Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
patrick murphy is condemned to die for murder. but he didn’t pull the trigger.in Texas though it doesn’t matter
Livingstone ,Texas
patrick murphy was one of the Texas seven prison escapees, this is a journey to a pretty bleak place maximum security prison,where there are men being held, you know that they’re facing asentence of death.
seven prisoners of the connally unit near san antonio overpower civilian workers and and a guard to escape .
on december the 13th 2000 patrick joined six other men in one of the biggest jailbreaks in american history.
already a long -term prisoner this crucial decision sealed his fate.so they were all doing lengthy prison sentences for violent crimes
they overpowe the guards and locked them ina cupboard. they steal clothing a pickup truck and 16 firearms, two of them dressed as civilians and the other inmates hid in the back of the truck.
all they needed to do now was to drive out of the prison gates.
the all seven ,drove into town where another vehicle was waiting for them and then they were able to switch cars and get away quickly.
and the authorities had no idea of where they’d gone .
after days on the run they became known as the Texas seven.
On christmas Eve the Texas 7 targeted Oshman’sporting goodsstore in Iriving.
and just a few hundred meteres away officer aubry hawkins was having christmas dinner with his family.
at 6:26 pm 911 received a report of a disturbance at oshman’s,aubry was onthe scene within three minutes.
patrick murphys role was to be the lookout ,his code name was guardian angel, he was listening to the irving police calls and immediately told them that irving had dispatched a police officer.
murphys position was in front of the store, 100 yards away and the incident occurred behind the store in the loading dock area.
this was completely vacant and as the defendants coming out of the back of the store with all of their goods,the camping supplies ,the guns officer hawkins pull in .
and when he drove up ,george rivas was acting as security guard and he signaled officer hawkins over and when he got close to him they openened fire.
five different weaponsfired into the vehicle.
he was hit 11 times,several times in the head ,in his bulletproof vest and he was killed instantly by a barrage of gunfire.
they drug his body out the car and drove over him trying to get away ,but they took the time to take his gun.
certanley one of the most violent acts that could be exacted upon a police officer.
hawkins was shot 11 times , he was also run over.
even amongst those who strongly support the death penalty there are people who do not think that patrick murphy deserve to die .
he didn’t shoot the gun and he wasn’t major participant of the armed robbery which ended in aubry hawkins death.
But here in Texas that doesn’t matter, as an accomplice, you can stil be found guilty of murder. and in just 35 days , patrick murphy will be executed.
a town where at the heart of a whole place is a death chamber
incarceration is the life blood of the town ,seven prisons
an execution chamber and a death row themed tourist attraction,employ almost 7000 locals.
the prison graveyard ,a final resting place for executed men.
the headstones will have prison numbers on them and death row inmates always starts with 999.
for most prisoner the wait for their death date is a long one.on average it takes 15 years from the sentencing to the chamber.
for patrick the state decided after 17 years,his time is now up.
the only alternative to accepting death is to appeal almost all prisoners choose to fight their sentence.but less than two percent have been exonerated
for the last 15 years ,patrick’s lawyers have been fighting against his sentence so far they’ve launched nine unsuccessful appeals,news has just arrived on the final attempt.
they still had an opportunity to get an order that would have meant patrick would not be executed . the lawyers lost in 10 :15 last night but they think that patrick is very clear-eyed and and it will not come as a gut punch to him or a suprise.
patrick has exhausted all his appeals and as the next two days will be his last he’s begun focusing on his dying moments.
since being on death row, religion has become a huge sourceof strengh to patrick, he’s converted to buddhism and become close to revshi a buddhist monk who is his spiritual advisor.
a religious advisor is allowed in the death chamber as the lethal injection takes effect ,they comfort the inmate by placing one hand on their foot a small gesture that ends the years they’ve been denied all human contact.
but the state only employs chirstian and muslim advisors.patrick’s buddhist priest is not currently authortized to enter the death chamber.
Patrick’s lawyers have taken his case to the highest tribunal in the nation.the supreme court in hope they overrule Texas and allow reverend revshi to be present.
he field this morning a civil rights lawsuit to say that the execution can happen only if the prison agrees to provide mr murphy with a spiritual adviser of his faith, a lot of these cases go down to the final moments.
now 9 juries has less then 40 hours wthever to grant patrick his dying request.
Huntsville Texas the execution capital of Unites states, since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1976 the state hasexecuted 561 people.
patrick murphy is set to be next for his role in the murder of aubry hawkins in 2000.
Texas 7 behind bars at this hours, the pack had five weeks of freedom as they let authorities throught a nationwide manhunt.
he will be the fifth member of the gang to die by lethal injection for the crime
patrick’s case raises really troubling questions about when the death penalty should be applied.
what’s controversial is that he didn’t pull the trigger and that is the reason why this traditionally pro-execution town is divided on whether patrick should live or die.
patrick was born in dallas ,texas in 1961 .
patrick’s drug addicted mother abandoned him at nine and he moved in with his father who had remarried he,he was in constant trouble as a teenager,being arrested multiple times and often running away from home .Patrick didn’t finish school, became a laborer ,at age 20 he fathered a child , patrick III
He didn’t know him growing up. didn’t have any contact with his father and didn’t know hwo he was or really anything about him.
the first time he heard about his father was when they broke out of prison.
after murphy was caught he desided to meet his son for the first time.
patrick III didn’t know what to do , what to react the guard behind him and he sat down int the cubicle and brought his father in.
in shackles and chains and set him down .they stared through the glass to each other and try to make small talk.
when 20 minutes was up the phone went dead.
patrick murphys son don’t tell people that he don’t know, he says its not exactly something to be proud of when your father is a cop killer.
patrick III think about officer hawkins,usually around christmas time,he had a son, that kid grew up not nowinghis father and patrick III can sympathize with that because he didn’t knowhis father.
