What can I - say ? - Law - http://maxpages.com/prisonministry/Last

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TEXAS----execution:

Sobbing and seeking repentance, a former used car salesman accused of
being a sadistic rapist was executed today for sexually abusing and
killing a Montgomery County teen almost 11 years ago.

"I'm sorry for what you had to go through. I am so sorry what you all had
to go through," Dennis Dowthitt, 55, said twice. "I can't imagine losing
2 children. If I was you all I would've killed me. I am really sorry
about. I really am."

His voice was choked with emotion. Holding back tears, he looked at
members of his victim's family and had difficulty speaking, then added,
"Gracie was beautiful and Tiffany was beautiful. You had some lovely
girls and I am sorry. I don't know what to say."

Dowthitt was condemned for raping and fatally slashing and stabbing Grace
Purnhagen, 16, in an attack where the girl's 9-year-old sister, Tiffany,
also was strangled.

His voice shaking and his body quivering against the leather restraints,
Dowthitt turned away from witnesses as the injection began and then fell
limp.

Among the witnesses, his sister sobbed uncontrollably and a friend
watching knelt on the floor. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. CST, 7
minutes after the lethal dose began.

Dowthitt's son, Delton, 16 at the time of the 1990 murders, testified
against his father and under a plea bargain accepted a 45-year prison
term for Tiffany Purnhagen's death. He remains imprisoned, with an
additional term for escape in 1995, but becomes eligible for parole late
next year.

On Tuesday, Dowthitt lost an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. The
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, voting 18-0, refused his clemency
request Monday.

His attorneys again went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, asking the
justices to review the case even as the inmate requested a final meal.
Less than 90 minutes before his scheduled punishment, however, the high
court denied a request for a reprieve and refused to reconsider the case.

"I'm frustrated the system takes so long," Linda Purnhagen, whose
daughters were killed, said. "The kids got no appeal. He was their judge,
jury and executioner."

Grace Purnhagen and Delton Dowthitt had been acquaintances. With her
younger sister in tow at a bowling alley the evening of June 13, 1990,
Grace accepted a ride from the Dowthitts and wound up in a wooded area in
south Montgomery County not far from their home in Oak Ridge North.

Court documents showed while Grace and Delton Dowthitt talked nearby,
Dennis Dowthitt tried to molest the younger girl, who resisted and ran
screaming to her sister.

Delton Dowthitt testified that when his father told him the girls had to
be killed, Delton strangled Tiffany with a rope. Dennis Dowthitt attacked
Grace, first unsuccessfully trying to rape her, then cutting her throat
and raping her with a beer bottle before stabbing her in the chest.

The decomposing bodies of both girls were found 3 days later. Witnesses
told of last seeing the girls outside the bowling alley talking with the
Dowthitts in a pickup truck.

A psychologist testified the elder Dowthitt, while impotent, was a
sadistic rapist who received pleasure by using objects like bottles to
cause pain through sex. At the punishment phase of his trial, 2 of his
daughters testified how they were assaulted or molested by their father.

"If we're going to have the death penalty in Texas, then if it doesn't
fit this case, it doesn't fit -- ever," said Barbara Hale, a former
Montgomery County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Dowthitt.

Dowthitt, who declined to speak with reporters in the weeks leading up to
his execution, acknowledged to police he was at the murder site but
blamed the deaths on his son.

"They didn't have the information they needed, that's all," he said while
being led from the courtroom after a jury in 1992 decided he should be
put to death. "I'm not guilty."

Linda Purnhagen noted her younger daughter now has been dead longer than
she lived and that Dowthitt remained alive over the years.

"I don't think that's right," she said.

Dowthitt was among at least 10 condemned Texas prisoners with execution
dates over the next several months. Next on the lethal needle list is
Michael Moore, 37, set to die March 28 for the 1994 murder of a Copperas
Cove woman during a burglary at her home.

Dowthitt becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 244th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982.

Dowthitt becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death this year
in the USA and the 700th overall since America resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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Hey all
It's friday night, and Sheila has gone back home.
Bobbie is dead, and as he said before they killed him:
I am going to be with Jesus-
which I believe is the one thing that kept me sane,and
Sheila strong enough to even stand on her two feet.

Sheila is a remarkable woman, - for days and days we
have talked and prayed and hoped , and talked some
more, and she has wept and sobbed and shared her pain
with me, and all up till the last few hours she still
hoped. She and Bobbie had 12 pictures taken few hours
before he got killed, and Bobbie looks victorious. I
cannot find another word than that- victorious.
And perhaps that was how he felt- he was loved, and he
was able to give love, and he knew he was on his way
home to our savior- that is what life is all about, so
simple it is , and Bobbie found the truth.

