Execution Report: Danny Barber

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A jury found Barber guilty of capital murder in Ingram's case in August 1980 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in 1988, after sending the case back to the trial court to hold a competency hearing for Barber. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied. Barber was also given three life sentences for the other murders and a 20-year sentence for the flea market burglary.

Barber received a total of six execution dates while on Death Row. He gave an interview from prison prior to an execution scheduled for 9 December 1998.

"I don't recall striking her, though there's a lot that I've blocked out," he said. "Things were hell, and when I gave the confession it eased things."

"I just regret what happened that night," Barber said. "I can't undo the crimes I've done in the past."

"I'm upset that I spent 15 years in the work program, counseled other inmates, gone to school and I'm not getting any credit for it," he said. "I've apologized to everyone I could. I've learned to read and write. I've done all I could from in here. I don't feel I'm a threat to anybody. I've learned my lesson. I believe I've earned a right to live."

That execution was halted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals with about an hour left on the clock over a challenge to Texas' clemency procedure.

Members of Ingram's family, who had driven from Balch Springs to Huntsville to watch the sentence be carried out, were irate and tearful over the stay.

Ruth Clowers, 92, and five other members of Ingram's family drove to Huntsville once again on Thursday, hoping against another stay.

"I'm here with bells on," Mrs. Clowers said. "I'm ready to go."

"You hate to want somebody to die," Jean Tumey, Clowers's daughter, said. "But we didn't condemn him to death; the jury did. We just wanted to see that sentence carried out."

Three members of Barber's family also attended the execution.

"Hello, Mrs. Ingram, it is good to see you," Barber said in his last statement, referring to Mrs. Clowers. "I said I could talk but I don't think I am gonna be able to. I heard one of your nieces had some angry words. I didn't have anything to do with the stay. I spent the last twenty years waiting to figure out what's going on. I pray that you get over it, and that's the only thing I can think to say. I'm regretful for what I done, but I'm a different person from that time. If you could get to know me over the years, you could have seen it." Barber also said goodbye to his family members. The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.

"I think he let the devil take hold of him," Mrs. Clowers said to a reporter afterward. "The Bible says we have to forgive, or God won't forgive us."

Ingram's niece, Ruth Rae Clowers, had a different attitude, however.

"Kill 'em all," she said, referring to Texas' 454 death row inmates. "Line 'em up and shoot 'em between the eyes. That's the way it is."

"I know that they felt a lot [of] grief, and Danny felt grief for them," said Norma Jean Russell, who had been Barber's spiritual advisor. "But I just can't understand why people want to hold that hate and bitterness all those years."

By David Carson. Posted on 27 July 2016.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News.