Death Watch Speaks

Steven Moody executed

Stephen Moody was executed on Sept. 16^th for the shooting death of a Houston man during a robbery 18 years ago.

Moody, 52, had asked that no last-minute appeals be filed to try to block his execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Moody's case last year after a federal appeals court rejected questions raised about jury selection procedures at his 1993 trial.

"I'm satisfied," he told The Associated Press in an interview a few weeks ago. "I'm ready, man. I ain't quitting. I went all the way. ... That's how I look at it."

"We have to kind of sit on our hands," Moody's lawyer, Philip Hilder, said. "We wouldn't be normally doing that, but it is his wishes."

Moody accepted responsibility for killing Joseph Hall, 28, with a blast from a sawed-off shotgun at Hall's home in October 1991.

Hall was described at Moody's trial as a drug dealer known to carry a lot of cash. Moody and an accomplice had confronted Hall, who put up a struggle when he was ordered to surrender his money.

The accomplice in the shooting, Calvin Doby, received a life sentence. Moody got the death penalty.

"You do what you do," Moody said. "You pay for what you do. ... I had plenty of chances in my life."

(sources: AP)