered an 11th-hour appeal. The nation's high court refused the request an hour before Cantu was put to death. Cantu was convicted of capital murder eight years ago after prosecutors proved Gregory Lynn Summers hired him to kill Gene and Helen Summers, his parents, and Summers' mentally retarded brother, Billy Mack, in their Abilene home. Gregory Summers also is on death row awaiting a lethal injection. Cantu was to die Dec. 3, but the Supreme Court issued a stay 15 minutes before his scheduled execution to consider an appeal. He contested a lower court's finding that, while acting as his own attorney, he had flouted the appeals process in a calculated attempt to postpone his death. The Associated Press reported that at the time of the killings, Cantu was on parole after serving only seven weeks of a five-year term for burglary. Records show he found two other men to take part in the scheme and offered to share a $10,000 payoff. Summers said the money would be in a dresser drawer, but no money was there. The accomplices, Ramon Gonzales and Paul Flores, testified against Cantu in exchange for shorter prison terms, telling how Cantu slipped through a back window and stabbed Gene Summers nine times in the chest before attacking the other victims, stabbing Helen Summers eight times and Billy Mack Summers seven times. Cantu blamed the killings on Gonzales and Flores, insisting he was buying cocaine in Fort Worth, 150 miles to the east, at the time of the slayings. Arbie McAliley, Helen Summers' niece, said the memories of the night her aunt died are as fresh today as they were nine years ago. ``Every time we smell campfire, we can smell the smell of that house after it was burned. I close my eyes and I can still see the blood on the carpet,'' she said. ``Cantu robbed us dearly, and his death tonight did not repay the debt that he owes us.''

2/11/99 Danny Lee Barber - 43, a native of California, was killed by lethal injection tonight for the beating death of 50-year-old Janie Ingram of Balch Springs during a burglary of her home more than 19 years ago. Barber confessed to killing four people over an 18-month period between 1977 and 1979. Barber had done lawn work for Ms. Ingram. He blames alcoholism and depression for his violence. In his final statement Barber said, `I'm sorry for whatever pain I've caused. I pray you get over it. I am regretful for what I (sic) done, but I am a different person from that time.'' The Associated Press quoted Ruth Mae Clowers, aunt of one of the other victims, as saying after the execution, ``Us as taxpayers is the ones that feed them. Why should we have to feed them? They let them lay up there and get big and fat. Hell, they eat better than we do. Kill 'em all. Line them up. Shoot 'em between the eyes. That's the way it is.''

2/10/99 George Cordova - 39, was pronounced dead at 6:30 pm. In a final statement, Cordova apologized to his victims and their relatives and said he "wished I could die a hundred times." He was convicted in 1979 of the murder and robbery of 19-year-old Joey Hernandez and the aggravated sexual assault of Cynthia West in Espada Park in San Antonio. Cordova earned the nickname "Spiderman" after he escaped from the Bexar County Jail by squeezing through a 6-inch-wide gap in a barred window. Five months later, he was picked up in Florida on charges of aggravated sexual assault and sexual battery after he forced a 22-year-old teacher off a road at gunpoint and attacked her. Cordova's sister, Oralia Gomez of San Antonio, believes her brother was innocent and said "I'd like for the people to know that two wrongs don't make a right."

1/26/99 Martin Vega, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., seven minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms. He was convicted for the July 1985 death of James William Mims. Mims' murder went unsolved for 2 1/2 years before Vega walked into the police department in Luling, about 50 miles east of San Antonio, and confessed of plotting to kill the man for a $30,000 portion of Mims' $150,000 life insurance policy.

1/13/99 Troy Farris, 36, was executed in Huntsville on Wednesday, January 13, for the 1983 shooting death of Tarrant County sheriff's deputy Clark Rosenbalm, Jr. Farris maintains his innocence. Rosenbalm interrupted a drug deal between Farris and two men from Wichita Falls who had charges against them dropped. The Associated Press reported that in a brief final statement, he turned to an adjacent witness room and expressed love to four family members of murder victim Clark Rosenbalm Jr. ``I can only tell you Clark did not die in vain,'' Farris said. ``I don't mean to offend you, but through his death, it led this man to God.'' He also expressed love to his family members, several of whom were execution witnesses, and thanked them for their support. ``Like they say in the song, I guess, I just want to go out like Elijah, on fire with the spirit of God,'' Farris said. ``I'm done. Take me, Jesus. Take me, Jesus. I love you."

1/5/99 John Moody - executed by lethal injection. Moody has a memorial website, at http://www.angelfire.com/id/karmakid/moody.html

12/15/98 James Ronald Meanes
James Ronald Meanes was executed on December 15th. "As the ocean always returns to itself, love always returns to itself,'' Meanes said in his final statement. "So does consciousness always return to itself. And I do so with love on my lips. May God bless all mankind.'' Meanes, 42, was convicted for the 1981 slaying of Houston father of three Oliver Flores, 29, during the course of a $1.1 million armored car heist.

If you would like to be added to the list of people who are called when vigils are held, please call 224-HOPE and leave your name and phone number.

Some Internet Links about the Death Penalty:

• Death Penalty Information Center
  a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information regarding capital punishment. The Center provides in-depth reports, conducts briefings for journalists, promotes informed discussion and serves as a resource to those working on this issue.

• Death Penalty News and Updates
  From Rick Halperin at Southern Methodist University. Contains lists and statistics as wekk as current news.

• Campaign to End the Death Penalty
  founded in 1995 with chapters across the country. stressing on grassroots organizing to win support for prisoners currently on death row.

• Friends Committee to Abolish the Death Penalty
  a national Quaker organization that was established in 1993 to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States; foster communication and support among concerned Friends; encourage anti-death penalty activism among Friends and others and nurture the process of victim-victimizer reconciliation in the light of God's love.

  National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  Founded in 1976, a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to the abolition of capital punishment, provides information, advocates for public policy and mobilizes and supports people and institutions that share our unconditional rejection of the state's use of homicide as an instrument of social policy.

• Catholics Against Capital Punishment
  Catholics Against Capital Punishment was founded in January 1992 to promote greater awareness of Catholic Church teachings that characterize capital punishment as inappropriate and unacceptable in today's world.

• Southern Center for Human Rights
  a non-profit community-based organization founded in 1976 to fight discrimination against minorities, the poor, and the disadvantaged in the infliction of the death penalty and challenge cruel and unconstitutional treatment of imprisoned men, women, and children throughout the South.