Will Abbott take advice on Whitaker’s death sentence?

Board of Pardons and Paroles votes to urge clemency.

Whether Gov. Greg Abbott spares death row inmate Thomas Whitaker from Thursday evening’s scheduled execution could hinge on how much trust the governor places on the group of advisers who recommended mercy in the case.

Spurred by the father whom Whitaker tried to have killed in 2003, all seven members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles supported clemency for Whitaker in a vote taken Tuesday afternoon, shifting the decision to Abbott, who can support or reject the recommendation to convert the death sentence to life in prison.

Five of those board members were appointed or reappointed to six-year terms by Abbott since he took office in 2015, including Chairman David Gutiérrez, who was former Gov. Rick Perry’s pick in 2009 before Abbott selected him to lead the board in 2015. Perry appointed the other two board members.

Most of those serving on the parole board have worked in law enforcement, prisons or probation departments. One is a former adviser in Abbott’s budget and planning office. In addition to advising the governor on clemency requests, which are forwarded to Abbott only if they receive majority support, the board also decides whether Texas inmates are granted parole and sets parole conditions.

Kent Whitaker, father of the death row inmate, has asked Abbott for mercy for the son who arranged the ambush that killed his wife, Tricia, and only other child, Kevin, a college sophomore, and left Kent Whitaker severely wounded with a gunshot to his chest.

Whitaker made repeated telephone calls to Abbott’s office Wednesday in hopes of speaking to an aide about his son’s case, lawyer Keith Hampton said.

“We’ve made multiple telephone calls, we’ve left messages; Kent did speak at some length with a person in the chief of staff ’s office and said he’d love to have face-to-face meeting with the governor, but it would have to be in the morning because he promised his son that they’d be together in the afternoon,” Hampton said.

Unless delayed by appeals, Texas typically conducts executions shortly after 6 p.m.

Whitaker has said he wanted Abbott to see his son’s case as an opportunity for a “win-win situation.”

“I know he doesn’t want to appear to be soft on crime, and he never has been,” Kent Whitaker said last week. “But some would argue that spending life in prison for the rest of your natural life is a harder punishment than being placed on death row for a short period of time. He could still be tough on crime by inflicting that very hard penalty ... and at the same time honor my rights, as a victim, to mercy in this case.”

Although his Christian faith led him to forgive his son for the crime, Whitaker said he is not seeking forgiveness from Abbott, a Catholic who supports the death penalty.

“We’re not asking for forgiveness or to let him go; we just want him to live,” he said.

If his sentence is reduced to life in prison, Thomas Whitaker has submitted an affidavit waiving his eligibility for parole.