Inmate on death row loses his federal appeal
No execution date set for man convicted in 2003 of stabbing, raping two young women
A Houston man who admitted to the brutal killing of two young women is one step closer to the execution chamber after losing another federal appeal in his death row case.
Ray Freeney, a National Guard veteran with a history of schizophrenia, was convicted of capital murder in 2003 after he admitted to choking then stabbing 15-yearold sex worker Kirshalynne Jones and drugging then stabbing Vicky Dean.
In the first slaying in April 2002, Freeney followed Jones back to her west Houston motel room, then choked her until she passed out, according to court records. He then raped her while she was unconscious. When she came to, he stabbed her and continued his assault until she died at the foot of the bed.
He cleaned the room, tossed her body in a bathtub and left.
Four days later, he took his second victim back to his apartment and gave her juice laced with a sleep-inducing drug. Afterward, he told her he’d give her a massage but instead stabbed her in the neck. They had sex, and then he stabbed her in the eye, according to court records.
She begged him to “pull this knife out of me so I can die,” records show. He refused and instead fled, leaving Dean behind.
Responding police found her on the grass outside Freeney’s apartment complex. She died several days later.
Police picked him up that month after finding him at a bus stop on Bissonnet — where he was trying to pick up a prostitute.
“I’ve never really encountered anything like this guy,” Houston police investigator Todd Miller said in 2002, as Freeney waited in jail for trial. “He was escalating. He was a predator.”
Over the past 16 years, appellate courts have rejected his claims, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week turned down his request for a new punishment.
His attorneys declined to comment. Freeney does not have an execution date scheduled.