Top Texas criminal court stays execution at last moment (and a quarter century after murder)

As reported in this AP piece, “Texas’ top criminal appeals court has stopped Thursday evening’s scheduled execution of a Texas inmate who had been condemned for killing another prisoner more than 26 years ago.”  Here is more:

William Speer, 49, had been set to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. The victim’s sister and religious leaders had recently asked authorities to spare his life.

Speer was convicted of the strangling death of Gary Dickerson in July 1997 at the Telford state prison, located near New Boston in northeast Texas.

His attorneys had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stop his execution over allegations that prosecutors at his 2001 trial failed to disclose evidence, presented false testimony and that his trial lawyers failed to present evidence about Speer’s troubled childhood. They say Speer was physically and sexually abused as a child. Prosecutors have denied the allegations against them.

Less than five hours before his scheduled execution at 6 p.m. CDT, the appeals court granted the request by Speer’s attorneys. “We have reviewed the application and find that (Speer’s) execution should be stayed pending further order of this Court,” the appeals court wrote in its two-page order. Speer’s lawyers said the stay order cannot be appealed to federal courts because it is a state law issue.

His lawyers said Speer has transformed while in prison, expressed regret for his actions and now helps lead a religious program that ministers to other death row inmates…. The Texas Attorney General’s Office did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment….

At the time of inmate Dickerson’s killing, Speer had been serving a life sentence for fatally shooting a friend’s father, Jerry Collins, at the man’s Houston area home in January 1991. Speer was 16 then.

The paroles board on Tuesday voted 7-0 against commuting Speer’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a six-month reprieve.

Speer killed Dickerson in a bid to join the Texas Mafia prison gang, prosecutors said. The gang ordered the hit after mistakenly concluding Dickerson had informed authorities about tobacco it had tried to smuggle into the prison. Speer and another inmate, Anibal Canales Jr. were sentenced to death for the killing. Canales remains on death row.

At Speer’s trial, Sammie Martin, who is Dickerson’s only living sibling, told jurors her mother was devasted by her brother’s death. But Martin asked that Speer’s life be spared. “I have spent much time reflecting on what justice my brother and my family deserved,” Martin wrote in federal court documents filed earlier this week. “In my heart, I feel that he is not only remorseful for his actions but has been doing good works for others and has something left to offer the world.”

Martin said she was never informed by prosecutors about Speer’s scheduled execution. In court documents filed this week, lawyers with the Texas Attorney General’s Office said that despite Martin’s feelings about Speer’s execution, “the state retains its interest in deterring gang murders and prison violence, as well as seeing justice done for Dickerson.”

A group of religious leaders from around the country have also asked that Speer be spared. In a letter to the paroles board and Gov. Greg Abbott, they wrote that Speer’s religious work with other prisoners “does not excuse his actions, but it gives us a fuller picture of who Will is as a human, Christian, leader, and teacher.”