Execution Report: Suzanne Basso

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A jury found Basso guilty of capital murder in August 1999 and sentenced her to death. The Texas Court of Criminal appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in January 2003. All of her subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

After the judge announced her death sentence, Basso wept. "I am not guilty," she squeaked.

"This is wonderful," Hardy told a reporter. "Justice has finally been served! She's off the streets! She can't hurt anybody. Let the inmates kill her. I don't care."

Basso's lawyers raised a mental competency claim again in January 2014 as her execution date approached. Basso testified from a bed wheeled into the courtroom. She restated her claim that she was paralyzed from a beating received from jailers. She also testified that someone tried to kill her in prison by hiding a snake inside a book smuggled into the hospital. Basso's lawyer, Winston Cochran, said that her paralysis was the result of a degenerative disease and that her delusions were evidence of her mental illness. Prosecutors said she had a history of fabricating stories to seek attention and manipulate people. Basso admitted that she had previously lied about being a triplet, working in the New York governor's office, and having an affair with Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Cochran also argued that the prosecution never proved how Louis Musso died or whether Basso was personally involved in his death. "[The prosecution] could not tell you to this day who did it," he said.

Judge Mary Lou Keel found Basso competent to be executed. Cochran unsuccessfully appealed Keel's ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At her execution, Basso said "No, sir," when the warden asked if she wanted to make a last statement. With tears in her eyes, she smiled at two friends watching through a window. The lethal injection was then started. She was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.

Basso was the 14th woman executed in the United States since 1976. Almost a hundred times as many men have been put to death during that time. She was the 5th woman executed in Texas out of the 510 death sentences carried out since 1982.

By David Carson. Posted on 6 May 2014.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, Associated Press, The Guardian, Houston Press, crimelibrary.com.