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Thread: Texas grants clemency to Thomas Whitaker minutes before execution

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    Senior Member Jezebelle's Avatar
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    Texas grants clemency to Thomas Whitaker minutes before execution

    Sorry this is such a long post.
    I?m curious as to what you guys think about this: your thoughts, ideas?

    I searched for a thread on MDS from when the murders occurred in 2003 but didn?t find anything. If there is a thread that I missed, maybe a moderater can move/remove this?

    This guy tried to murder his entire family (mom, dad & brother) so that he could gain sole access to his parents? money, but OOPS! his dad survived.

    It appears that the governor stayed the execution (which was scheduled to take place tonight) primarily because the dad pleaded for clemency for his son. I can?t honestly say what I would do if one of my kids (full disclosure: I don?t have any kids) tried to kill me & the rest of our family, but the dad seems sincere. Whatever... the dad has obviously forgiven him, which I find interesting as hell.

    Also interesting- the GOVERNOR OF TEXAS GRANTED CLEMENCY TO A DEATH ROW INMATE. They execute people here all the time. It?s rather shocking to me how often it actually occurs (not having grown up in Texas), so to hear news like this is very uncommon. Also, the stay of execution happened just A HALF AN HOUR before it was scheduled. 😳

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbc...appeal-n850276

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has commuted the death sentence of a man who masterminded the murder of his mother and brother after the inmate's father, who barely survived the crime, pleaded for his killer son's life to be spared.

    Abbott's decision, announced just a half-hour before Thomas "Bart" Whitaker was set to receive a lethal injection, is only the third time in four decades that a Texas governor has granted clemency to a death-row inmate on humanitarian ground.

    Whitaker, 38, will now serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 2003 double murder. Abbott, who has allowed 30 executions to proceed under his watch, said he was partially swayed by the emotional appeal of the inmate's father, Kent Whitaker.

    "Mr. Whitaker?s father, who survived the attempt on his life, passionately opposes the execution of his son. Mr. Whitaker?s father insists that he would be victimized again if the state put to death his last remaining immediate family member," the governor said in a statement.

    Thomas Whitaker, 38, was convicted of hatching a 2003 plot to murder his wealthy parents and 19-year-old brother for inheritance money. His father was also shot but survived, and this week he convinced the state parole board to recommend a life sentence.

    On the night of the killings, Thomas Whitaker's roommate was lying in wait with a loaded gun at the family's suburban Houston home. As they returned from a dinner out, he shot and killed Whitaker's mother, Tricia, and brother, Kevin.

    In a clemency petition full of biblical quotations, Whitaker's attorneys said his deeply religious father begged the district attorney's office to seek life in prison for his son and was denied, while the actual gunman escaped a death sentence.

    "Imagine two people in your family who you love most. Now, imagine one of them murders the other. There must be punishment. But would you prefer execution? What if that person was your only remaining child?" the lawyers wrote.

    The parole board, they said, faced a profound question: "Is clemency warranted where execution might be justice for a wicked crime, yet would also permanently compound the suffering and grief of the remaining victim?"

    Kent Whitaker is haunted by the murders of his wife and child, but believes that his older son has changed and that his death would be "meaningless," the petition says.

    "Kent lived the assassinations. He watched his son Kevin walk into the house, heard the first and fatal shot, and saw his son's fallen body in their darkened home. He heard Tricia's last, wet coughs as Kent himself lay dying from his own gunshot wound. The bullet hit Kent nearly six inches from his heart," Whitaker's lawyers wrote.

    "He also experienced the revelation that his own son was behind the killing of his beloved wife and younger son and his own attempted murder. The crucible of Kent's anguish and tribulations is beyond the ken of our imagination."

    The parole board's decision Tuesday was unanimous, and no one seemed more shocked than Kent Whitaker.

    This is Texas," he said then. "This doesn't happen and I am just so encouraged that the system has worked. This was the right thing, the right thing to do."

    Keith Hampton, Whitaker?s lawyer, said Kent Whitaker was in the prison?s so-called hospitality room, waiting to be taken to the death chamber to witness the execution when he called with the good news.

    ?I said the sentence has been commuted, and there was a lot of crying and clapping on the other end of the phone,? Hampton told NBC News.

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    We probably don't have a thread on here due to the age of the case.

