Execution Report: Alvin Kelly

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A jury convicted Kelly of the capital murder of Devin Morgan in October 1991 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in June 1996.

Ronnie Lee Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to 66 years in prison. He remains in custody as of this writing.

Kelly maintained his innocence throughout his appeals. At an evidentiary hearing in U.S. district court in February 2007, Kelly testified that he did not kill the Morgans, and had never met them. He admitted that he had been a drug dealer, but claimed that on the night the Morgans were killed, he was changing the engine in a truck with a man named Johnny Waller. He claimed that Cynthia and Steven Kelly and others gave false testimony at his trial.

In that same hearing, Kelly's sister, Nancy Brown, testified that she and her husband, Conley, visited Cynthia in Georgia for several hours, and that in that meeting, Cynthia recanted her trial testimony, telling her that "between you, me, and God," Alvin Kelly did not kill Devin Morgan. Conley Brown testified that Cynthia told him and his wife together that Kelly did not murder Devin. Cynthia testified that she did meet with the Browns in Georgia, but made no such statement.

Cynthia's sister, Beverly Frank, testified by deposition that Cynthia had once stated that she killed Jerry Morgan. Frank testified that she initially believed Cynthia's claim, but later decided Cynthia was only trying to scare her because she was trying to stop Cynthia's drug use. Frank testified that Cynthia was incapable of killing anyone.

The district court found that Cynthia's testimony was more credible and better supported by the entire record than the Browns, and noted that even the Browns disagreed as to who was present when Cynthia allegedly recanted her trial testimony. The court ruled that Cynthia did not recant her testimony, and denied Alvin Kelly's appeal. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's ruling in April 2008. All of Kelly's subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

"I'm tired of being here," Kelly told a reporter in an interview from death row in Livingston the week before his execution. "This is not life." Even though he still denied murdering the Morgans, Kelly said that he was looking forward to his execution date. "I don't want a stay ... It's time for me to go home. I'm ready. I embrace it." Kelly said that he would not cause any problems with prison officials taking him to the death chamber in Huntsville "unless they're going to bring me back".

"This is not an execution. This is a graduation day," Kelly said in another interview, which was videotaped and posted on the internet. "To live is for Christ; to die is gain," he continued, quoting from the New Testament book of Philippians. "I'm going home with peace, and joy, and a song on my lips, you know what I'm saying? I'm so ready to go."

Kelly described the murder of John Ford in a 2002 interview. "Actually, it wasn't supposed to be a murder," he explained. Kelly said Ford owed him some drugs and money. He intended to drive Ford out to the country and rob him of his money, drugs, and car, and leave him on the side of the road. "That way, he would have plenty of time to think about what he owed me and everything. I'm not proud of that - it's stupid, but that was the plan." He said that the plan went wrong when a gun Cynthia was holding on Ford went off - whether accidentally or deliberately, he did not know. Kelly said, "I took the gun away from her, and I'm gonna be honest with you, I was scared at the time. I was trying to act cool, but I took the gun because I thought she was going to shoot me too. We are all strung out on drugs, and so, I took the gun, and I emptied the gun in John T. Ford. I shot him about five times, emptying the gun so it wouldn't have anymore bullets in it."

Kelly said that he collected and destroyed the evidence at the scene, including setting Ford's vehicle on fire. Because of this, Gregg County investigators did not have the evidence to convict him. However, in 1987 while in jail on an unrelated charge, he became a Christian after a visit from a minister. "I wanted to clear my conscience and everything in my life," Kelly said, "so in 1990, I pled guilty to murdering John T. Ford."

Kelly explained that this guilty plea resulted in him being charged for killing the Morgans also. He said he had originally been cleared of suspicion in that case by the lead investigator, Henry Mize, and the case was eventually put away unsolved. When Mize died of a stroke, however, the cold case was reopened. Kelly said that when he pleaded guilty to Ford's murder, prosecutors were going to bring murder charges against his wife as well, but she struck a deal with them: testify that Kelly was at the scene of the Morgan killings in exchange for immunity from prosecution for Ford's murder.

Kelly said he turned down several plea offers for a life sentence in the Morgan case because accepting the offers would have forced him to lie. "If I was guilty, I would plead guilty," he said. "But I can't stand before God on a lie."

"I offer my sorrow, and my heart goes out to y'all," Kelly said in his last statement to the members of the Morgan family who attended his execution. "I know you believe that you're going to have closure tonight. As I stand before God today, the true Judge, I had nothing to do with the death of your family." Kelly then asked for forgiveness for Ford's murder "because I do stand guilty for my involvement for that." Kelly also thanked his family, his friends, and God. As the lethal injection was administered, he sang, "Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming into my life. You walked with me through prison. Thank You, Lord Jesus, because You died for me. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for remembering me." He then lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m.

Jerry Morgan's niece, Lori Kubecka, witnessed the execution. Afterward, she told a reporter that she and the other family members knew "without a shadow of a doubt" that Kelly was guilty of the murders. She said Kelly's last words "made me ill."

"None of us came for closure," Kubecka said. "We were there to speak and give voices to our family who did not have voices anymore."

By David Carson. Posted on 15 October 2008.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press, Kilgore News Herald, Longview News-Journal, court documents, public records.