Michael Wayne Richard
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Michael Wayne Richard (August 24, 1959 – September 25, 2007) was an American man who was convicted of
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
and
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
. He was executed for his crimes in the state of
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
in 2007. His
execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...
gained notoriety due to controversies regarding procedural problems related to the timing of the execution. Richard admitted he was involved in the murder and offered to help find the murder weapon. Police found the weapon and testing revealed it to be the gun that fired the fatal shot.


Crime

On August 18, 1986, in
Hockley, Texas Hockley is an unincorporated community located in Harris County, Texas, United States, on Texas State Highway 6 and U.S. Route 290, approximately southeast of the city hall of Waller, and northwest of downtown Houston. Description The ...
, while on
parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...
for
motor vehicle theft Motor vehicle theft or car theft (also known as a grand theft auto in the United States) is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle. In 2020, there were 810,400 vehicles reported stolen in the United States, up f ...
, Richard entered the home of Marguerite Lucille Dixon, stole two television sets, raped Dixon, fatally shot her, and then stole her van. In the wake of the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
expressing interest in the question of the
constitutionality In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...
of
lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...
s, on the same day that the execution was scheduled, Richard's lawyers sought a stay of execution.


Trial and execution

The stay request had to be filed with the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a presiding judge and eight judges. Article V ...
in
Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
. The execution was scheduled for 6 PM, but the court's clerks office, where motions are usually filed, was scheduled to close at 5 PM, and refused to remain open beyond then to allow a later filing. Richard's lawyers claimed that, because of a computer failure, they did not reach the Court of Criminal Appeals until about 5:20 p.m. Although there was a judge on call to receive emergency stay motions,IN RE Michael Wayne Richards
law.com; accessed August 21, 2014.

mysanantonio.com; accessed August 21, 2014.
and although Texas law would have allowed the stay application to be filed directly with a judge of the court,
, statesman.com; accessed August 21, 2014.
the lawyers did not attempt to contact any of them. However, Richard's legal team did call the court to ask for a short extension of time to file a motion based on a case,
Baze v. Rees ''Baze v. Rees'', 553 U.S. 35 (2008), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutionality of a particular method of lethal injection used for capital punishment. Background of the case Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowl ...
, that had just been granted certiorari by the United States Supreme Court earlier that day. Judge
Sharon Keller Sharon Faye Keller (born August 1, 1953) is the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a Republican. Education and early career Born in Texas, Keller graduated from Rice University in Houston in 1975 with a major in phil ...
responded with four words: "We close at 5." Richard was subsequently executed at 8:23 p.m. on September 25, 2007, at
Huntsville, Texas Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. Its population was 45,941 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville United States micropolitan area, micropolitan area ...
.


Aftermath

On February 19, 2009, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct brought seven charges against Judge Sharon Keller, alleging ethical improprieties in Keller's handling of the case. A
Special Master In the law of the United States, a special master is an official appointed by a judge to ensure judicial orders are followed, or in the alternative, to hear evidence on behalf of the judge and make recommendations to the judge as to the dispositi ...
who had previously been a judge in the Court of Criminal Appeals was assigned to the case. He found the Texas Defender Service to be primarily at fault in the failure, and although he found that Keller's actions were inadequate, he concluded that her conduct was not "so egregious" as to warrant further punishment. The Special Master cast doubt on a number of the reported issues in the case. He concluded that there was no evidence that the Texas Defender Service suffered any "major" computer failure; although news reports had mentioned multiple crashes, the only claim that the TDS repeated during the hearings was that there had been some problems with an internal email service, and no documentation of those problems was produced. Contrary to one of Richard's lawyers' earlier comments about the court refusing to stay open "20 minutes", the Special Master found the filings were not ready until 5:56 p.m., with the execution authorized for any time after 6:00 p.m. He also found fault with the attorneys for assigning only a junior attorney to prepare the documents; for delaying two hours past the
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
's grant of certiorari in
Baze v. Rees ''Baze v. Rees'', 553 U.S. 35 (2008), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutionality of a particular method of lethal injection used for capital punishment. Background of the case Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowl ...
earlier that day, which opened a new avenue for appeal, before even discussing preparing a motion in Richard's case; and for relying on paralegals to contact the clerk's office about the filing, without any attorneys attempting to directly contact a judge or the Court of Criminal Appeal's General Counsel. The Special Master criticized the TDS for "causing a public uproar against Judge Keller, much of which was unwarranted". Richard is buried at
Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the main prison cemetery in Texas, located in Huntsville and operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The cemetery is colloquially known as Peckerwood Hill. The name originates from "Peckerwoo ...
. For 17 years, starting in the 1990s, Richard regularly corresponded with English woman Lesley Moreland, whose daughter had been murdered in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in 1990. Moreland is a committed
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
, and her exchange with Richard, was influenced by her personal faith and conviction that there is humanity in everyone, even the most condemned criminal. This correspondence was part of a wider letter-writing network established by LifeLines in the UK, an organisation that connected
Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, w ...
with death row inmates, as part of a program that was opposed to
capital punishment in the United States In the United States, capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states (of which two, Oregon and Wyoming, do not currently have any inmates sentenced to death), throughout the country at the federal leve ...
.


See also

*
Capital punishment in Texas Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who is at least 18 years old. In 1982, the state became the first jurisdiction in th ...
*
Capital punishment in the United States In the United States, capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states (of which two, Oregon and Wyoming, do not currently have any inmates sentenced to death), throughout the country at the federal leve ...
*
List of people executed in Texas, 2000–2009 The following is a list of people executed by the U.S. state of Texas between 2000 and 2009. All of the 248 people (246 males and 2 females) during this period were convicted of murder and have been executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville ...
*
List of people executed in the United States in 2007 A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


References

Sources * Office of the Clark County /nowiki>Texas/nowiki> Prosecutor
“Michael Wayne Richard” entry
accessed August 21, 2014. * Blumenthal, Ralph, and Linda Greenhouse

''New York Times'', September 28, 2007; accessed August 21, 2014. * Lindell, Chuck

''Austin American-Statesman'', September 29, 2007; accessed August 21, 2014. * Ratcliffe R.G. and Jane Elliott

''Houston Chronicle'', February 19, 2009; accessed August 21, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Richard, Michael Wayne 1959 births 2007 deaths 21st-century African-American people 21st-century executions by Texas 21st-century executions of American people People executed by Texas by lethal injection American rapists American people executed for murder People convicted of murder by Texas Executed African-American people