Death Watch Speaks

Nov. 19, 2009



TEXAS: Execution even though the Board of Pardons and Parole voted for

Clemency



Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejected the pardons board plea to spare the life of

Robert Lee Thompson, 34.



Thompson didn’t fire the shot that killed clerk Mansoor Rahim during a

robbery of a convenience store. But a jury sentenced him to death under the

state’s so-called law of parties, which holds accomplices as responsible for

a murder as the person who does the actual killing. 



The triggerman, Sammy Butler, was sentenced to life in prison after

prosecutors failed to prove he intended to kill Rahim.



Thompson’s case marked the 3rd time the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

recommended that a death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Perry has

voluntarily commuted only 1 death sentence in his tenure as governor.



"After reviewing all the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a

murderous history and participated in the killing of (Rahim), I have decided

to uphold the jurys capital murder conviction and capital punishment for

this heinous crime," Perry said in a written statement.



Thompson, who converted to Islam while in prison, opened his final remarks:

"I bear witness that there is no God, but Allah. From Allah we come and to

Allah we return."



He thanked his mother and friends for their support. "We all have to walk

this path," he said. "Smile, be happy, don’t cry."



Thompson then apologized for his crime. "I never meant any of your family to

get hurt," he said to an empty chamber normally occupied by the victim’s

family.



Thompson's mother, Audrey Champs, 1 of 2 people he wanted to witness his

death, wept inconsolably, stamping her feet and pressing her head to the

glass separating the witness room from the execution chamber. "Oh God, oh

God, oh God," she sobbed. "Oh Jesus. Jesus."



(source: Houston Chronicle)