Frank Moore

Frank Moore, 49, was executed by lethal injection on 21 January 2009 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of two people outside a nightclub.

In the early morning of 21 January 1994, Moore, then 34, became involved in a confrontation with Samuel Boyd, 23, and Patrick Clark, 15, at the Wheels of Joy nightclub in San Antonio. After a shoving match, Boyd and Clark left the club, but later they returned in a car. Someone then handed Moore a .30-caliber rifle. Moore then fired six to ten shots into the car. Boyd died from a gunshot to the chest, and Clark died from a shot to the head. Moore then fled in his own car.

Moore claimed that he shot Boyd and Clark in self-defense as they were trying to run him over. Prosecutors said that Moore killed the victims because they were in a rival gang.

Testimony at Moore's trial indicated that he had belonged to the Crips gang since he was 14 in California, and that he also belonged to the East Terrace Gangsters and the Black Panthers, where he was a "seargant-at-arms", responsible for obtaining, hiding, and distributing weapons. Moore admitted his involvement with the Crips as a teen, but said that he had put that behind him and was not a member of any active gangs.

Moore had been in and out of prison four times in the preceding seven years. His first prison sentence was for 5 years for attempted murder. He served about 2 years of that sentence, then was released on parole in February 1986. Nine months later, he was returned for a parole violation, then was paroled again in February 1987. In January 1991, he was sent to prison on an 8-year sentence for cocaine possession. He received parole after serving only 4 months. Before the end of the year, he was back, this time with a 20-year sentence for delivery of cocaine. He was paroled after serving 2 years of that sentence. (At the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

Less than a month before the killings, Moore was arrested for selling crack cocaine to an undercover police officer. Just prior to his arrest for the killings, Moore was arrested on an unrelated charge and was found carrying a revolver in his waistband. Also, testimony at Moore's punishment hearing indicated that prior to his arrest, he threatened to kill family members of witnesses if they cooperated with the police investigation.

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.