East Texans on death row

One East Texan is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 17, but some state representatives, as well as the inmate, are calling for clemency.

Robert Roberson III, 57, has been on death row since February 2003 after he was found guilty of murdering his 2-year-old daughter in 2002.

According to records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Roberson took his daughter to Palestine Regional Hospital on Jan. 31, 2002, claiming she had fallen out of bed. She had severe trauma to her head and died from her injuries at a Dallas medical center the next day. Roberson was then charged in connection with the child's death.

The clemency petition filed by Roberson and his legal team states he is innocent. The petition comes alongside over 200 letters from Texas Legislators, parents rights advocates, Autism advocate organizations, attorneys and former lead detective on the case, Brian Wharton, showing support for Roberson.

"This is not a case where the State got the wrong person," the petition reads. "Instead, a crime was alleged — but none actually occurred. Robert was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death after his chronically ill two-year-old daughter, Nikki, died. He was arrested before Nikki was even taken off life support. He was barred from visiting her in the hospital. His parental rights were summarily terminated without a hearing. He was thrown in a jail suicide cell, without access to a lawyer. When a lawyer was finally appointed for him because he was indigent, that lawyer, without doing any investigation, insisted that the State was right: Robert must have shaken his daughter and caused her condition, regardless of his insistence that he loved his little girl and would not have done anything to harm her."

State Rep. Jay Dean, R-Longview, who represents Gregg, Harrison, and Marion counties, and state Rep. Jill Dutton, R-Ben Wheeler, who represents Hopkins, Hunt, Van Zandt counties, are among the 86 representatives who signed the letter.

The most recent East Texan to be put to death by the state is a Smith County man who killed his mother, buried her in the backyard, used her credit cards and drained her bank accounts.

Tracy Beatty, 61, was convicted of killing his mother, Carolyn Ruth Clark, in Dec. 2003.

Evidence showed Beatty drained his mother's bank accounts, stole her car and used the money to buy drugs after he buried her body in a shallow grace

"He had been to the penitentiary and was out at one point in time, then he brutally assaulted her, his parole was revoked, and he was sent back to the penitentiary," the Smith County Sheriff's Office said during the trial. "We have some indication that was part of his motive."

Beatty was executed on Nov. 9, 2022.

The East Texan who was most recently added to the state's death row is Taylor Parker.

On Nov. 9, 2022, a Bowie County jury sentenced Parker to death after just 90 minutes of deliberation.

Parker, 30, was convicted of murdering Reagan Simmons-Hancock, 22, on Oct. 9, 2020. Simmons-Hancock was nearly 8-months pregnant when she was attacked at a home in the 200 block of Austin St. in New Boston. Parker also cut the unborn baby from Simmons-Hancock's womb. The baby did not survive.

Parker was taken into custody the same day in Idabel, OK, in connection with the crime. 

According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), law enforcement was notified Parker had arrived at McCurtain Memorial Hospital with a baby she said she had just given birth to on the side of the road. OSBI Agents and Idabel Detectives went to the hospital and learned Parker had been stopped by a Texas State Trooper in DeKalb.  

The OSBI says Parker told the trooper she just had the baby and the baby wasn’t breathing. At that point, she and the baby were taken to the hospital in McCurtain County where the baby was pronounced dead. 

"Based on the investigation that was taking place in Oklahoma and Texas, Parker was arrested for the murder and kidnapping of the baby and she was booked into the Idabel City Jail," the OSBI said in a statement. "This morning, Parker was taken before a judge in McCurtain County District Court. She waived extradition to Texas on two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping. She will remain in the Idabel City jail awaiting transport back to Texas. This investigation has been a collaborative effort between the OSBI, Idabel Police Department, New Boston, Texas, Police Department and the Texas Rangers."

Parker was taken to the Mountain View Correctional Unit in Gatesville to await her execution. 

RELATED: Bond set at $5M for suspect accused of murdering East Texas woman, cutting infant from womb

RELATED: East Texas woman sentenced to death for murdering woman, cutting baby from womb

Other East Texans on death row include:

• William Hudson - Anderson County
• Blaine Milam - Rusk County
• Billy Tracy - Bowie County
• William Speer - Bowie County
• James Calvert - Smith County
• Kimberly Cargill - Smith County
• Dameon Mosley - Smith County
• Cortne Robinson - Harrison County
• Demontrell Miller - Smith County
• Randall Mays - Henderson County
• Robert Roberson - Anderson County
• Anibal Canales, Jr. - Bowie County
• Julius Murphy - Bowie County
• Allen Bridgers - Smith County
• James Henderson - Bowie County
• Taylor Parker - Bowie County
• Harvey Earvin - Angelina County

Cargill and Parker are two of only seven women awaiting execution. 

**EDITOR'S NOTE: Information below was provided by the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).

Death row was located in the East Building of the Huntsville Unit from 1928 to 1952. From 1952 until 1965, the electric chair was located in a building by the East Wall of the Huntsville Unit.

Those on death row were moved from the Huntsville Unit to the Ellis Unit in 1965. Death row remained at the Ellis Unit until 1999. In 1999, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice moved death row to the Polunsky Unit. The Polunsky Unit houses death row offenders separately in single-person cells, with each cell having a window. Death row offenders are also recreated individually. Offenders on death row receive a regular diet, and have access to reading, writing and legal materials. Depending upon their custody level, some death row offenders are allowed to have a radio. The women on death row are housed at the Mountain View Unit. Offenders on death row do not have regular TDCJ-ID numbers; they have special death row numbers.

