9 await lethal injection from Smith County - KYTX CBS 19 Tyler Longview News Weather Sports

Ms. Cargill's defense attorney, Brett Harrison, said on Monday that, although he respects the verdict of the jury and the judicial system, he is disappointed in the outcome.

"I think she (Ms. Cargill) could have been safely housed in prison. She has been safely housed in the Smith County jail," Harrison said.

The nine women currently on death row in Texas include Darlie Routier, now 42, of Dallas. She was convicted of the 1996 stabbing deaths of two of her sons, Damon and Devon, inside the family's suburban Dallas home. Ms. Routier, who claimed a fleeing man had committed the crime, had stab wounds, which police said were self-inflicted.

Others include Suzanne Basso, now 58, of Harris County, who kidnapped and killed a 59-year-old mentally challenged man in 1998. The murder was committed for money from an insurance policy.

There currently are eight men from Smith County on death row in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Their execution dates have not been set, Jason Clark, spokesman for TDCJ, said on Monday.

Since 1999, there have been nine men from Smith County that have been executed, Clark said.

Bingham, on Thursday, told jurors there were two special issue questions they must answer when deciding on a punishment of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He said they must decide whether Ms. Cargill presents a continuing threat to society and whether there were mitigating circumstances that would have caused her to commit the crime. These are the same two questions that must be answered in each capital murder case in Texas.

If the jury answers "yes" to the first and "no" to the second one, as they did in Ms. Cargill's case, then the judge must sentence the defendant to death by lethal injection.

Death sentences in Texas are automatically appealed and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest state court that can rule on the validity of the death sentence. If the Court of Criminal Appeals upholds the death penalty, the case then begins to go through the federal appeals process.

Patricia Estrada, deputy public information officer for the Supreme Court of the United States, said on Monday that the court does not keep statistics on the average length of time it takes for a case to work its way through the federal system before a death sentence is upheld and an execution must be carried out.

The men currently on death row from Smith County are:

Demontrell Miller, 25, was sentenced to death in 2009 after he was convicted of the 2008 beating death of 2-year-old Kelynn J'Davion Pinson in the 241st District Court. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in Texas, upheld the conviction in May. The case will now make its way through the federal appeals process.

Clifton Williams, 28, was sentenced to death in 2006 for the July 2005 murder of Cecilia Schneider. He set her on fire and stole her car. In 2009, a stay of execution was filed in federal court.

Tracy Beatty, 51, was sentenced to death in 2004, for killing his mother in 2003. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his capital murder conviction and death sentence in March 2009 and federal stays have been filed. Beatty killed Carolyn "Callie" Click, 62, stealing her car, draining her credit and bank accounts to buy drugs and alcohol, giving away her personal items and burying her body in a shallow grave behind her mobile home Nov. 25, 2003.

Gregory Russeau, 42, was sentenced to death in May 2001, for striking a 75-year old white man numerous times in the head causing his death. Russeau also took the victim's wallet and a vehicle from the victim's place of business. James Syvertson, an auto mechanic, was found dead in his Vine Avenue mechanic shop in Tyler. Russeau, who was on parole at the time, was found in Longview in the victim's car the next day. His fingerprints and DNA were found at the crime scene.

Troy Clark, 44, argued to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March that his legal help was deficient during his trial in 2000, two years after Christina Muse, who briefly lived with him, was killed. The 5th Circuit Court rejected the claims. Clark, 44, was convicted in 2002 of capital murder and sentenced to death for the May 1998 murder/kidnapping of 20-year-old Muse, who was believed to have been killed because Clark feared she would snitch on him for dealing drugs. Evidence during the trial revealed Clark tormented Ms. Muse with a stun gun, bound her with duct tape and kept her in a closet in his south Tyler home for hours. With help from his girlfriend, prosecutors said Clark bludgeoned Ms. Muse with a board and drowned her in his bathtub.

Allen Bridgers, 41, was sentenced to die for the 1997 murder of Mary Amie, 53. He was 27 at the time of the 1997 murder, and came to Tyler from Virginia with the victim's relative, a truck driver. Bridgers, who worked as a bricklayer, lived with Ms. Amie at her Tyler home. Bridgers told police he waited in bed with a .38-caliber pistol under his pillow until Ms. Amie came home from work and took a shower. When she crawled into bed, he shot her in the back and face, stole $1,400 cash, her car, purse and jewelry and fled to Florida. Bridgers said he was high on cocaine at the time. In a 2007 hearing, former Smith County Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent ruled that Bridgers was not mentally retarded as he claimed to be in 2006, when he was scheduled to be executed. The judge, in 2007, said Bridgers' defense attorneys could try to seek relief from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Robert Ladd, 55, had served 12 years of a 40-year prison sentence for the 1978 murders of a young Dallas woman and her two small children, and was on parole in September 1996 when he raped, strangled, bludgeoned and bound Vicki Ann Garner during a robbery at her Tyler apartment. The body of Ms. Garner, 38, was set on fire to destroy evidence. Police and relatives of Ms. Garner described her as mildly retarded but able to live independently. The high court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans were deciding in 2003 whether an argument claiming Ladd, 45, is mentally retarded, was viable. The argument was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Ladd's attorney, Sydney Snelling-Young, of Paris, said in 2003 that she found a psychologist who tested Ladd years ago when he was in a juvenile prison in Gainesville. Although state prison officials registered Ladd's IQ as 86, well above the retardation mark of 70, his score as a juvenile was 67, Ms. Young said.\

Ricky Lewis, 49, was convicted in 1994 of shooting to death 45-year-old Carroll community resident George Ray Newman. Lewis committed the murder while in the midst of a burglary. Prosecutors said he shot Newman in the face and raped his fiancée. They also accused him of shooting Newman's dog. In 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the punishment phase of Lewis' trial because of an error in the judge's instructions. The district attorney retried the case and a Smith County jury again recommended a death sentence for Lewis in 1997. The U.S. fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal for Lewis.

Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph archives