Texas kills Troy Clark, first of two executions of the week

The state of Texas killed Troy Clark at 6:15 pm local time Wednesday night in the death chamber in Huntsville. During his initial trial and 18 years of appeal, prosecutors did not present any physical evidence linking Clark to the crime of which he was convicted. Rather, they rely on the testimony of Clark's girlfriend. Clark and his then girlfriend, Tory Bush, were convicted of the murder of their former roommate, Christina Muse, and the destruction of her body on their owner's property in 1998. Clark professed his innocence to his last breath. Bush confessed, testified against him and received a 20-year sentence.

His last words, according to the Houston Chronicle, were: "I'm not the one who killed Christina, so what makes you happy. I love you all. I see you on the other side. You are good. OK Warden, I'm ready.

And then, "I feel it", as the cocktail of lethal injection of drugs went into his system.

Clark was the first of two planned executions on two consecutive days, the first time Texas killed two convicts in two nights in more than six years, according to the Chronicle. Christina Muse, the alleged victim of Bush and Bush, was a young mother with whom he had recently shared a house, drowning her and trying to get rid of her body by putting it in a blue barrel filled with lime in 1998.

But according to the Chronicle, the majority of the prosecution's arguments for condemning Clark came from the testimony of his then girlfriend, Tory Bush.

In the years following his departure on death row, Clark argued that he had suffered bad legal practice, that he had not proved that he would refute the allegations that it poses a future danger to society. especially considering that she once confessed the crime itself.

"Clark's death sentence is the result of the largely uncorroborated testimony of an accused co-defendant and a trial lawyer whose performance has been catastrophic," said lawyers David Dow and Jeff Newberry in a leniency application. Traumatic disorder of childhood and fetal alcohol syndrome.

Clark and Bush were both methamphetamine users, and Clark said he was away from his residence selling the drug at the time of the murder. Bush's testimony claimed that Clark had killed Muse and that she would not inform the couple of their sales and drug use, and prosecutors believe that he and his friends took him to a remote location and the have thrown. Police found the second body rotting on the same site, but Clark was not charged with any crime in connection with it.

Texas executes more people than any other state in the country. In 2016, he killed seven of the 23 executions executed in the United States, and the Chronicle reports that he is on the verge of killing 16 convicts. Nine, including Clark, have already been executed and seven more are planned. in the last three months of the year. The longest duration of the state without killing someone is about six months. In 2016. Thursday night, he plans to execute Daniel Acker, 46, also convicted of murder in 2000.