Execution Report: Jessie Patrick

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A jury convicted Patrick of capital murder in April 1990 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction and sentence in June 1995. The CCA denied his state habeas corpus petition in April 1998, and a U.S. district court denied his federal habeas corpus appeal in August 2000.

In 2001, the Texas legislature passed a law allowing DNA tests for capital murder convicts who could show a reasonable probability that they would have been acquitted with favorable DNA test results. In September 2001, Patrick requested a DNA test on the sperm found on Redd's body. A state district judge determined that Patrick did not qualify for a DNA test because the physical evidence of his guilt was overwhelming. However, when Patrick offered to pay for the test with private funds, the judge agreed. The funds were raised by Patrick's wife, Hester, a British woman who he met as a pen pal and married by proxy in 1997.

The state appealed this ruling, claiming that the new DNA testing law does not allow judges to authorize post-conviction DNA tests in unqualified cases, regardless of who paid for them. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed, and on 11 September 2002, it overruled the state district judge's decision. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Patrick's appeal on 12 September.

At Patrick's execution, his lawyer, Keith Hampton, claimed that Patrick was constitutionally ineligible for execution because he was mentally retarded. Neither Hampton nor any of Patrick's other lawyers ever raised a mental retardation claim in court, however, nor did they ever have his IQ tested.

Patrick declined requests for interviews and made no last statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 18 September 2002.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's Office, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News.