softheart
12-05-2003, 12:06 PM
Dec. 4
TEXAS----execution
Killer with weakness for ice cream executed
A former mechanic with an extensive criminal record in Oklahoma was
executed tonight for fatally beating an 80-year-old woman he'd known since
childhood.
Ivan Murphy, 38, was the 2nd convicted killer executed in as many nights
in Texas.
"This is a celebration of life, not death," Murphy said in a brief final
statement while strapped to the death chamber gurney. "Through Jesus
Christ we have victory over death."
He thanked Pope John Paul II and others for prayers, love and support. "I
want to thank everybody around the world and Father, let your will be
done."
As the drugs began taking effect, he gasped several times. Ten minutes
later, at 6:24 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Strawberry ice cream in a plastic bowl helped convict Murphy of the 1989
slaying of Lula Mae Denning at her home in Denison, about 70 miles north
of Dallas and just south of the Texas-Oklahoma border.
"We dusted the inside of a Cool Whip bowl and found his fingerprint," said
former Grayson County District Attorney Robert Jarvis, recalling evidence
in Murphy's capital murder trial. "He told officers he hadn't been there
in 20 years. He was lying about that."
Besides the fingerprint, jewelry taken from the victim was linked to
Murphy and traces of the woman's blood were found on his clothes.
"I wasn't there," he insisted in a recent death-row interview. "No way I
can be associated with this crime. I know I got framed."
All his appeals were exhausted, Murphy said Wednesday.
Murphy had a record for theft in Grayson County and was paroled in 1985 to
McAlester, Okla., after serving 6 1/2 months of a three-year prison term.
In Oklahoma, he had multiple convictions and prison terms for concealing
stolen property, larceny of an automobile and grand larceny.
A week after the Denning slaying, he was arrested in Hugo, Okla., on two
counts of shooting with intent to kill. Murphy said he was responding to
someone who shot at him.
"I was wrong for having a gun," he said. "But that's what happens when
you're weak. To me, I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's a
case of bad luck. I know I didn't kill nobody. I'm not a killer."
A Murphy accomplice, Douglas Stoff, also was convicted in the slaying. He
received a life term.
Police were summoned to Denning's home after she couldn't be reached by
phone.
"I remember a little old lady sitting in her chair with her blood
splattered all over the wall and the ceiling and dripping down on the
newspaper," Jarvis said. "She died in her own chair in her own living
room. It was horrible.
"They took either her cane and or a sawed-off shotgun they brought with
them and just beat her as she sat in her chair."
The investigation showed Stoff and Murphy were at Stoff's house sniffing
paint and doing drugs and went to Murphy's old neighborhood, where he was
known as "Pee Wee," to rob her. According to Murphy's statement to police,
they went to steal her purse and because she knew him, she invited them in
and offered him the ice cream.
At some point, she was attacked and robbed of jewelry, including a $7,000
wedding ring that another man said he bought the next morning from Murphy.
Evidence also showed the attackers may have returned to the woman's house.
"Police took advantage of me because I was in a drunken stupor," Murphy
said of his comments to officers who questioned him about the slaying.
"Why would we pick Ivan Ray Murphy to pin a murder on?" Jarvis asked,
dismissing the inmate's claims. "I feel very confident we have the correct
individual that did the crime. I don't have any problems with this verdict
at all."
Wednesday night, 61-year-old Richard Duncan was put to death for killing
an elderly Houston couple 16 years ago in a scheme to share their life
insurance proceeds. 3 more Texas inmates are set to die on consecutive
nights next week.
Murphy becomes the 24th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas, and the 313th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Both totals are the highest in the nation.
Murphy becomes the 74th condemned inmate to be executed in Texas since
Rick Perry became governor in 2001. 152 condemned inmates were put to
death in Texas during the tenure of George W. Bush as governor.
Murphy becomes the 64th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 884th overall since America resumed executions on January
17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
TEXAS----execution
Killer with weakness for ice cream executed
A former mechanic with an extensive criminal record in Oklahoma was
executed tonight for fatally beating an 80-year-old woman he'd known since
childhood.
Ivan Murphy, 38, was the 2nd convicted killer executed in as many nights
in Texas.
"This is a celebration of life, not death," Murphy said in a brief final
statement while strapped to the death chamber gurney. "Through Jesus
Christ we have victory over death."
He thanked Pope John Paul II and others for prayers, love and support. "I
want to thank everybody around the world and Father, let your will be
done."
As the drugs began taking effect, he gasped several times. Ten minutes
later, at 6:24 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Strawberry ice cream in a plastic bowl helped convict Murphy of the 1989
slaying of Lula Mae Denning at her home in Denison, about 70 miles north
of Dallas and just south of the Texas-Oklahoma border.
"We dusted the inside of a Cool Whip bowl and found his fingerprint," said
former Grayson County District Attorney Robert Jarvis, recalling evidence
in Murphy's capital murder trial. "He told officers he hadn't been there
in 20 years. He was lying about that."
Besides the fingerprint, jewelry taken from the victim was linked to
Murphy and traces of the woman's blood were found on his clothes.
"I wasn't there," he insisted in a recent death-row interview. "No way I
can be associated with this crime. I know I got framed."
All his appeals were exhausted, Murphy said Wednesday.
Murphy had a record for theft in Grayson County and was paroled in 1985 to
McAlester, Okla., after serving 6 1/2 months of a three-year prison term.
In Oklahoma, he had multiple convictions and prison terms for concealing
stolen property, larceny of an automobile and grand larceny.
A week after the Denning slaying, he was arrested in Hugo, Okla., on two
counts of shooting with intent to kill. Murphy said he was responding to
someone who shot at him.
"I was wrong for having a gun," he said. "But that's what happens when
you're weak. To me, I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's a
case of bad luck. I know I didn't kill nobody. I'm not a killer."
A Murphy accomplice, Douglas Stoff, also was convicted in the slaying. He
received a life term.
Police were summoned to Denning's home after she couldn't be reached by
phone.
"I remember a little old lady sitting in her chair with her blood
splattered all over the wall and the ceiling and dripping down on the
newspaper," Jarvis said. "She died in her own chair in her own living
room. It was horrible.
"They took either her cane and or a sawed-off shotgun they brought with
them and just beat her as she sat in her chair."
The investigation showed Stoff and Murphy were at Stoff's house sniffing
paint and doing drugs and went to Murphy's old neighborhood, where he was
known as "Pee Wee," to rob her. According to Murphy's statement to police,
they went to steal her purse and because she knew him, she invited them in
and offered him the ice cream.
At some point, she was attacked and robbed of jewelry, including a $7,000
wedding ring that another man said he bought the next morning from Murphy.
Evidence also showed the attackers may have returned to the woman's house.
"Police took advantage of me because I was in a drunken stupor," Murphy
said of his comments to officers who questioned him about the slaying.
"Why would we pick Ivan Ray Murphy to pin a murder on?" Jarvis asked,
dismissing the inmate's claims. "I feel very confident we have the correct
individual that did the crime. I don't have any problems with this verdict
at all."
Wednesday night, 61-year-old Richard Duncan was put to death for killing
an elderly Houston couple 16 years ago in a scheme to share their life
insurance proceeds. 3 more Texas inmates are set to die on consecutive
nights next week.
Murphy becomes the 24th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas, and the 313th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Both totals are the highest in the nation.
Murphy becomes the 74th condemned inmate to be executed in Texas since
Rick Perry became governor in 2001. 152 condemned inmates were put to
death in Texas during the tenure of George W. Bush as governor.
Murphy becomes the 64th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 884th overall since America resumed executions on January
17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)