Execution Report: Jamie McCoskey

Continued from Page 1

A jury found McCoskey guilty of capital murder in November 1992 and sentenced him to death. The day after his conviction, after entering the courtroom, McCoskey picked up a heavy oak chair and threw it at the prosecutors. The chair flew ten feet, hitting one prosecutor on the arm and grazing another before crashing into the jury box rail. "That's for lying in court!" he shouted at the prosecutors.

Several of McCoskey's appeals argued that he was insane or mentally ill. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence in May 1996. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

McCoskey was sanguine at his execution. He began his last statement by saying, "The best time in my life is during this period. If I had to do [it] again, I would not change a thing. I have been touched by an angel's wings."

"If I had it to do again, I would change Dwyer's parents suffering," he reconsidered, with a tear rolling down his face, "because I know they are. I know that is not going to eliminate the pain, because I have a child."

McCoskey then thanked the people who supported him during his 21-year stay on Texas' death row.

"And if this takes the pain away, so be it," he concluded. "I love you. I'm ready to go."

The lethal injection was then started. "There better not be a mix-up here," McCoskey then said with a loud laugh. "I don't want no stay." He was pronounced dead at 6:44 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 11 April 2013.
Sources: Texas Attorney General's office, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, Huntsville Item.