HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas inmate Robert Lee Thompson has been executed for his part in a fatal Houston store holdup after Gov. Rick Perry rejected a parole board's recommendation to spare Thompson because he wasn't the gunman.
The 34-year-old Thompson was an accomplice to triggerman Sammy Butler when 29-year-old store clerk Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed was gunned down 13 years ago.
Butler received life in prison. A jury gave Thompson death.
Thompson's lawyer told the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles Thompson's punishment under the Texas law of parties wasn't fair and the panel voted 5-2 Wednesday to recommend his sentence be commuted to life.
Perry didn't have to follow their recommendation.
The execution was carried out Thursday evening less than an hour after Perry refused to go along with the panel's endorsement.
Source: AP, Nov.19, 2009
Killer executed after Perry rejects panel's advice
Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejected a pardons board plea to spare the life of a Houston murderer, instead sending him to the state death chamber Thursday night [Nov. 19, 2009] for his part in the 1996 killing of a convenience store clerk.
Robert Lee Thompson, 34, didnt fire the shot that killed clerk Mansoor Rahim, also identified as Mansoor Rahim Mohammed, during a robbery of the Seven Evenings convenience store on Braeswood. But a Harris County jury sentenced him to death under the states 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.
In the punishment phase of Thompsons trial, prosecutors contended the men had been involved in at least eight other robberies, some of which resulted in the death of store workers.
Thompsons 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 jury's 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, dont 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 victims family.
Thompson's mother, Audrey Champs, 1 of 2 people the killer 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."
At one point the woman asked to be escorted from the witness room.
Thompson was declared dead at 6:19 p.m.
Court documents indicate the robbery was to have been a final stickup in a series committed by Thompson and Butler. The store was staffed by Rahim and a cousin, Mubarakali Meredia and, in a death row interview, Thompson said he had harbored resentment against merchants he considered exploitative of blacks.
Thompson approached Meredia at the checkout counter, pulled a pistol and demanded money. As the clerk opened the register, Thompson shot him 4 times. He then spotted Rahim at the stores rear and fired two shots in his direction.
Then, trial records indicate, Thompson aimed his weapon at Meredias neck and pulled the trigger a fifth time. Out of ammunition, the pistol failed to fire. Thompson then pistol-whipped the clerk and beat him over the head with the cash tray.
Meredia survived the attack.
As the robbers fled Thompson at the getaway cars wheel, Butler in the passenger seat Rahim charged into the parking lot. Butler fired 2 shots, killing him.
Even though Thompson did not fire the fatal bullet, under Texas law of parties, he was a killer as culpable as Butler and eligible for the death penalty.
The case bore similarities to the only case in which Perry voluntarily commuted a death sentence. In August 2007 he spared the life of Kenneth Foster, who had been convicted of capital murder in a law of parties case stemming from a deadly San Antonio robbery.
As with Thompson, Foster, who had been the getaway driver in a series of robberies, did not fire the lethal bullet.
Texas law of parties stipulates that a person may be held culpable if he "solicits, encourages, directs, aids or attempts to aid the other persons to commit the offense." Additionally, it holds that if one felony offense grows out of the commission of another felony a murder stemming from a robbery, for example all parties in the 1st crime may be held responsible for the 2nd.
Thompson becomes the 23rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 446th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He becomes the 207th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.
Thompson becomes the 48th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1184th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Sources: Houston Chronicle & Rick Halperin, Nov. 19, 2009
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The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has issued the following statement from Executive Director Kristin Houl in response to Governor's Perry decision to deny clemency to Robert Lee Thompson:
"The
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) is outraged that Governor Perry has rejected the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommendation to commute the death sentence of Robert Lee Thompson. Thompson is scheduled to be executed this evening for the murder of Mansoor Rahim, even though he was not the triggerman. His co-defendant, Sammy Butler, the actual killer of Mr. Rahim, was tried separately and convicted on a lesser charge. Butler is serving a life sentence and will be eligible for parole.
This was only the fourth such recommendation for clemency from the Board in cases where the inmate faced imminent execution, but it constitutes the second time that Governor Perry has chosen to ignore the Board, whose members he appoints. Perry previously rejected a recommendation for clemency by the Board in 2004 when he allowed the execution of Kelsey Patterson, an inmate with severe mental illness, to proceed.
The Governor's decision comes at a time of increased public awareness and scrutiny of the flaws and failures of the Texas death penalty system. TCADP joins with a growing chorus of diverse voices, including those of law enforcement, religious leaders, murder victim family members, and state legislators, in calling for an end to this arbitrary and error-prone form of punishment."
Please call the Governor and express your outrage that he once again has failed to promote justice in Texas:
Office of the Governor
- Citizen's Opinion Hotline: 1-800-252-9600
- Phone: (512) 463-2000
- Fax: (512) 463-1849
Source: TCADP, November 19, 2009
Governor Perry Continues to Play Politics with Death Penalty Issue By Refusing to Accept Recommendation of BPP for Clemency for Robert Thompson
Posted: 19 Nov 2009 04:27 PM PST
"Rick Perry continues to play politics with the death penalty. He should have accepted the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence of Robert Thompson. It would not surprise me if Rick Perry one day replaces the members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles who voted in favor of clemency for Thompson, just like he replaced his own appointees on the Texas Forensic Science Commission in the midst of their investigation into the Todd Willingham case. Rick Perry is using the death penalty issue to endear himself to right-wing voters in the upcoming Republican primary, but his actions do not reflect the priorities of mainstream Texans who are increasingly concerned about the fairness of the Texas death penalty system", said Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network.
Cobb continued, "In an Orwellian application of language repurposing, Governor Rick Perry and many of his supporters would like the public to believe that people sentenced to death under the Law of Parties are "killers", but a "killer" is "one who kills", not "one whose accomplice killed". People such as Jeff Wood and Kenneth Foster, Jr, are not killers. They never killed anyone and in a fair system of justice, they should never have received death sentences".
There is widespread support in Texas for ending the practice of sentencing people to death under the law of parties. In the last session of the Texas Legislature, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill (HB 2267 by Terri Hodge) that would have banned executions of people convicted solely under the Law of Parties. The Law of Parties provision of HB 2267 was taken out of the bill in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee after Governor Perry threatened to veto it if the bill was sent to him in the same form that it had passed the House. The revised version, which would have only required separate trials for co-defendants in capital trials, then died in the Senate when it did not come up for a vote on the floor before the deadline."
Source: Scott Cobb, Texas Moratorium Network, Nov. 19, 2009
