October 1st 2024.
A man from Texas, Garcia Glenn White, has been linked to five murders and has been convicted of fatally stabbing twin 16-year-old girls over thirty years ago. He is now facing execution on Tuesday evening for his crimes. The victims, Annette and Bernette Edwards, along with their mother Bonita Edwards, were found dead in their Houston apartment.
White, who is now 61 years old, was described by prison officials as quiet and calm when he was moved to a small holding cell outside the Texas death chamber on Tuesday afternoon. Sadly, the US Supreme Court rejected all of White's appeals to stop the execution from proceeding, which was announced just hours later.
White, who was a former college football player and later worked as a fry cook, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Tuesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. If the execution were to happen, he would be the sixth inmate to be put to death in the US in just the last 11 days.
Testimony from the trial revealed that White went to the Edwards' home in Houston to smoke crack with their mother, Bonita, who was also fatally stabbed. When the twin girls came out of their room to see what was happening, White attacked them. Evidence showed that White had broken down the locked door of the girls' bedroom. Authorities later connected him to the deaths of a grocery store owner and another woman.
Josh Reiss, the chief of the Post-Conviction Writs Division with the Harris County District Attorney's Office in Houston, stated, "Garcia Glenn White committed five murders in three different transactions and two of his victims were teenage girls. This is the type of case that the death penalty was intended for."
White's lawyers have made efforts to stop the execution, asking the US Supreme Court to intervene after lower courts had previously rejected their appeals. However, on Friday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied White's request to commute his death sentence or to grant him a 30-day reprieve.
White's lawyers argued that the highest criminal appeals court in Texas had refused to consider medical evidence and other strong factual evidence that proves White is intellectually disabled. This is a significant factor in death penalty cases, as the Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute an intellectually disabled person. However, the court has given some discretion to states in determining what constitutes as intellectual disability.
In addition, White's lawyers also accused the Texas appeals court of not allowing them to present evidence that could potentially spare him from the death penalty. This includes DNA evidence that suggests another man was present at the crime scene and scientific evidence that proves White was likely suffering from a cocaine-induced psychotic break during the murders.
Patrick McCann, one of White's attorneys, shared that his client has spent his entire time in prison trying to better himself and become a better human being. He expressed his hope that the Supreme Court would intervene and stop the execution from happening.
The Office of Federal Public Defenders for the Western District of Texas has also filed a petition with the Supreme Court, requesting a stay of execution. They argue that White is being penalized because McCann did not previously file a timely appeal regarding the issue of intellectual disability.
In response, McCann stated that he was focused on doing the best work he could for White and did not want to waste any time fighting with other lawyers. However, the Texas Attorney General's Office filed a statement with the Supreme Court, claiming that White has not presented enough evidence to support his claim of intellectual disability. They also argued that his claims of another person being present at the crime scene and that cocaine use influenced his actions had already been rejected by the courts.
The attorney general's office stated, "White presents no reason to delay his execution date any longer. The Edwards family - and the victims of White's other murders - deserve justice for his decades-old crimes." In Washington, the Supreme Court did not comment on the case and refused to intervene.
The death of the twin girls and their mother went unsolved for six years until White confessed to the murders after being arrested for the death of grocery store owner Hai Van Pham in 1995. He also confessed to the 1989 murder of another woman, Greta Williams.
If the execution were to proceed, White would be the fifth inmate to be put to death in Texas this year and the 19th in the entire country.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
