Texas to Execute Man 32 Years After the Crime; Many Say He’s Not the Same Person

David Powell (pic­tured left), who was sen­tenced to death in 1978 for the shoot­ing of Austin police offi­cer Ralph Ablanedo (pic­tured below), faces exe­cu­tion in Texas on June 15. During his 30 years on death row, Powell has shown sin­cere remorse and regret for his actions. In 2009, Powell wrote to Officer Ablanedo’s fam­i­ly: ​“I am infi­nite­ly sor­ry that I killed Ralph Ablanedo. I shot Officer Ablanedo and I take respon­si­bil­i­ty for his death. In a few fright­ful sec­onds, I stole from you and the world the pre­cious and irre­place­able life of a good man, and destroyed your worlds of shared love, dreams, and possibilities….There is no excuse for what I did….In thir­ty-one years of impris­on­ment, I have had much time to con­tem­plate my sin.” Powell’s sto­ry is told in a recent report from Amnesty International (see below).

Although some police offi­cers in Austin con­tin­ue to sup­port Powell’s exe­cu­tion, at least one offi­cer has said Powell is no longer the same per­son who com­mit­ted the mur­der. This police offi­cer, who gen­er­al­ly sup­ports the death penal­ty, stat­ed: ​“I think David should have paid for his deci­sions and his crime with his life 25 years ago. I do not think that putting him to death today will serve any good pur­pose. The death penal­ty should be a deter­rent to hor­rif­ic crime, a mes­sage that such crimes will not be tol­er­at­ed, and a means to ensure that some­one who is capa­ble of such crimes can­not repeat that behav­iour ever again. That mes­sage los­es its poten­cy when 30 years pass before the sen­tence is car­ried out. The fact is, though,… the man who will be put to death for the killing of Ralph Ablanedo is not the man who com­mit­ted the crime. This David Powell is an elder­ly man who has shown what I believe to be true under­stand­ing and remorse for his crime. This is a man who, in my fee­ble view, would not be any type of men­ace to soci­ety today and is not, in even any small way, the guy who killed that cop 32 years ago. Texas missed its oppor­tu­ni­ty to put that man to death and, in my view, accom­plish­es absolute­ly noth­ing in car­ry­ing out that man’s sen­tence on this man now.…”

(“People can Change. Will Texas?,” Amnesty International, June 3, 2010). See also Clemency.