Dominique Green was exe­cut­ed in Texas on October 26 despite calls for a stay from a fed­er­al judge, Nobel Peace Prize win­ner Desmond Tutu, and the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly. A U.S. District Court judge in Houston had post­poned the exe­cu­tion until the city’s police depart­ment could com­plete cat­a­loging 280 box­es of recent­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence that could impact thou­sands of crim­i­nal cas­es. That stay was over­turned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Green had admit­ted that he was present dur­ing the rob­bery that result­ed in Andrew Lastrapes, Jr.‘s death, but he had always main­tained that he was not the trig­ger­man. In the week lead­ing up to the exe­cu­tion, the vic­tim’s son, Andre Lastrapes, and his fam­i­ly issued a state­ment call­ing for clemen­cy in the case. After the exe­cu­tion, Andre not­ed, ​“I felt it was dirty. They (offi­cials and judges) had their chance. They’ll have to face a high­er author­i­ty, which is God. I pray he (Green) goes to heav­en.” Before being put to death, Green said, ​“Tell Andre and them that I did­n’t get a chance to reach my full poten­tial, but you can help them reach theirs.” Eleven more Texas inmates, includ­ing six from Harris County, are sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by ear­ly March. (Houston Chronicle, October 27, 2004) See DPIC’s Report on Texas.

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