Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Preston Hughes

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A jury convicted Hughes of capital murder in November 1988 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in June 1993. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Some web sites advocating Hughes' innocence reiterated many of the issues advanced at his trial and in his appeals, namely that the physical evidence and police testimony against him were falsified, and he was coerced into confessing for fear of his life. One site said that if Shandra said Preston's name while she was dying, it was because she was calling out to him as a friend.

"The fact is, I didn't kill anyone," Hughes said in an interview in October 2012.

Hughes also denied sexually assaulting Tracy Heggar. "I didn't know she was 13 at the time," he said. "I was led to believe she was 17."

Ellis McCullough, one of Hughes' two trial attorneys, told a reporter in the days before Hughes' execution he was convinced that no evidence was planted or mishandled. McCullough said that the phone calls Hughes made while in custody "were pretty devastating taken as a whole" to his case.

Attorneys for Hughes and opponents of the death penalty filed multiple last-ditch appeals attempting to stop his execution, which was delayed for about an hour as the courts made their rulings.

Hughes' mother and sister attended his execution. "You know I'm innocent and I love you both," he said to them in his last statement. "Please continue to fight for my innocence even though I'm gone. Give everybody my love." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 7:52 p.m.

Hughes was one of 22 men who have been on Texas' death row since the 1980's. An additional five have been there since the 1970's.

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By David Carson. Posted on 16 November 2012.
Sources: Texas Attorney General's office, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, mysterycrimescene.com.

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