Woman inmate executed with Governor Bush's consent

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Victim's family members hope for sense of peace after Texas woman's execution

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- Shortly after Betty Lou Beets was put to death by the state of Texas, the son of one her slain husbands said he hoped the execution would put an end to the pain and anger his family had lived with for 17 years since the death of his father. Last minute legal hope died

Beets' attorneys exhausted their last legal recourse about an hour before the execution, when Texas Gov. George W. Bush declined to stop it.

Under Texas law, Bush could have granted Beets a one-time 30-day reprieve. He decided instead to follow the recommendation of his 18-member Board of Pardons and Paroles and let the execution take place. Bush has never gone against the board's recommendation.

His decision came just minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request by Beets' attorneys to step into the case.

A federal appeals court on Thursday afternoon denied a motion to stop the execution. In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a lower court ruling issued Wednesday rejecting a plea from Beets' attorneys that her case be re-examined by Texas officials because she was a battered wife.

'All my mama's life, she's been abused'

In Austin, U.S. District Judge James Nowlin said the motion to stop the execution, filed as part of a lawsuit seeking to have Beets' case reviewed because she was a battered wife, was "yet another example of a prisoner attempting to delay execution just prior to the execution date."

The judge also dismissed the lawsuit, which argued that Beets' civil rights were violated because she was not given a chance to present evidence that she suffered years of domestic abuse in her five marriages.

On Tuesday, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, dominated by Bush appointees, rejected Beets' pleas for a 180-day reprieve and commutation of her sentence.

Beets' legal team and a coalition of supporters including domestic-violence awareness groups and Amnesty International USA wanted her death sentence commuted to life in prison.

"Betty's daughters went to (a previous defense attorney) ... and gave him pictures of Betty taken after she had been beaten up, horribly battered," Margulies said. "Had he looked, he could have amassed the information that we eventually got ... and asked the (parole) board to review, but they declined.

"What we're saying is, 'Give us the opportunity to present our evidence on battering that the jury didn't hear.'"

Beets' daughter, Faye Lane, told the parole board Tuesday: "All my mama's life, she's been abused. I've seen it with my own eyes. And I know that if the jury heard the truth about my mama, she only could have done something like this if she'd been very scared or threatened.

"I'm not saying that my mother should go free, but to be allowed to live out her remaining years in prison."

Letters to Bush

Two U.N. experts on human rights had appealed to Bush in a letter Thursday to spare Beets from execution.

Asma Jahangir and Radhika Coomaraswamy of the U.N. Commission on Human rights expressed their concern that "abuse and extreme violence" suffered by Beets were not considered by the investigating authorities or the courts when convicting and sentencing her for murder.

The two U.N. officials urged Bush to consider the specific circumstances of the crime, "and in particular the violent abuse which Betty Lou Beets suffered at the hands of her spouses and the effect of this abuse on her state of mind and her actions."

In another letter Wednesday, the group Human Rights Watch had called on Bush to grant Beets a 30-day reprieve, with senior researcher Allyson Collins citing "a perfect opportunity for Governor Bush to display his much-touted conservative compassion."

Bush, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, had said he would not decide what action to take until the matter had run its course in the courts.

"The question I'm going to ask is, 'Is she guilty of the crime?'" said the governor, who returned to Austin late Wednesday.

Texas has carried out 120 executions since Bush took office in January 1995. On Wednesday night, Cornelius Goss, 38, was put to death for a 1987 murder.

Bush has never granted a 30-day reprieve, but he commuted one death penalty to life in prison, citing flimsy evidence against the inmate.

'I don't remember what happened '

The bodies of Beets' fourth and fifth husbands were found under a wishing well in the yard of her mobile home at Gun Barrel City, Texas. They had been shot in the head, execution-style.

Prosecutors say she murdered Jimmy Don Beets, but she said she doesn't know how her husband was killed.

"I wouldn't willingly do that," Beets said in a death row interview. "But I don't remember what happened then ... it's just a blank to me."

-- Human rights experts say "abuse and extreme violence" suffered by the 62-year old grandmother were not considered by the investigating authorities (@ .), February 25, 2000

Answers

yep, got to consider all the facts. like the guy who killed his parents and then asked for clemency because he was an orphan.

-- (-@-.-), February 25, 2000.

Yeah and I've been addicted to TB2000 for months now. If that isn't enough to make you go postal, nothing will. That's the ticket! The TB2000 defense! (Plus I go to the post office all the time!)

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 25, 2000.

The son of the man who was murdered said that no abuse occurred. Battered wives have a right to defend themselves. Yet didn't she fail to prove abuse?

-- haha (haha@haha.com), February 25, 2000.

What is with it in this country with the victim mindset? If you sin, you are responsible. All this victim stuff is garbage. Clear self defense is one thing, murder is another. My sister lived with abuse for years, and we knew where her problem was and told her a million times- inside herself. Finally, finally, she is getting a divorce. It took the trip to the hospital in agonizing pain to get her out of her " maybe he'll change" lethargy.

