UPDATE (June 25) — The comments section for this thread is closed. I have started a new open post for all DP-related comments. I’ll start a new post on Hood once a new date is set.
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For an excellent recap of what happened yesterday in Huntsville at the (delayed) execution of Charles Dean Hood, make sure to read Mike Graczyk’s article in the Houston Chronicle.
Here’s a time line of our day:
3:30 — arrive at the Victims Services Offices in Huntsville — Roger Williamson (son of Ron Williamson) and Julie Wallace (Big Sis) meet in person. I can’t say enough kind things about the staff of Victims Services; their professionalism, their dedication, and their compassion was exemplary.
4:45 — after being prepared for the execution process, leave Victims Services office for the short drive over to the Huntsville Unit (commonly referred to as the Walls Unit) where all death sentences are carried out in the death house.
(NOTE — in addition to the Death Chamber, the Walls Unit also houses up to 2800 inmates).
5:05 — a few minutes after we arrive at the walls unit, Warden C. Thomas O’Reilly meets us in the entrance where we are being checked in. He initially tells us that there has been a stay and that there will be no execution. He doesn’t know anything more at the moment.
5:35 — we are still waiting in the parking lot talking to our Victims Services representatives, when the director gets a call from inside the prison and walks off towards the front. A few minutes later, he comes back with the news that it wasn’t a stay, rather it that State District Judge Curt Henderson had rescinded the death warrant…but that the Colin County DA had appealed that decision to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA), claiming that Judge Henderson didn’t have that authority.
Victims Services tells us not to leave, that now there is a chance the execution could still be carried out.
6:30 — The Williamson family arrives back at the prison after being called back (they were already on the road back to Plano).
The Warden lets us know that the money is on the CCA siding with the judge rather than the DA.
Victims services tells us that — contrary to news reports — that Hood had already been put back on a van to the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, which had to do a u-turn to come back to the walls Unit.
I would have loved to see the look on Hood’s face when that van turned around. We were told that he was “visibly shaken” when he was put back in his cell in the death chamber.
You think?
9:00 — The warden comes back out to tell us that the CCA did in fact side with the Judge and had denied the DAs appeal. However, that was because the judge has inexplicably recused himself from the case and the CCA couldn’t force him to re-sign the death warrant.
However, the DA had filed another appeal asking the CCA to force the presiding judge to sing the warrant.
The Warden said that the DA was trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and they weren’t optimistic about him winning. And even if he did…the warden reminded us that there were still three issues pending in front of the SCOTUS that would have to be ruled on to clear the way for the execution.
Oh yeah, and this all has to happen no later than 11:15 p.m. as the warden needs at least 45 minutes to carry out all of the execution protocols.
9:26 — The warden is on his way back out to talk to myself and Julie (the Williamson family was already waiting inside). We’re expecting bad news. Instead he hurriedly tells us that the CCA has forced the judge to re-sign the death warrant and that we are now back on.
We rush into the prison, get cleared through security, and are taken to a waiting room over looking the death chamber — just in case SCOTUS rules quickly (on issues that had been before their court for at least a week).
11:00 — There is a lot of anxiousness in the room. And everybody seems to be holding up very well, but the stress and the length of the day is really showing on everybody. There is a television in the corner of the room and we’re all watching the Celtic demolish the Lakers. With just a few second to go in the game, the clock in the room has just ticked past 11:00 p.m. and somebody jokes that the supreme court justices must be watching the game and are waiting on it to be over before ruling.
11:03 — we get the call that SCOTUS has denied all three of Hoods claims. At this point the CCA and SCOTUS, the highest law in the state and in the country has cleared the path to execution.
We were right about the justices watching the game I think.
11:20 — everyone has been briefed and pat searched (you cannot take anything with you into the witness room) and the witnesses are all lead downstairs, through a long hall way to a door right outside of the death chamber.
Hood is supposed to be already strapped to a gurney with the IVs started when the witnesses enter the witness room.
However, this apparently didn’t happen in time.
There is a lot of speculation and wondering between the Victims Services guys, the officers from the Inspector Generals office, and the guards as to whether Hood has to be pronounced dead by midnight, or if the lethal dose simply has to be given by that time. An execution has never cut it this close to midnight before, so nobody knew the exact law.
11:35 — Warden O’Reilly informs Governor Rick Perry that he does not have enough time to carry out the protocol. Gov. Perry issues a one-time-only 30 day reprieve.
I’m not sure what this means — does it mean that the death warrant didn’t actually expire, and that a new date doesn’t have to automatically be requested and that instead a new date automatically is set for 30 days from now?
12:05 — We are finally escorted back out of the prison and to our cars.
3:17 — Arrive back in Austin.
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Big Sis is on a plane back to Michigan right now. She vows she’ll be back when the date is re-set. This was Hood’s fifth execution date.
Hood’s “final” meal was:
- (2) 7 oz. steaks
- (7) sunny side-up eggs
- (1) bowl jalapeno peppers
- (1) glass of ice
- (4) milks
- (1) pint vanilla ice cream
I hope he threw it up on when his van made the u-turn.
I also learned that all housing units in all Texas State penitentiaries do not have air conditioning or heating. That means that all this week when it was 101 degrees outside? It was almost that hot in their 10′ x 6′ concrete cells on death row.
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PREVIOUS
- Charles Dean Hood — June 8, 2005
- A Death Row Inmate of Good Character — June 27, 2005
- Charles Dean Hood — A Letter from Death Row — May 21, 2007
- Tracie Lynn Wallace (1964 — 1989) — June 30, 2007
- Charles Dean Hood — New Execution Date Set — April 24, 2008
- Charles Dean Hood — Final Appeal Denied? — May 15, 2008
- Charles Dean Hood — To Be Executed in one Week — June 10, 2008
- Charles Dean Hood Final Appeal Denied — June 16, 2008
[...] The Tanooki wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt For an excellent recap of what happened yesterday in Huntsville at the (delayed) execution of Charles Dean Hood, make sure to read Mike Graczyk’s article in the Houston Chronicle. Here’s a time line of our day: 3:30 — arrive at the Victims Services Offices in Huntsville — Roger Williamson (son of Ron Williamson) and Julie Wallace (Big Sis) meet in person. I can’t say enough kind things about the staff of Victims Services; their professionalism, their dedication, and their compassion was exemp [...]
Left by State Runs Out of Time to Execute Charles Dean Hood on June 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm