Texan in spotlight
Houston Rep. Sylvia Garcia’s second year in Congress is off to a dramatic start. She’s one of the people who’ll make the case that President Trump should be removed from office.
Begging forgiveness and apologizing for the “grief” he caused, John Gardner became the country’s first execution of 2020 on Wednesday night.
“I am sorry,” he said, while strapped to the gurney in Huntsville. “I know you cannot forgive me but I hope one day you will.”
He thanked his friends and added, “I want to see the Lord Jesus so bad. I hope you all understand.”
Sentenced to die for killing his wife Tammy, the Mississippi man already had a history of shooting and terrorizing women long before 2006 when he arrived on death row. For 14 years afterward, he launched a string of appeals. But as he waited to be put to death, he grew old and fell into ill health. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected his final claim, the 64-year-old had one leg and was in a wheelchair.
“While I was deeply saddened to see that the Supreme Court denied review in Mr. Gardner’s case, I just went this weekend to see the new movie with Jamie Foxx, ‘Just Mercy,’” said Houston-based attorney Seth Kretzer. “Like me, Bryan Stevenson lost a case for a capital client who was then executed. But like this movie teaches, for those of us who are foot soldiers in the long war for conviction integrity, the struggle continues, the hope endures, and the spirit never dies.”
Gardner led a life blanketed in violence. As a young boy, he was raised by a Baptist preacher father who would sometimes interrupt church services to beat him with a belt, according to his sister.
He shot one of his wives while she was pregnant, leaving the 18year-old paralyzed and ultimately killing her and the unborn child. The outburst netted him an aggravated assault conviction and an eight-year prison sentence in Mississippi.
By late 2004, Gardner had gotten married yet again and was living with Tammy in Texas. At trial, prosecutors described their relationship as a “relatively short, but violent marriage” in which he had “dominated, threatened and physically abused” her.
She borrowed money for a divorce and met with her company’s vice president to seek help “disappearing.” After the meeting, at two minutes before midnight, she called 911, telling the dispatcher her husband had shot her in the head. She died two days later.
When the case got to trial, Gardner’s attorneys did not put on any evidence during the guilt-or-innocence phase. Prosecutors said that he’d killed Tammy in an act of retaliation relating to the divorce, and that he’d broken into her home before killing her. Either scenario would make the killing a capital murder instead of murder.
During the punishment phase, the court heard about his violent past — but they didn’t hear about the theory of “abandonment rage,” a condition that could cause men to lash out against female companions. Years later, Gardner’s appeals team argued that his trial lawyers should have brought up the idea, saying it could have helped negate the burglary and retaliation claims that made it a capital crime.
There are seven other Texas executions on the calendar so far for 2020.