|
TEXAS (USA): JERRY MARTIN EXECUTED
December 3, 2013: Jerry Martin, 43, White, was executed in Texas.
Martin was sentenced to death on Dec. 8, 2009 after he was found guilty of capital murder for his escape from the Wynne Unit on Sept. 24, 2007, which resulted in the death of TDCJ officer Susan Canfield.
Martin had requested that no additional appeals be filed on his behalf, clearing the way for his lethal injection.
Martin was serving a 50-year sentence for attempted capital murder when he and another inmate, John Falk Jr., broke away from a work detail outside a Huntsville-area prison. In the ensuing chaos and gunfire, a 59-year-old prison officer on horseback, Susan Canfield, suffered fatal head injuries. Martin and Falk sped away in a stolen pickup truck but were quickly captured.
More than 200 corrections officers stood outside the prison in formation as the execution was taking place.
Falk is awaiting a retrial after a judge declared a mistrial in Falk's capital murder case.
Martin becomes the 16th and final inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 508th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982.
Martin becomes the 36th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1356th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
4 more executions are scheduled before the end of the year: 2 in Oklahoma, 1 in Missouri, and 1 in Washington. This last execution il likely to be stayed. In 2012 there have been 43 executions. (Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, 03/12/2013)
|
