Texas executes Troy Clark

Condemned murderer Troy Clark has been executed for the 1998 murder of his former roommate Christine Muse.

A 51-year-old Texas inmate has been executed for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel.

Troy Clark received a lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 1998 death of 20-year-old Christina Muse of Tyler.

Clark chuckled as he addressed several friends watching through a window a few feet from him, telling them a number of times that he loved them and “it’s all good.”

“I’m not the one who killed Christina,” he said. “But, hey, whatever makes you happy.”

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered, Clark was laughing and remarked that the drug “burned going in.”

“I feel it,” he said. Then he grunted, gasped and began to snore. Seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later at 6:36 p.m.

Margaret Bouman, Muse’s aunt, said witnessing the execution was a tough experience but “kind of bittersweet.”

“I’m a Christian and the death penalty and accepting it was very, very difficult for me,” Bouman said. “But I also believe the law of the land is important.”

She also said that Clark’s attitude during the procedure was troubling.

Clark had taunted a jury to sentence him to death during his trial, but later argued his trial attorneys failed to present evidence of his troubled childhood, which might have convinced jurors to spare his life.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend a commutation of Clark’s sentence.

RELATED: Texas set to execute Troy Clark Wednesday, the 1st of 2 scheduled executions in 2 days

RELATED: Tyler man slated to be 1st of two Texas death row inmates executed in two nights

Clark is the ninth prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the 17th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. 

Clark has become the 1,481st inmate executed in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Clark is the first of two executions this week in Texas. Daniel Acker was scheduled to be executed Thursday for fatally running over his girlfriend.

At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months.

- Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015 to present: 35

- Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982 to present: 553

Sources: dailyjournal.net, Yahoo News, September 26, 2018

Tyler man put to death in 1st of two Texas executions scheduled in two nights

Professing his innocence till the end, an East Texas man convicted of drowning his former housemate and stuffing her body into a barrel of lime was put to death in the first of two consecutive executions scheduled in the Lone Star State.

Now, if Thursday's punishment goes through as planned, it'll be the first time in six years that Texas has put to death two prisoners in two nights, a grim milestone that comes amid a slight uptick in executions here this year.

Troy Clark was sentenced to die in 2000 for killing Christina Muse out of fear the young mother would snitch on him for his drug use, according to court records. He was convicted in part due to the testimony of his then-girlfriend Tory Bush, who admitted to the crime then fingered Clark - even though there was no physical evidence connecting him to the murder.

The May 1998 slaying came just after Muse moved out of the Smith County home where Clark and Bush lived and sold meth.

One day when Muse stopped back at the home to visit, she and Clark started talking and at some point in the conversation, according to court records, he used a stun gun to take her down, then duct-taped her arms and legs and left her in a closet for hours. Then, he moved her into the bathtub and ordered Bush to get a board so he could beat the bound woman.

After drowning Muse, according to court records, Clark ordered his girlfriend to go get lime. When she got back, he dumped the slain woman's body in a blue barrel filled with lime, cement mix and water.

Later, according to the state's theory, Clark and some friends loaded the barrel into a truck and ditched it in a remote spot on his landlord's property.

When authorities found the gruesome remains, they also discovered the body of Tracy Mize decaying in a septic tank on the same property.

In trial, the jury also heard evidence that Clark allegedly killed two other people and robbed others.

But Clark denied his involvement, saying he wasn't at home at the time of the slaying, and that he was out delivering drugs. No physical evidence linked him to the crime, defense lawyers pointed out.

In the years since he was sent to death row, Clark has argued that he suffered bad lawyering, didn't get to show evidence rebutting claims he would be a future danger to society, and that his girlfriend's testimony was self-serving and unreliable - especially considering she once confessed to the crime herself.

"Clark's death sentence is the product of the largely uncorroborated testimony of an incentivized co-defendant and a trial attorney whose performance was abysmal," attorneys David Dow and Jeff Newberry wrote in a clemency petition, alleging the trial team failed to present evidence of Clark's traumatic childhood and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder.

In the days leading up to his execution, the case attracted attention from actress Susan Sarandon, author Mary Buser and renowned death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean.

"Texas plans to execute Troy Clark on Wednesday but there are some serious problems with his case," Prejean tweeted. "Troy has always maintained his innocence. Someone else made a detailed confession and then completely changed her story in exchange for a reduced sentence."

A day after Clark's scheduled date with death, Acker is slated for execution. The Sulphur Springs man was sent to death row in 2001 after he was convicted of strangling his girlfriend and pushing her from a moving car - though the state abandoned the strangulation theory after trial. Like Clark, he's consistently maintained his innocence, and defense lawyers have argued Marquetta George jumped from the car on her own, making the death possibly manslaughter but not capital murder.

The last time two convicted killers were executed in two days was in 2012, when the state put to death Ramon Hernandez of Bexar County and Preston Hughes, from Harris County. Hughes, who professed his innocence till his final words, was convicted in the stabbing deaths of two children.

This time around neither of the executions is out of Harris County, the erstwhile "capital of capital punishment."

Last year, the Lone Star State executed seven men, nearly one-third of the nation's 23 total. This year, the death house in Huntsville has now seen nine executions, and another seven are scheduled in the remainder of the year. Two more - including a cop-killer from Harris County - are on the calendar in early 2019.

Despite the slight uptick in Texas this year, national numbers are likely to hold fairly steady by year-end, according to Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center. And even that uptick in the nation's busiest death chamber, he added, isn't necessarily indicative of any change in the long-term waning of capital punishment.

"Executions look as though they will remain near generational lows this year and to the extent that there is any difference," he said, "that difference will be Texas."

Source: chron.com, Keri Blakinger, September 26, 2018

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde