67-year-old Lester Bower Jr. was executed Wednesday after 30 years on death row claiming he was innocent of four murders with his last words
Lester Bower Jr. was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1983 murders of B&B Ranch owner Bob Tate, 51, Grayson County Sheriff's Deputy Philip Good, 29, Jerry Brown, 52, a Sherman interior designer and Ronald Mayes, 39, a former Sherman police officer. Prosecutors said Bower killed Tate at his ranch near Sherman to steal an ultralight aircraft Tate was trying to sell and killed the other three when they unexpectedly showed up at the scene, a hangar on the ranch.
Bower maintained his innocence to the bitter end. He had no criminal record and no physical evidence linked him to the murders, although parts of the aircraft were found at his Arlington home.
He came within hours of being put to death six times, thanks to numerous appeals filed in his behalf.
While strapped on the death chamber gurney, Bower’s last words were: “Much has been said about this case. Much has been written about this case. Not all of it has been the truth. But the time for discerning truth is over and it's time to move on.” 18 minutes later he was pronounced dead from a single dose of pentobarbital.
Unlike appeals in states that rely on a three-drug execution cocktail, Bower’s last minute appeal did not argue that the use of pentobarbital could subject him to excruciating pain in violation of the 8th amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Texas has held a number of executions using only pentobarbital, and all of them resulted with the condemned prisoner falling asleep unremarkably, thus muting any question about this type of single dose execution.
2 comments:
Hell, the prison I worked at for 24 years was FULL of innocent men. Just ask them, they would tell you so.
I am reminded of a story credited to Frederick the Great if I recall correctly. He was touring one of his prisons and interviewing prisoners. They almost uniformly declared their innocence. He then got to one man who, when asked, replied, "Sir, I am guilty of the crime I was convicted of and richly deserve to be here." At that time Frederick ordered him released, stating, "I will not have this criminal in here corrupting all of these honest men." Hell, it might even be true.
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