For 2006 Texas executes man slaying of Dallas real estate agent

Texas put to death a man who fatally stabbed a suburban Dallas real estate agent more than 16 years ago on Wednesday, the second execution this year in what has been the nation’s busiest death penalty state.

41 years old, Kosoul Chanthakoummane, received a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:33 pm. In July 2006 he was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting 40-year-old Sarah Walker. More than 30 times in a model home in McKinney she was found stabbed about 30 miles north of Dallas.

Chanthakoummane, after being strapped to the death chamber gurney, made a short statement thanking Jesus Christ, Texas prison officials and all the people in his life who helped me on this journey.

He offered a message to them: “I pray my death brings them peace”, although none of Walker’s relatives attended the execution.

Through his IV lines into his veins the powerful sedative pentobarbital started to flow. He looked at a window through where his mother was quietly watching from a few feet away and said, “Mom, I love you.”

There was no further movement and then he took four breaths and gasped slightly. Moreover, 15 minutes later he was pronounced dead.

Just after the execution took place and at Chanthakoummane’s request, a Buddhist monk placed his right hand on the inmate’s chest and read a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes referring to “a time for all things”. He responded, “Amen.”

Moreover, Prosecutors say that Chanthakoummane entered the model home and then beat Walker with a wooden plant stand, and stabbed her before taking her Rolex watch as well as a silver ring, which were never found. According to DNA evidence Chanthakoummane’s blood was found in several places inside the model home, including under Walker’s fingernails.

Walker was a top-seller for D.R. Horton. Two children were born to her. Chanthakoummane had claimed he was at the model’s home but said he only went inside to drink water. He had been on parole in Texas after serving time in North Carolina, Chanthakoummane was on parole in Texas.

In a March letter to federal court, Chanthakoummane declared, “I am innocent.” After his attorneys had challenged the DNA evidence used to convict him the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to delay Chanthakoummane’s execution.

As the “linchpin of the state’s case”, the evidence had been described by the appeals court. On Wednesday, one of his attorneys, Eric Allen said earlier that he wouldn’t file a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Without any direct contact between the two his attorneys had argued new science raised the possibility Chanthakoummane’s DNA could have been transferred to Walker’s fingernails. By DNA testing authorities claimed that Chanthakoummane had not been cleared.

During the last month, attorneys with the Texas Attorney General’s Office wrote in court documents that, “Any belief by Chanthakoummane that further DNA research would yield results that would help his case is a fantasy.”

On Monday, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Chanthakoummane a 120-day reprieve or a commutation of the death sentence to a lesser punishment. On the other hand, Chanthakoummane’s lawyer said the concerns about the DNA evidence were part of a pattern by prosecutors in using the wrong evidence in the case.

With the Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, to help him, two witnesses who said they saw Chanthakoummane near the scene of the killing were hypnotized by officers. Besides, the appeals court also states that the DNA evidence was strong.

Keith Gore, Chanthakoummane’s lawyer, in his trial told jurors that his client was guilty “and he wanted to rob (Walker), and it didn’t go the right way, and he killed himself”. Chanthakoummane was the ninth death sentence in this year’s U.S. prisons.

Despite, Texas’ death penalty has fallen to near-historic levels, Texas being the most populous capital punishment state in the country. The death penalty has been declining in executions in recent years and judges have issued fewer death sentences. Usually, in the death chamber this happens due to legal questions about the role of spiritual advisors.

Source:- https://blogspacecap.com/for-2006-texas-executes-man-slaying-of-dallas-real-estate-agent/

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Created on Aug 20th 2022 01:37. Viewed 137 times.

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