Jeffrey Doughtie

Jeffrey Carlton Doughtie, 39, was executed by lethal injection on 16 August in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a store owner couple.

In August 1993, Doughtie, then 31, went into the antique store owned by Jerry Dean, 80, and his wife, Sylvia, 76. Doughtie had previously worked for the couple and had frequently sold items he had stolen to the store. On this day, Doughtie was high on a cocaine "speedball". He asked Jerry Dean if he had any money to lend him, and Dean informed Doughtie that he would have to wait for his wife to return.

When Sylvia Dean returned, Doughtie repeatedly asked her for $30. She refused, saying she did not have any money. Doughtie took a vase from the store, walked three or four blocks, and decided to go back to the store. He discarded the vase in some bushes, grabbed a piece of metal pipe, and went back. When he entered the store, Sylvia Dean told Doughtie she had called the police about the vase. He struck Sylvia first, then Jerry, on the head with the pipe several times. He took Sylvia's wedding ring, Jerry's gold ring, and some money and rings from Sylvia's purse. He discarded the pipe in a pile of trash, and fled. An hour later, a customer walked in and saw the Deans lying on the floor in a pool of blood and moaning in agony. Jerry Dean died later that evening. Sylvia Dean died about a month later.

Doughtie was stopped and questioned two weeks later about a separate robbery. He confessed to the antique shop murders and told police the reason he tried to borrow money and ended up robbing the Deans was so he could buy drugs.

Doughtie had an extensive criminal history including drugs, DWI, burglary, and robbery. He was also connected to a murder that occurred three weeks after the Deans. (Reports did not explain how this could be, if he was arrested two weeks after murdering the Deans.)

A jury convicted Jeffrey Doughtie of two counts of capital murder in May 1994 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence in April 1996. He waived and then reasserted some of his appeal rights, and filed one of his appeals after deadline. None of his appeals to state or federal court were granted.

On death row, Doughtie admitted he was responsible for the killings. "I walked into that store and beat two people to death with a pipe and that was the lowest point of my life," Doughtie said. "It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. The sick thing is that I didn't walk out of there thinking, 'There are two people inside bleeding to death. I was thinking, 'I'm going to get a good deal for this ring.' That's some sick (stuff)." He also said he was a changed person since entering prison. "I was a mess ... I just didn't have the sense to lay down and die."

Doughtie said that he wasn't afraid of being executed. "I wish those people hadn't died. But that gurney holds no fear for me -- I have a peace inside my heart." He continued, "to kill me isn't going to bring them back. I'm getting off easy -- they're the ones who had to suffer. Yes, I'm getting the ultimate punishment, but I got time to get it together, and I know where I'm going. The one thing we have on death row is that we know when, where and how (we're going to die). We have time to prepare for it. ... They are honestly not giving me the ultimate punishment, they're cutting me loose."

On the execution gurney, Doughtie questioned the point of executing him. "I don't think the world will be a better or safer place without me," he said. "You are not hurting me now. I have had time to get ready, to tell my family goodbye, to get my life where it needed to be." Referring to his $400-a-day drug habit that led to him murder Jerry and Sylvia Dean, he said "it started with a needle and it is ending with a needle." He then thanked his friends who were present and told the warden to proceed with the lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m.