Cathy Henderson (pic­tured with Sr. Helen Prejean) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on April 18 for the 1994 mur­der of Brandon Baugh, an infant she was babysit­ting. Henderson would be the 12th woman put to death in the U.S. since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed. Since her arrest, Henderson has main­tained that the child’s death was acci­den­tal. She said that she dropped the baby, frac­tur­ing his skull, and then pan­icked after real­iz­ing she could not revive him. She then buried the boy’s body and fled to Missouri, where author­i­ties cap­tured her near­ly two weeks lat­er. Henderson said that she is sor­ry for Brandon’s death and that she feels regret every day for the pain she caused his fam­i­ly. She notes, ​“I wish there was some­thing I could do to com­fort them, and if it’s going to com­fort them to end my life for an acci­dent, I hope this gives them comfort.”

Henderson’s spir­i­tu­al advi­sor is Sister Helen Prejean, well-known author of ​“Dead Man Walking.” Sister Helen believes Brandon’s death was an acci­dent. She said that the pub­lic needs to under­stand that Henderson is not a mon­ster. ​“It’s easy to kill a mon­ster. It’s hard to kill a real human being,” she noted.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Henderson’s final appeal. She is seek­ing clemen­cy from Texas Governor Rick Perry.
(Kansas City Star, March 1, 2007). See DPIC’s updat­ed page on Women, and Arbitrariness . View a video inter­view of Henderson by the Kansas City Star (Windows Media Player.

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