Execution Report: Anthony Doyle

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Doyle had disciplinary problems at school as early as the fourth grade. He was regularly in trouble for fighting, pushing, and hitting other students and for threatening teachers. In one instance, he stabbed a fellow student in the back with a pencil several times for no apparent reason.

Doyle served time in a military boot-camp style juvenile detention facility from 1999 to 2001.

Doyle was arrested twice in 2002, the year before the murder. In June, he caused an auto accident when he was fleeing from a gas station without paying for gas. He abandoned his car and was chased down by the police on foot. He was charged with evading arrest. He pleaded no contest to failure to stop after a traffic accident, was fined $500, and was sentenced to 30 days in the Dallas County Jail.

In August, he was charged with theft of a paint sprayer valued between $500 and $1,500. He pleaded no contest, was fined $500, and was given deferred adjudication with 18 months' probation. He was sent to a halfway house for violating probation and was released before the end of the year.

While in jail awaiting trial for Cho's murder, Doyle wrote a letter to a friend in which he threatened to harm his girlfriend and her family if given the chance.

A jury found Doyle guilty of capital murder in May 2004 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in May 2006. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

One of Doyle's appeals raised the theory that his confession was the product of a lifetime of coercion by state authorities. Coercive tactics employed by authorities including Doyle's school principal, his probation officer, and the staff of the halfway house had inculcated in Doyle a habit of confession, the appeal claimed.

"That interpretation strains law and reason," the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. "Doyle's counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise that claim."

Doyle kept his eyes closed during his execution. When the warden asked if he wanted to make a last statement, he shook his head from left to right. The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 28 March 2014.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, public data, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, Huntsville Item.