We were about 25 people outside FSP when he died, and
Sheila was one of them. along with her doughter and 2
grankids.
And we enter this twilight zone were the world is
nolonger real, and all there is to hold on to, is the
grace of God. Sheila just did it- she stood there in
her agony while they killed the love of her life,
because she wanted people to see that Bobbie was
loved.
When the reporters came, God just took over and Sheila
turned into this strong woman who could cry with
dignaty infront of them all, and say: this is wrong,
you have killed a man who have felt remorse from day
one, and now, 20 years later, you kill him and make
another family victims. I am a victim and my kids and
grandkids are victims.
Killing is wrong and this is nothing but state
approved 1 degree murder.
And she said she would go on in the fight against the
death penalty.
And when the reporters left, she turned into Sheila
again,and tears started rolling and she said, :"They
killed him Hannah, this morning we were having fun,
and now he is gone. I am going to miss him so."

Today we called to ask if sheila could see Bobbie's
body, and an officer from FSP callled back and gave
her permission.
then we called the funeral home, and they would not
allow it.
THey had made a extensive Cranial autopsy on him!!!!!
For what?????

So Sheila went home, and she is nolonger a wife but a
widow.
and the world is one beautiful christian brother
short.
and nobody understand why, and some couldn't care
less, and some is happy about him being dead.
Oh how I wish for God to move in his people, and let
them SEE.

Going to a protest is one thing, going there with a
dear friend is another. This is something I will
never get used to, no matter how many times I try it.
One of the last things Sheila said when we were
hanging around each otheres neck weeping , Was: next
time we weep, it will be tears of happiness because
James is coming home.
Sheila is a remarkable woman indeed.

Love and peace to you all
hannah

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8-16-00

TEXAS:

A 9th-grade dropout with an extensive arrest record worried about his
victim's family in the moments before he was put to death Wednesday
evening for murdering a San Antonio convenience store clerk more than 21
years ago.

"What I want to say is I have remorse and I'm really sorry about what
happened to that family," John Satterwhite, 53, said in a telephone call
to The Associated Press less than an hour before he was strapped to the
Texas death chamber gurney for killing Mary Francis Davis, 54.

Satterwhite declined to make a final statement in the death chamber and
was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m., 9 minutes after the lethal drugs began
flowing into veins in his hands.

Prison officials generally allow an inmate a few final calls to relatives
preceding an execution, but a call to the media from a prisoner is
unprecedented.

"I wanted them to know that I hope my remorse does them good. But would
it help them any? No," he said, after asking to speak with an AP reporter
who interviewed him previously.

Satterwhite said he was doing fine - "Everything's good" - and praised
the prison chaplain, Jim Brazzil, for helping him through the day.

"He's wonderful," Satterwhite said. "I'm at peace."

Shortly before he was executed, he nodded to reporters who were to
witness his death. After declining to make his final statement, he closed
his eyes took a deep breath as the drugs began to take effect, sputtered
twice and gasped twice.

Satterwhite was the 3rd of 6 condemned killers scheduled to die this
month in Texas and the 29th this year in the nation's busiest death
house.

At least 11 other death row inmates have lethal injections set through
the end of 2000, which could wind up a record year for executions in
Texas, topping the 37 condemned prisoners put to death in 1997.

"It's kind of scary," Satterwhite acknowledged in an interview earlier
this month. "But if I have to go through with it, why fight it? You ain't
got much choice."

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Satterwhite's case,
clearing the way for his execution.

Satterwhite's punishment attracted none of the attention that drew the
hundreds of protesters and media to Huntsville in June for the lethal
injection of convicted killer Gary Graham. Graham's claims of innocence
and an unfair trial spotlighted Texas as the nation's execution capital
and support of the death penalty by Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican
presidential nominee.

Satterwhite had a spiritual adviser as his only personal witness. No one
from the victim's family attended. Outside, half a dozen protesters stood
quietly.

Satterwhite already had been arrested eight times and had served a prison
term for burglary and robbery by assault when he was charged with the
March 12, 1979, killing of Davis, 54, after walking into the Lone Star
Ice and Food Store in San Antonio under the guise of buying a pack of
cigarettes and a soft drink - a 79-cent purchase.

Davis was found seated on a toilet, a bullet through each temple.

"I wouldn't say I'm totally innocent," Satterwhite said from death row.
"I'm guilty of some things."

Asked about the shooting, he replied: "There's a possibility I could be
the person that did it. ... I can't say I did or didn't."

Satterwhite and an accomplice, Sharon Bell, were pulled over for speeding
a day after the Davis shooting and $600 robbery and officers found a gun
in their car. Bell said it was hers and she was arrested for unlawfully
carrying a weapon. Interviewed later by police, Bell fingered Satterwhite
as the killer.

Testifying at his trial, she told of seeing Satterwhite holding the gun
against Davis' head as she was leaving the store and heard the victim
plead for her life.

