Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Lisa Coleman

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Both Coleman and Williams were charged with capital murder. Coleman's case came first. A jury found her guilty of capital murder in June 2006 and sentenced her to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction an sentence in December 2009. All of her subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Coleman was also found guilty of causing serious bodily injury to a child. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison for that offense.

Instead of going to trial, Williams accepted prosecutors' offer to plead guilty and accept a life sentence. She remains in custody as of this writing, and becomes eligible for parole in 2044.

One of Coleman's lawyers told a reporter that he asked prosecutors for a similar deal for his client, but one was not offered.

At her trial and in her appeals, Coleman's lawyers disputed the state's interpretation of kidnapping, the component of the crime that made her eligible for the death penalty. The relevant sections of the Texas Penal Code are as follows:

Sec. 19.03. CAPITAL MURDER. (a) A person commits an offense if the person commits murder as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and: ... the person intentionally commits the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat ..."

Sec. 20.03. KIDNAPPING. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly abducts another person.

Sec. 20.01. DEFINITIONS ... (2) "Abduct" means to restrain a person with intent to prevent his liberation by: (A) secreting or holding him in a place where he is not likely to be found; or (B) using or threatening to use deadly force.

The trial court and appeals courts ruled that Coleman's actions did constitute kidnapping.

Coleman's appellate lawyers also raised a claim that her trial lawyer was deficient for failing to call Coleman's sister, Sharon Coleman, and aunt, Tonya Coleman Brown, as witnesses, and that these women could have testified that they saw Davontae playing outside with other children "constantly," damaging the state's contention that he was being restrained. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, however, that the almost identically-worded affidavits given by Coleman's aunt and sister lacked credibility and did not contradict the most serious parts of the state's case against Coleman, and that her trial lawyer's decision not to call them as witnesses was a reasonable strategy.1

"The state singled Lisa out and figured some way to get her the death penalty because she was black, a lesbian, and an easy target," said one of her attorneys, John Stickles. "What she's really guilty of is being a black lesbian."

"There was not an inch on his body that had not been bruised or scarred or injured," said Tarrant County prosecutor Dixie Bersano. "The jury assessed the appropriate punishment."

Coleman's aunt and friends attended her execution. She smiled, laughed, and expressed love to them in her final moments. She also sent a message of encouragement to the other women on death row.

"I'm all right," she said. "Tell them I finished strong. God is good."

The lethal injection was then started. She was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m.

Coleman was the sixth female murderer to be put to death in Texas since 1982 and the second in 2014. Only 15 women have been executed nationwide since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

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1Both affidavits read, "I constantly saw Davontae Williams playing with other children ... running around ... acting like a normal child ... I never saw Davontae restrained or tied up in any manner whatsoever. In addition, every time I saw Davontae he appeared to be in good health." Both women also stated, "I was never contacted by Lisa Coleman's lawyers or any other person prior to Lisa's trial." The court opined that the women's assessment that Davontae appeared to be "in good health" lacked "probity," based on the overwhelming physical evidence and testimony to the contrary, and that their assessment of him as "acting like a normal child" undermined the defense's strategy of portraying of Davontae as extremely difficult to manage. The court also observed that the record showed that private investigator Toni Knox interviewed Sharon and Tonya on behalf of Coleman's lawyers prior to the trial, contradicting their claims that they were never contacted by anyone.

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By David Carson. Posted on 18 September 2014.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, Associated Press, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Daily Mail, The Guardian.

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