By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A twice-convicted killer whose dual U.S.-British citizenship earned him
support and much publicity in Great Britain headed to the Texas death chamber for fatally beating an
Austin woman after raping her almost 17 years ago.
John Elliott, 42, was on probation after murder and burglary convictions when he was arrested for
taking part in a gang rape and then whipping Joyce Munguia, 18, two dozens times in the head and
face with a chrome-plated motorcycle chain he used as a belt.
Defense lawyers sought to delay the lethal injection, the seventh this year in Texas, with court appeals
that sought additional DNA tests. Elliott contended he did not kill the woman in the June 13, 1986,
attack.
Elliott was born in 1960 in England, where his father was stationed at a U.S. air base, giving him dual
citizenship.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw asked Gov. Rick Perry to grant clemency for Elliott and more
than 100 ministers of Parliament signed a House of Commons motion demanding clemency.
"It's given my family hope," he told BBC Radio. "It's given us something to hold on for. That's no
guarantee it's going to work. There's no guarantee they're not going to execute me."
Elliott, who said his family returned to the United States when he was 6 months old, declined to speak
with American-based media but granted interviews with numerous British reporters.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a vote completed Tuesday afternoon, rejected requests it
recommend the governor issue a commutation, reprieve or conditional pardon to Elliott. In turning down
each request, the panel's vote was 18-0.
Evidence at his trial showed Munguia was waiting at a bus stop, engaged in conversation with a group
of men, including Elliott, at a nearby house and then went off with them. Over the next few hours they
shared beer, liquor and cocaine, and she subsequently had sex with one of them.
According to a witness, she later began crying, was disoriented and asked for help to walk home.
Elliott followed her, then carried her under a railroad bridge where he and two other men raped her,
according to testimony. When she announced she was going to the police, Elliott beat her with his
belt made from a chain, one of the men there testified.
His shoe prints were at the murder scene. The two other men, who insisted they did not take part in
the slaying, pleaded guilty to rape charges. One received a 10-year prison term, the other 15 years.
Elliott got death.
Elliott told the BBC he was the victim of zealous prosecutors.
"Sometimes they'll take certain facts and stretch them," he said.
But he acknowledged his criminal past "made it easy for them to do that. I should have led a different
life but it's hard for me to go back."
In 1982, he went to prison for killing a man in a bar brawl. He was convicted again in 1984 of attempted
burglary. But in an era when Texas prisons were overcrowded because of a space shortage, he was
released under mandatory supervision after only 4 1/2 months of his eight-year sentence for murder,
then received probation for the burglary.
"It's terribly frustrating to me," said Juan Gonzalez, an Austin police commander who as a homicide
sergeant investigated the 1986 killing. "The poor girl probably would still be alive if he had been in
(prison) where he should have been...
"If you think execution is not a deterrent, this is a classic case."
At least two other British citizens condemned for murder have been executed in the United States, in
1995 and last year, both in Georgia.
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On the Net:
John Elliott http://www.jackelliott.org/
Texas Department of Criminal Justice: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm
