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Texas Department of Criminal Justice
A Texas death row offender was executed on Wednesday for stabbing an 89-year-old woman and her daughter more than 16 years ago after entering their home in Fort Worth on the pretext of working for them. Billy Jack Crutsinger, 64, received a fatal injection on Wednesday night at Huntsville State Penitentiary for the murder of Pearl Magouirk and her 71-year-old daughter, Patricia, 71.
Authorities said Crutsinger killed both women and stole Syren's car and credit card. Crutsinger was arrested three days later at a bar in Galveston, more than 300 km away.
In a final statement that lasted four minutes, Crutsinger thanked three friends who attended the execution.
"I am at peace now and ready to go and be with Jesus and my family," said Crutsinger.
Then, at the beginning of the deadly dose of pentobarbital, he said that he could feel it "in my left arm." It's a little bit hot. "
Crutsinger then began to cough and breathe heavily, then snored at least 29 times before stopping.
At 18:40 CT – 13 minutes after the start of the lethal dose – The death of Crutsinger was pronounced.
No members of the Magouirk or Syren family attended the execution. Crutsinger did not mention the two women during his closing statement.
"The accused stabbed two elderly women to death in their own home, offered him a chance to work honestly The loss of their mother and daughter Pearl Magouirk and Pat Syren is still deeply felt by their families and the community of Fort Worth.Our sympathy and thoughts continue to be with them, "said in a statement Michele Hartmann, one of the prosecutors of the Tarrant County Criminal District Prosecutor's Office, who found Crutsinger guilty .
Crutsinger was the 14th inmate put to death this year in the United States and the fifth in Texas, the busiest capital punishment in the country. Ten more executions are planned in Texas this year.
The US Supreme Court dismissed Crutsinger's request for a stay of execution. Crutsinger's lawyer had alleged that his previous lawyer had a long history of incompetent work in the death penalty cases.
"The jury did not hear anything from the defense that provided an explanation of the alcoholism problem in relation to the behavior of the offense", including such things as "a history of violence" Domestic and abuse and repeated losses of important friends and relatives, "Lydia Brandt, current lawyer of Crutsinger, wrote in one of her petitions to the Supreme Court.
Brandt also argued that the lower courts had erroneously denied Crutsinger funding to investigate claims of jurisdiction and mental health that had not been sufficiently reviewed by previous counsel.
The lower courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Lyrics also refused to interrupt the execution.
At trial, Hartmann told the jurors that Crutsinger's acts had nothing to do with alcohol, but were the result of an "evil".
Friends and family have described Magouirk, known as "R.D.", as a passionate gardener. Syren volunteered as a receptionist in her church. The two women were retired and lived together.
Crutsinger had "lost a lot of time in his adult life," including three failed marriages and a propensity for violence when he drank, according to a report written by a forensic psychologist hired by his lawyers.
In the months leading up to the killings, Crutsinger became homeless and increasingly desperate after his wife chased him out of the house and his mother, who had allowed his behavior, stopped smoking. help, according to the report.
When Crutsinger realized that Magouirk and Syren did not have enough work to bring him significant financial relief, he got into an alcoholic fury, the report said.
"All his anger to be left behind and to be removed his safety net was then applied to the victims," according to the report.
Magouirk was stabbed at least seven times, while her daughter was stabbed at least nine times.
The authorities said that DNA evidence had linked the killing to Crutsinger and that he had confessed to the crime.
In an email, Brandt described Richard Alley, Crutsinger's former court of appeal lawyer, as a "great word-processing software" that copied and stuck "worthless" legal arguments in other cases. and who had been struck off the trial of another death row client and suspended from his profession in a federal court. .
Brandt alleged that Alley did the same poor quality work in at least six other death penalty cases. Four of these detainees were executed. A former death row attorney Bobby Woods also alleged an incompetent job at Alley prior to Woods' performance in 2009.
In 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal removed Alley from the list of eligible lawyers to represent death row inmates in their appeals.
Alley died in 2017.
"I'm doing my best for all this stuff," said Alley to the American Statesman of Austin, in a 2006 article in a series on the poor work of prosecutors appointed by the court in appeals concerning capital punishment cases.
The Texas Attorney General's office described Crutsinger's allegations against Alley as "speculative" because he had not identified any allegations that Alley should have done so but did not do so. The Attorney General's office also stated that Crutsinger's case had been the subject of a "thorough examination" during his appeals process.
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