Execution Report: William Burns

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William and Victor Burns were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in September 1981 in a joint trial. Danny Ray Harris was indicted separately, and charges against him were eventually dropped.

In 1985, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the Burns brothers' convictions because of a jury instruction error. On retrial, Victor Renay Burns pled guilty to non-capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison. William Burns was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death again in July 1986. That conviction and sentence were later overturned because of improperly excluded mitigating evidence.

William Burns was tried for a third time and was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1989. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the third conviction in 1993, and all of Burns' subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Burns did not speak to reporters prior to his execution, but he told a case worker investigating his clemency request that the slaying was the result of being "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I just want to tell my Mom that I am sorry that I caused her so much pain," Burns said in his final statement. He said that he loved his family, and "I hurt for the fact that they are going to be hurting. I really hate that; and that I'm hoping they are going to be O.K." William Burns was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Victor Burns is still behind bars as of this writing. He is eligible for parole, but his parole request was denied last year.

A Texas prisoner named Danny Ray Harris was executed in 1993. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's web site, that is the same Danny Ray Harris who was involved in the Hamlett murder. However, the Harris who was executed in 1993 was sent to death row in February 1980, and thus would have been in prison at the time of Hamlett's murder.

By David Carson. Posted on 11 April 2002.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, Associated Press.