Execution Report: Richard Cobb

Continued from Page 1

A jury convicted Cobb of capital murder in January 2004 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in January 2007. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Adams downplayed his role in the crime in an account written from death row, saying he was only there to "follow [Cobb's] lead and be a pair of eyes." He wrote that Cobb fired the first three shots without any warning, and he then snatched the gun from him. He kicked Dement, who he thought was dead, to draw Cobb's attention away from Driver, who he could tell was alive. He then intentionally shot wide at Driver to fool Cobb into thinking he had killed her.

Adams was convicted of capital murder in a separate trial and sentenced to death. His sentence was carried out a year before Cobb's. In his last statement, he apologized to his victims and their families.

"I wish I could go back in time and it never would have happened," Cobb said about the murder in an interview from death row about six weeks before his execution. On the advice from his attorney, he declined to go into specifics about the crime, but he did say that "certain witnesses ... said stuff that wasn't true."

Cobb said he regretted that looking back, he "never really had a life." He accepted his upcoming execution as inevitable. "I don't want to die, but I'm ready to die."

Cobb said that every day on Death Row is grimmer than the next, and life in prison is one of constant reflection and regret. "You survey every single mistake you've ever made, over and over again," he said. "It doesn't stop. Every day. There's regret in the water. Regret every time you look in the mirror ... I wish I could go back and make this never have happened. Just change it all."

Cobb said he hoped his victims and their families "have found some ability to heal and, you know, deal with the anger and hatred directed at me."

"It's a great feeling to go through what I went through and be able to forgive them," Nikki Daniels - formerly Nikki Dement - said in a recent interview. She was grateful to have survived her ordeal, although it changed her. "I sill have the injury, and I'll always have the injury, and I don't think my injury is going to get any better," she said. She said she survived by being "smarter than them" in playing dead even when she was being kicked and held up by her hair.

Daniels attended both Adams' and Cobb's executions, as did members of Vandever's family.

Cobb took a philosophical outlook in his last statement. "Life is death, death is life," he said. "I hope that someday this absurdity that humanity has come to will come to an end. Life is too short. I hope that anyone that has negative energy towards me will resolve that. Life is too short to harbor feelings of hatred and anger. That's it, warden." The lethal injection was then started.

As the drugs took effect, Cobb twisted his head back and raised it off the gurney. He looked in the direction of the warden standing behind him and shouted, "Wow! That is great. That is awesome! Thank you, warden! Thank you [expletive] warden!" His head then fell back down onto the pillow, with his neck twisted at an angle, and his mouth and eyes open. He remained that way for about 15 minutes before the doctor came in to examine him. He was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m.

"They took me as a victim that night, but I came out as a survivor," Daniels said afterward. "And I think I am more of a survivor today."

By David Carson. Posted on 26 April 2013. Edited on 1 May 2013.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, Huntsville Item, Jacksonville Daily Progress, KTRE News, KWTX.com, savebeunkaadams.com.