Kent Whitaker, who sur­vived a shoot­ing in which his wife, Tricia and younger son, Kevin were mur­dered, has asked the state of Texas to spare the life of his only remain­ing son, Thomas ​“Bart” Whitaker (pic­tured), who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for their mur­ders. Kent Whitaker told the Austin American-Statesman, ​“I have seen too much killing already. I don’t want to see him exe­cut­ed right there in front of my eyes,” he said. The peti­tion for clemen­cy filed on January 10 by Bart Whitaker’s lawyers asks the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to rec­om­mend com­mut­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole, say­ing the exe­cu­tion — sched­uled for February 22 — will ​“per­ma­nent­ly com­pound” Kent Whitaker’s suf­fer­ing and grief. The peti­tion asks the Board: ​“Is killing Thomas Whitaker more impor­tant than spar­ing Kent Whitaker?” Texas pros­e­cu­tors have argued that Bart Whitaker arranged with an acquain­tance in 2003 to mur­der his fam­i­ly as part of a plot to col­lect a $1 mil­lion inher­i­tance. Bart’s father, how­ev­er, believes “[i]t was nev­er about the mon­ey. … The pros­e­cu­tion always way overex­ag­ger­at­ed my wealth because that played into their argu­ments,” he said. Instead, he believes his son had been suf­fer­ing from unrec­og­nized men­tal-health issues at the time of the mur­ders. The clemen­cy peti­tion is sup­port­ed by more than 60 let­ters from fam­i­ly mem­bers, friends, teach­ers and coun­selors, reli­gious lead­ers, and fel­low death-row pris­on­ers. Fort Bend coun­ty District Attorney John Healy mocked the let­ters as com­ing from ​“a noble group of sup­port­ers.” In an emo­tion­al op-ed pub­lished on January 18 in the Houston Chronicle, Kent Whitaker defend­ed his son’s sup­port­ers, say­ing it ​“is a noble group: peo­ple who knew Bart and have seen him grow and change.” The clemen­cy peti­tion, Kent Whitaker wrote, ​“tries to cor­rect the dis­trict attor­ney’s over reach in pur­su­ing the death penal­ty and how it will once again hurt all of the vic­tims. For 18 months pre-tri­al, every vic­tim — my wife’s entire fam­i­ly, me and all of my fam­i­ly — actu­al­ly begged the dis­trict attor­ney to accept two life sen­tences and spare us the hor­ror of a tri­al and an even­tu­al exe­cu­tion. But we were ignored.” Kent Whitaker writes that the clemen­cy peti­tion ​“is ask­ing the board to acknowl­edge that Texas is a vic­tim’s rights state, even when the vic­tim asks for mer­cy.” He says that he knows his late wife and son would not want Bart, who he says has matured and bet­tered him­self while in prison, to be exe­cut­ed. Kent told the American-Statesman that he did not want to see the exe­cu­tion, “[b]ut I can’t imag­ine let­ting him be in the room by him­self with­out any­one there with him. … As he goes to sleep, I want him to be able to look at me and see that I love him.” he said. The man who car­ried out the killings received a life sen­tence after plead­ing guilty to mur­der. The get­away dri­ver, who also could have faced the death penal­ty under Texas law, was per­mit­ted to plead to a 15-year prison term in exchange for tes­ti­fy­ing against Whitaker.

(Kent Whitaker, Friday let­ters: A father’s plea: Spare my son, Houston Chronicle, January 18, 2018; Chuck Lindell, His son tried to kill him; now father tries to halt his exe­cu­tion, American-Statesman, January 12, 2018; Texas dad shot in dead­ly plot seeks to halt son’s exe­cu­tion, Associated Press, January 12, 2018.) Read the clemen­cy peti­tion here. See Victims and Clemency.

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