Patrick III didn’t see his father agaun until after he got his execution date.
at 6 pm tomorrow,patrick III will witness the execution as his father’s last request .
patrick III may sound cold -hearted but he just there to make sure it’s over. he’d been more than more than honest with him about it ,he think his father should be executed,the way patrick III was raised, it’s kind of guilt by asssociation.
patrick III meant ” you killed a law enforcement officer in the state of Texas and you’r going to be executed and that’s all there is to it”
what patrick III feel? he’s not ready for that one yet either .he doesn’t know.
patrick is 57 and his last 35 uyrars have been spent behind bars but his life could have been so very different when he broke out of prison 19 years ago.he was just 15 months from parole for his original crime.
so why did he escap ,when he was so close to having the chanche of leaving prison? a free man.
patrick’s answer was , as a sex offender,restrictive release is almost like house arrest.
he was serving a 50 -year sentence . so what did he do?
patrick usually don’t talk too much about that ,because his very ashamed of the crime , basically it boils down to that ,he broke into a young lady’s house, he tied her up and raped her.
there was a knife involved but it wasn’t used on her.it was more of a threatening manner
so basically he raped her at knife point.
patrick deeply regret having committted that crime because he regret hurting the individual, even though she wasn’t physically hurt , he says ,it was an emotional traumatic experience.but seconds later admitted that he physically hurt the lady by by raping her.
for patrick time has almost run out but what does patrick regret?
he said he regret that crime against the young lady most .that was one of the few things that he truly do regret .and he’s in peace with what may happen.
on the question if he´s afraid to die hi’s anwer was ” yes”.
One of the lat living members of a pretty notorious group of former fugitives is scheduled to be executed, patrick murphy is his name, he was one of Texas 7.murphy believes that his life should be spared.
This evening patrick murphy will be put to death for his part in the murder of a police officer, 19 years ago.
By Texas law the death warrant becomes active at 6 pm.
barring a last- minute stay from the supreme court or the state governor,patrick will die tonight.
patrick son has arrived to witness the execution.he met his father for the fourth and final time this morning.
with just a few hours to go , supporters of both victim and the prisoner
gather outside the walls unit.
patrick is sitting just the other side of this wall in a holding cell,just a few feet away from the death chamber, waiting to find out if the supreme court will allow him a little bit more life.
patrick’s final 24 hours are recorded.this is something called death watch and happens to every prisoner who faces execution.
not much special about this , he’s sitting on the bunk for an hour. sitting on the bunk writing, then he goes to have a shower, sitting on the bunk with headphones.
everything from sleeping ,sitting, reading a book , writing letters, thoser are all common entries.
at 3: 45 this morning the day of his execution ,he was sitting on the floor cleaning his cupboard .
when they leave the polenski unite ,they take all of their property with them and it’s gathered with them in the kind of chain bags, the same bags that offenders who are released with their property and only it’s transported here and its back there now all ow that property is back there now .and its claimed by one of his gamily members.
the family of aubry hawkins decided not to come but his fellow officers await news of the execution.
when that word comes from the attorney general of Texas and the governor of Texas that there are no pending appeals and there is no issuance of clemency or estate from the governor’s office .
then they will proceed with the process which is essentially letting mr murphy know that its time and he walks the few feet from thecell that is his holdingc cell to the death chamber itself and the process proceeds from there.
Patrick wikk die by lethal injection
the main drug used pentobarbital is a powerful sedative that slows down electrical activity in the brain and nerv cells until it causes death.it can take up to an hour to do its job.
outside the death chamber everyone waits on news from the coroner
it’s now almost two hours since the execution warrant for patrick murphy became active and everyone here is just waiting around to hearr what’s going to happen
the state of Texas has until midnight to carry out patrick’s execution.
the supreme court says the application for a stay of execution is granted ,the state may not carry out murphy’s execution, they cannot kill patrick murphy unless that budhist spiritual advisor is in there with him.
supreme court said either executing tonight with a buddhist priest or not at all.
outrage today about supreme court decision to block the execution
but once to this day is lifted a dallas county judge here must set a new date which would be a minimum 30 days away .
most experts believe this decision will only by murphy a few more months.
in a way patrick and his son are also victims of his father’s crime and like the other victims in this case, tonight should have been a form of closure and now they don’t know when that’s going to happen.
Murphy was scheduled for execution twice, first on March 28, 2019.
The United States Supreme Court granted him a last-minute reprieve on the basis that TDCJ’s denial of his request to have a Buddhist priest in the execution room with him violated the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution.
Murphy was then given a second execution date, November 13, 2019.
However, his execution was stayed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on November 7 to decide whether his religious discrimination lawsuit had merit.