Executions by lethal injection in Texas and Virginia
The states of Texas and Virginia each sent a condemned prisoner to his death Thursday night, both executed by lethal injection. Carlton “Akee” Turner died after 6:00 p.m. at the death chamber at the Huntsville prison near Dallas, Texas. Kent Jermaine Jackson was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.
Texas has executed 407 individuals since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, more than any other US state. Virginia is second only to Texas, having sent 101 to their deaths during this same period. Deaths in these states account for more than 45 percent of all executions in the US since 1976.
The state killings of Turner and Jackson are part of a new round of executions in the US following a 7-2 decision by the US Supreme Court in mid-April that ruled lethal injection—the exclusive method used by the vast majority of the 36 US states that practice capital punishment—does not violate the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” The decision came in response to a challenge by two Kentucky death row inmates.
Executions in the US had been on hold for seven months prior to the May 6 lethal injection of William Earl Lynd in Georgia. A total of 12 men have been executed since the high court’s April 16 decision, and a total of 22 more are scheduled to be put to death between now and the end of October in eight states: Texas, 15; Virginia, 2; Oklahoma, 2; and one each in Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and South Dakota.
Carlton “Akee” Turner, 28, was convicted in the 1998 murders of his adoptive parents, Tonya and Carlton Turner Sr. After shooting them multiple times, he hid their bodies in the garage of their home until they were discovered after three days. He later confessed to the crime, saying at trial that he killed his father in self-defense but could not explain why he had killed his mother.
The way was cleared for Turner’s execution following the rejection of a clemency petition by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the US Supreme Court’s rejection of an appeal for a stay. Turner’s attorneys had argued before the high court that he should be entitled to a federally appointed and paid attorney to pursue his clemency.
Turner was only hours from execution last September 27 when he was issued a last-minute stay pending the outcome of the Kentucky lethal injection case. That stay was lifted following the April 21 decision by the Supreme Court, denying without comment the appeals of 11 death row inmates who challenged the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedure as practiced in their states.
The University of Texas School of Law Capital Punishment Clinic filed a petition for clemency on Turner’s behalf with the Texas Board of Pardons. It cited racial discrimination at his trial as well as aggravating factors in his childhood. The petition also contained affidavits from families and friends arguing that Turner’s death sentence should be commuted to life in prison.
Carlton Turner was adopted as an 11-month-old baby. The family moved frequently due to Carlton Sr.’s career in the military. The petition stated, “While Tony and Carlton presented the picture of a happy and well adjusted family, trouble started at an early age. Akee exhibited learning and behavioral problems as early as elementary school. These continued throughout his school years.
“His problems were only exacerbated by his father’s strict and abusive punishments. He suffered broken fingers, cuts, bruises and a broken leg (after his father threw him to the ground when he was seven years old), and endured many trips to the hospital as a result of his father’s punishment.”
Maurice Levin, an attorney with the Capital Punishment Clinic, notes that it was an all-white jury that convicted Turner, who is African-American. He also points to anecdotal evidence that no blacks even made it to the questioning portion of jury selection.
Dallas County, site of the trial, has a long history of excluding blacks from juries in death penalty cases, as well as other judicial improprieties. There have been 12 prisoners exonerated in the county on the basis of DNA evidence, including those serving long sentences for murder, rape and other felonies. These South Dakota wrongful death convictions in one county amount to more than all those recorded in the entire state of Florida—a situation referred to by one Texas lawmaker as an “international embarrassment.”