    I remember this case. This kid was a POS! I think his dad should pay the taxpayers back then for the Death Penalty trial and all his death penalty appeals, because all that definitely costs more than a regular trial. As I read in another story, where the DA was coming out against the clemency, this victim doesn't get to decide if the offender is punished, and the community and public in general were also victims, not just the family.

    Dad is a wealthy, white religious dude...that's why this kid got clemency in TX.

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    Senior Member Jezebelle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    We probably don't have a thread on here due to the age of the case.

    I remember this case. This kid was a POS! I think his dad should pay the taxpayers back then for the Death Penalty trial and all his death penalty appeals, because all that definitely costs more than a regular trial. As I read in another story, where the DA was coming out against the clemency, this victim doesn't get to decide if the offender is punished, and the community and public in general were also victims, not just the family.

    Dad is a wealthy, white religious dude...that's why this kid got clemency in TX.
    Yep- money talks & religion does too! And there are definitely people here who pick & choose which parts of the Bible should be followed. Here & in other places too, I supppse, but it still seems kind of odd to me. Which is why I posted that one part in bold letters.
    I agree that he?s a POS. If things had gone the way he?d planned, dad would never have survived. Yet the dad begs for clemency for his son. Either dad is a fool, or he?s a better person than me. Forgiveness? I?m not convinced that the son has any remorse anyway.

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    Scoopski Potatoes Nic B's Avatar
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    Wasn't this the kid who, after the murders/attempted murder, a picture surfaced of him and his brother and dude was slyly flipping off the camera? I know I have seen multiple ID shows about this. He told his family he was about to graduate college when he knew all along he wasn't.


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    Moderator Bewitchingstorm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    Wasn't this the kid who, after the murders/attempted murder, a picture surfaced of him and his brother and dude was slyly flipping off the camera? I know I have seen multiple ID shows about this. He told his family he was about to graduate college when he knew all along he wasn't.
    Yes, I think that is him.

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    Senior Member Meshuga's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    Wasn't this the kid who, after the murders/attempted murder, a picture surfaced of him and his brother and dude was slyly flipping off the camera? I know I have seen multiple ID shows about this. He told his family he was about to graduate college when he knew all along he wasn't.
    Yep, that's him. He was a POS from an early age, but his parents loved him regardless. I highly doubt he has changed at all, but I am also okay with his death penalty being commuted to LWOP. His dad is the only surviving victim, so his voice is more important than vengeance from the state.

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    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    I'm just surprised his sentence was commuted when his motive was greed, and there is no question about his guilt.

    People have been put to death for just being at the scene of an armed robbery, when they didn't actually pull the trigger.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

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    Quote Originally Posted by Meshuga View Post
    Yep, that's him. He was a POS from an early age, but his parents loved him regardless. I highly doubt he has changed at all, but I am also okay with his death penalty being commuted to LWOP. His dad is the only surviving victim, so his voice is more important than vengeance from the state.
    Yeah, but does everyone get this same opportunity? I have heard of other cases where people received the death penalty, and it was carried out, when the victim's family didn't want it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    I'm just surprised his sentence was commuted when his motive was greed, and there is no question about his guilt.

    People have been put to death for just being at the scene of an armed robbery, when they didn't actually pull the trigger.
    Rich. White. Christian.

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    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    Yeah, but does everyone get this same opportunity? I have heard of other cases where people received the death penalty, and it was carried out, when the victim's family didn't want it.



    Rich. White. Christian.
    That's the only reason that makes sense.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

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    Rich. White .Christian. Wtf does that have to do with it? I’m so tired of Christians being persecuted for damn near EVERYTHING. Get a grip and realize the only reason he got clemency is because of the circumstances of the crime.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Death2pedos View Post
    Rich. White .Christian. Wtf does that have to do with it? I’m so tired of Christians being persecuted for damn near EVERYTHING. Get a grip and realize the only reason he got clemency is because of the circumstances of the crime.

    You're full of shit if you believe this. There are a ton of people on death row in Texas, whose cases are pretty obvious that they were framed, that they are not guilty, etc, and their cases aren't getting commuted.

    Christians are the persecutors and get all kinds of stuff they don't deserve in the name of how special they think their religion makes them. Just because they don't get to use their religion in every instance to discriminate, get special treatment, and act like they are special they think they are being persecuted. What a fucking bunch of triggered snowflakes!

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