Other witnesses identified the pair as being in the store just before the
slaying. Authorities said they were responsible for a string of robberies
in San Antonio, including another where a clerk was killed.

"He's a very cold-blooded psychopath, one of the worst I ever prosecuted,
just because he had no regard for his victims," said Bill Harris, the
former Bexar County assistant district attorney who prosecuted
Satterwhite.

Bell, from San Antonio, received a 20-year prison term for aggravated
robbery with a deadly weapon. She was released in 1986.

"To me, it was total discrimination," Satterwhite said, complaining Bell
received favorable treatment because of her gender. "They never tried any
deal with me. I'm the dude. I'm the male."

In 1988, the Supreme Court threw out Satterwhite's death sentence because
he was not allowed to visit with a lawyer before taking a psychiatric
test.

At a 2nd trial, a Bexar County jury convicted him and again decided he
should be put to death.

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8-23-00

TEXAS: (execution)

Asking for forgiveness, convicted killer David Earl Gibbs was executed
in the Texas death chamber Wednesday evening for raping and slitting the
throat of a Conroe woman, slain along with her roommate 15 years ago.

"I have wronged you and your family, and for that I am truly sorry,"
Gibbs said to Mickey Bryant, the brother of one of his victims, who stood
a few feet away as Gibbs awaited the lethal drugs. "I forgive and I have
been forgiven. Death is but a brief moments' slumber and a short journey
home. I'll see you when you get there."

Then he looked at the warden and said, "I am done, Warden."

As the drugs began taking effect, he made 2 guttural gasps and then
stopped moving. 7 minutes later at 6:18 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

Prosecutors described Gibbs a cold, cunning killer who smoked a cigarette
over one of the bodies. Police called the rampage one of the worst crimes
in Conroe's history.

Marietta Bryant, 29, and her roommate, Carol Ackland, 46, were killed in
similar fashion July 1, 1985. Gibbs, 39, was condemned for the Bryant
murder and was not tried for Ackland's death.

Both women had been released recently from hospitals after treatment for
mental health and emotional problems.

Court documents describe Bryant of having the maturity of an adolescent.
They lived in the same apartment complex as Gibbs, who worked as a
nursing aide with mentally ill people.

While on death row, Gibbs pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and
picked up an additional 20-year sentence for killing another condemned
murderer.

Another convicted murderer, Richard Wayne Jones, was executed Tuesday
evening for the abduction and stabbing death of Tammy Livingston, a
27-year-old Tarrant County woman, 14 years ago.

Neither of the executions attracted the attention given to condemned
killer Gary Graham, whose claims of innocence and an unfair trial put the
focus on Texas as the nation's most active capital punishment state and
support of the death penalty by Gov. George W. Bush, now the Republican
presidential nominee.

The women's caseworker, concerned after they had not reported for their
jobs on a highway litter cleanup crew, went to their apartment and
discovered the bodies nearly 2 weeks after they had been killed.

Gibbs was arrested after police searched his apartment and found a pack
of cigarettes that matched the brand of a cigarette butt found at the
murder scene. His fingerprints also were found at the victims' apartment
and a radio belonging to one of the dead women was discovered at the home
of Gibbs' girlfriend.

After his arrest, he gave police a statement acknowledging barging into
the apartment, getting into an argument and forcing Ackland to have sex
with him.

"While I was having sex with her, I cut her throat," he wrote. "I don't
know why I did it."

Then he killed Bryant, he said, and ransacked the place to make it look
like a burglary had occurred.

"This is a blow to everything I believe in," Gibbs, who declined to speak
with reporters in the weeks leading up to his execution date, said in an
interview with The Associated Press several years ago. "I don't believe
in hitting women. But for me to turn around and rape and murder two women
... The point is I did it.

"We can blame it on my past, but that doesn't take away what I did," said
Gibbs, who described himself as a "country gentleman."

After his release from a Michigan prison in 1980 on a 2-year sentence for
auto theft, the 10th-grade dropout from Florida was sentenced the
following year in Texas for robbery and theft in Galveston County. He was
freed after serving less than 3 years of a 5-year term.

In the prison slaying, death row inmate Calvin Williams was strangled
with a rope in a recreation yard in 1990.

At least 8 other prisoners have execution dates through the end of the
year, including Jeffrey Caldwell, set to die Aug. 30 for the 1988 hammer
slayings of his father, mother and sister at their home in Dallas. If all
9, including Gibbs, are put to death, the number of executions this year
would top the record 37 that were carried in 1997.

Gibbs becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 230th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
Dec. 7, 1982.

Gibbs becomes the 142nd condemned inmate to be put to death during the
tenure of Governor George W. Bush, who took office in January 1995.

And Gibbs becomes the 62nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year
in the USA and the 660th overall since America resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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Dove Prison Ministry International
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