Thursday, November 27, 1997
Judge lifts Kitchens' stay of execution
By RICHARD HORN / Abilene Reporter-News
A federal judge Wednesday cleared the way for execution of
William Joseph Kitchens, rejecting all 25 points of the condemned
killer's latest appeal.
In a 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings dismissed
each of Kitchen's alleged errors, chief among them accusations
his Abilene defense attorneys were ineffective.
His Houston attorneys could next take the case to the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, but Cummings' ruling is significant,
especially in light of new federal law.
"I think due to the streamlining of procedure, the first
step in the federal appeals process is an important one,"
District Attorney James Eidson said Wednesday. "This constitutes
a major hurdle to the resolution of all his appeals."
A Taylor County jury sentenced Kitchens, 34, to death in 1986
for raping, robbing and murdering Patricia LeAnn Webb, the wife
of an Abilene firefighter. State District Judge Jess Holloway
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have already rejected
Kitchens' appeals.
Cummings also dismissed each of the claims, including criticism
the defense failed to investigate and present evidence of mitigating
circumstances about Kitchens' alcoholism and violent and abusive
upbringing in Oklahoma.
"Given that the Kitchens' household produced no other
anti-social personalities," Cummings wrote, "(defense)
counsel could reasonably decide that a jury would not give mitigating
weight to testimony about his family background."
He also rejected Kitchens' complaint his lawyers advised him
to plead guilty to murder without a plea bargain, a move his new
attorneys called "bizarre" because it made prosecutors'
jobs easier.
"Contrary to Kitchens' assertions," Cummings wrote,
"it is not unusual for a capital murder defendant to plead
guilty in order to gain credibility with jurors on other issues.
"More importantly," Cummings notes, "in the
absence of a guilty plea, the jury would still have found that
Kitchens intentionally killed the victim."
Kitchens' appellate attorneys also criticize his trial defense
for not seeking an insanity defense, not obtaining all the medical
evidence they should have and failing to seek a hearing to see
if their client was competent to stand trial.
But Cummings said defense attorneys did have Kitchens examined
by two psychiatrists and obtained all the testing those doctors
requested.
Further, he said, defense attorneys hired two experts to test
Kitchens and both found him competent. Evidence showed Kitchens
also assisted in his defense during the trial, the judge said.
Kitchens admitted battering and shooting the 25-year-old woman
in the head but denied raping and robbing her.
No new execution date has been set.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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