Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Frank Moore

Continued from Page 1

A jury convicted Moore of capital murder in June 1996 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction in June 1998 because the jury was not instructed to consider convicting Moore of the lesser charges of murder or voluntary manslaughter. Moore was retried, and a jury again convicted him of capital murder in July 1999 and sentenced him to death. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed that conviction and sentence in January 2002. All of Moore's subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

In an interview from death row the week before his execution, Moore maintained his claim of self defense. "It had nothing to do with gangs or drugs," Moore said. "They were trying to kill me."

Pat Moran, Moore's trial lawyer, said that Moore ran the nightclub and that Boyd and Clark planned to kill him. "They had gone around and talked how they were going to lure Frank outside and do something to him," Moran said. "It was going to be a good old-fashioned hostile takeover at the cost of Frank's life ... The problem was, Frank was a multiple-convicted felon and Frank couldn't be around firearms. There was no way to put on a defense to explain why those two kids who thought they were getting the drop on Frank walked into such an effective and efficient execution."

Moore and his lawyers pressed his self-defense claim in their appeals, but to no avail. About an hour before his execution, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request for a reprieve based on affidavits obtained from three eyewitnesses who were said to have supported Moore's self-defense claim.

"Self defense is not capital murder," Moore said in his last statement. He also expressed love to his wife and relatives, who came to witness his execution. He did not address the relatives of his victims, who also watched. The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

divider

By David Carson. Posted on 24 January 2009.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's Office, Associated Press.

Privacy PolicyContactAdvertising