Jefferey Caldwell

Jeffery Henry Caldwell, 37, was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, 30 August, in Huntsville, Texas, for the murders of his father, mother, and sister.

In July 1988, Henry Caldwell III went to check on his parents at their home in southwest Dallas, after neighbors told him they hadn't seen them in several days. He checked inside the house and found no one, but noticed a foul odor coming from the motor home parked in the driveway. Looking inside, he discovered the bodies of his father, Henry, 47; his mother, Gwendolyn, 46; and his sister, Kimberly, 19. All three had been stabbed to death and beaten on the head with a hammer and another unknown blunt instrument. Mrs. Caldwell's car was also missing.

Henry's brother, Jeffery Caldwell, was arrested the next day and gave a voluntary statement to police. He told police that he was having an argument with his father because he gave money to his sister but not to him. During the argument, he said, all three family members accidentally fell onto his knife.

Jeffery Caldwell had an arrest record going back seven years and had been to prison twice in the previous five years. He served 15 months of a 3-year sentence for burglary and 1½ years of an 8-year sentence for robbery. (At this time, early release was common in Texas because of strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.) Caldwell had been on parole for less than four months when he killed his family.

After Caldwell was found guilty, Henry and another brother testified against him during the sentencing hearing. Prosecutors used the brothers' testimonies to show that Jeffery was a continuing threat to society who deserved the death penalty.

Over the years, Jeffery Caldwell gave conflicting accounts of the crime to authorities, reporters, and his family. The story he ended up settling on was that his family was killed by Jamaican mobsters. He said that he had stolen some drugs from the mobsters and they came looking for him. Not finding him, they killed his parents and sister. He said that he didn't know his parents and sister were dead until after his arrest and that he was arrested and convicted because of his criminal past.

In the days leading up to his execution, Caldwell's lawyers argued that he was incompetent to be executed. His requests for a stay were denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prior to his execution, Caldwell issued a written statement in which he reiterated his claim of innocence. "I still to this day scream out that I did not kill them," he wrote. "Although these lifes [sic] being taken was my fault because I robbed some drug dealers three times, I accept the blame for what happened to my parents and my only sister but did not kill them or beat them or shoot them." He also spoke to Henry for the first time in over a decade. Henry Caldwell did not attend the execution.

In the execution chamber, Caldwell expressed love for his family. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m.