There is all sorts of help for battered women. Yes, they have shame and pain and their father was bad too and on and on and on, but the fact remains- we can not excuse our wrong actions, any of them, and blame them on anybody else, ever. The fault is our own sinful hearts, and we alone are guilty for our wrong actions. People resist this truth because it brings them face to face with our desperate need for a savior. When somebody turns to Jesus Christ they begin to acknowledge "the problem is me" . As we have turned from the Lord, so we have become victims.

-- I likeOprah (but@boy.is.she.off), February 25, 2000.


Sorry if you don't like Justice @, but you have to admit that the majority of the prosecutors, the total jury and the complete board of Pardons and Paroles all had to be wrong in order for you to be correct in saying that this woman was wrongly executed. The Hilary style "I don't remember" excuse is sooooooooo lame..........

I am very sorry that she was abused, but she killed 2 men and then buried them in the backyard. This is an indication of guilt. She also did this twice, killing 2 different men. I think if she was truly abused, she never would have married the 2nd husband. She would have been completely unable to trust another man.

I am glad that this person was removed from society. I am not glad that she was killed. If someone wants to donate an island for a penaL Colony, where people like this can be dumped permanently, I'd be all for that. I just dont like paying and paying and paying for the upkeep of human scum needing to be removed from the rest of us.

-- (formerly@nowhere.zzz), February 25, 2000.



i love it. liberal media trying to make bush out to be a total bad guy since he has executed two women.

except, DUUUUHHHHH, the part they always leave out when they talk about granny is that she did this more than once. once, in the heat of abuse, may be tolerable, but twice--she sounds like a serial killer with a bad past from which she did not recover (or chose not to recover).

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), February 25, 2000.


I didn't realize that the remedy for an abusive marriage had been changed from "divorce" to "murder".

When did this change occur?

-- Charles Underwood Farley (chuck@u.farley), February 25, 2000.


It is very obcious in this case that all judges are criminals and total assholes!

-- snuffy (snuffy@aol.com), February 25, 2000.

Charles, it changed right about the same time that Lorena Bobbitt won acquittal using the "he always have orgasm never give me orgasm" defense.

-- Markus Archus (m@rkus.archus), February 25, 2000.

Ted Bundy may have been abused. He shouldn't have been prosecuted.

-- Liberal Doofus (LiberalDoofus@brainwashed.com), February 25, 2000.


"I didn't realize that the remedy for an abusive marriage had been changed from "divorce" to "murder". When did this change occur? "

The most common time for a woman to be killed by her abusing hsband is when she tries to leave. It's been that way for a long time, but the men who kill their wives are let off all the time. In a country where the most common reason for women to be hospitalized is abuse from their partners, why are men always surprised and self-rightous when women fight back?/??

And for a forum that had all sorts of advocates for shooting anyone that tried to take "things" how can you not allow someone to defend their own bodies???

Mind you, I don't advocate killing anyone, but I do understand it.

-- Tania Baildon (tbaildon@yahoo.com), February 25, 2000.


"For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life." -- Albert Camus from Reflections on the Guillotine

It is worth noting that the civilized countries have all abolished state instituted murder (at least the legal kind). NO country in the European Union has the death penalty (its abolition is a prerequisite for membership). Canada does not have it. South Africa abolished it at the end of apartheid.

The US is in an interesting league with China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and a few other countries.

Illinois just suspended the death penalty because too many people were proved to be innocent. While most people on death row are certainly guilty, the presence of some innocents (and their execution) points out some deeply disturbing aspects to what is called "justice" in America.

The rich are rarely executed for their crimes.

-- mark (wind@solar.com), February 25, 2000.


How many more murders would she have had to commit?

They found four bodies I believe....convicted of two murders....but you claim - based on no evidence but the un-supported words from her lawyer - that she was abused. No evidence of abuse, no previous claims of abuse, and equal statements from other relatives that "no abuse took place".

And these murdered men were treated kindly I suppose? Before or after their deaths?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 25, 2000.


Let me see...Love is hate, freedom is slavery, war is peace, right is wrong, wrong is right and

SERIAL MURDERERS ARE VICTIMS! Excuse me for a minute while I go and vomit.

-- justwondering (justwondering@nationalsocialismisdangerous.com), February 25, 2000.


The key here is that they are spinning this with no allegation that the last husband abused her. 20 years of abuse they talk about, but only married to the last guy for a couple.

So if sears cheats me on a new sofa I am justified in killing the clerk at barnes and noble?

"I don't remember" is the excuse the Clinto Administration discovered gets them off of testifying in criminal trials.

-- ng (cantprovideemail@none.com), February 25, 2000.



Why the personal attacks? I only reposted a CNN news story, not an opinion. Can you folks not handle the truth?

However, my opinion is that there are many people in Texas that deserve the death penalty much more than this hapless woman. Domestic violence almost never results in capital punishment.

-- (@ .), February 25, 2000.


Anyone the media despises as much a Bush can't be all bad.

Vote against TPTB and the media.

-- Squid (ItsDark@down.here), February 26, 2000.


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