Hanging was means of execution from 1819 to 1923.

The State of Texas authorized the use of the electric chair in 1923, and ordered all executions to be carried out in Huntsville. Prior to 1923, Texas counties were responsible for their own executions.

The State of Texas executed Charles Reynolds, of Red River County, the first offender by electrocution, on February 8, 1924. The same day, four additional offenders, Ewell Morris, George Washington, Mack Matthews and Melvin Johnson, were executed.

The State of Texas has executed brothers on six occasions:

• Frank and Lorenzo Noel - Electrocuted on July 3, 1925
• S.A. and Forest Robins - Electrocuted on April 6, 1926
• Oscar and Mack Brown - Electrocuted on July 1, 1936
• Roscoe and Henderson Brown - Electrocuted on May 6, 1938
• Curtis and Danny Harris - Lethal injection on July 1, 1993, and July 30, 1993, respectively
• Jessie and Jose Gutierrez - Lethal injection on September 16, 1994, and November 18, 1999, respectively

One of the most notorious offenders to be executed was Raymond Hamilton, a member of the "Bonnie and Clyde" gang. He was sentenced to death for the crime of murder by Walker County. Hamilton and another man had escaped from death row, only to be captured and returned. He was executed on May 10, 1935, just 11 days before his 22nd birthday. 

The last offender executed by electrocution in Texas was Joseph Johnson, of Harris County, on July 30, 1964.

Altogether, a total of 361 inmates were put to death via electrocution in Texas.

When capital punishment was declared "cruel and unusual punishment" by the United States Supreme Court on June 29, 1972, there were 45 men on death row in Texas and seven in county jails with a death sentence. All of the sentences were commuted to life sentences by the governor and death row was clear by March 1973.

In 1973, revisions to the Texas Penal Code once again allowed assessment of the death penalty and paved the way for executions to resume effective January 1, 1974. Under the new statute, John Devries was the first man placed on death row on February 15, 1974. Devries committed suicide on July 1, 1974, by hanging himself with bed sheets.

The State of Texas adopted lethal injection as means of execution in 1977 and executed the first offender, Charlie Brooks, of Tarrant County, with the new method on December 7, 1982. Brooks was put to death for the kidnapping and murder of a Fort Worth auto mechanic.

The lethal injection is a single-drug method of Pentobarbital.

Effective January 12, 1996, close relatives and friends of the deceased victim were allowed to witness executions.

Pursuant to Texas Penal Code Section 19.03, the following crimes are considered capital murder in Texas and punishable by death:

• Murder of a peace officer or firefighter who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or firefighter
• Murder during the commission or attempted commission of a kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction/retaliation or terroristic threat
• Murder for remuneration or promise of remuneration or employs another to commit murder for remuneration or promise of remuneration
• Murder during escape or attempted escape from a penal institution
• Murder, while incarcerated in a penal institution, of a correctional employee or with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination
• Murder while incarcerated in a penal institution for a conviction of murder or capital murder
• Murder while incarcerated in a penal institution serving a life sentence or a 99-year sentence for a conviction of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault or aggravated robbery
• Murder of more than one person during the same criminal transaction or during different criminal transactions, but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct
• Murder of an individual under 10 years of age
• Murder in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court or a municipal court

The death penalty is currently authorized by 30 states, the Federal Government and the U.S. Military. While Maryland and New Mexico no longer have death penalty statutes, they do currently incarcerate death-sentenced offenders. The law abolishing the death penalty in these states was not retroactive, it only applies to offenders sentenced after the law was passed. 

Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

California, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania have the largest death row populations, according to the TDCJ.

As of 2018, 2,743 offenders were on death row in the United States, reports the Death Penalty Information Center. 

There are five methods of execution in the United States: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging and firing squad.

For more on capital punishment in the United States, visit the Bureau of Justice Statistics-Capital Punishment.

The average time for an inmate to be on death row in Texas prior to their execution is 10.87 years.

Joe Gonzales, Jr., of Potter County, and Steven Renfro, of Harrison County, spent the shortest time on death row prior to being put to death. Gonzales was on death row for 252 days before being executed on September 18, 1966. Renfro served 263 days on death row before his execution on February 8, 1998.

David Powell, of Travis County, and Lester Brower, of Grayson County, are reported as spending the longest amount of time on death row prior to execution. Powell and Bower spent 31 years on death row before their execution dates of June 15, 2010, and June 3, 2015, respectively.

The average ages of executed offenders in Texas is 39.

The youngest offenders who have been put to death were; Jay Pinkerton, of Nueces County, Jesse De La Rosa, of Bexar County, and Toronto Patterson, of Dallas County. The men were all 24-years-old at the time of their executions.

De La Rosa died on May 15, 1985. Exactly a year later, Pinkerton met his fate. Patterson was executed on August 28, 2002.

The oldest individuals to have been executed in the state were; Lester Bower, 67, of Grayson County, William Chappell, 66, of Tarrant County, and Wiliam Rayford, 64, of Dallas County.

Chappel was put to death on November 20, 2002. On June 3, 2015, Bower was executed. Rayford received the lethal injection on January 30, 2018.

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