Execution Report: Licho Escamilla

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A jury found Escamilla guilty of capital murder in October 2002 and sentenced him to death. When the judge finished reading the jury's decision to the courtroom, Escamilla shot out of his seat, grabbed a plastic water pitcher, and flung it toward the jury box, sloshing water on his attorneys and the prosecutors. He then began kicking and hitting people. Members of his family then began leaning over benches, reaching out, and cursing deputies. More than a dozen Dallas police officers then sprang up to shield members of Kevin James's and Michael Torres's families.

A spokesman for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department told a reporter that the department had gathered intelligence indicating that Escamilla might try to flee or harm someone at the trial, so he was made to wear an electric shock belt underneath his clothing. The spokesman said that the bailiff triggered three 50,000-volt charges lasting eight seconds each through the belt before Escamilla stopped fighting. Deputies extracted him from underneath the defense table.

Defense attorney Brook Busbee, who was seated next to Escamilla, stated that deputies warned her the previous day that they had recovered a 3-inch nail, a 2-inch bolt wrapped in thread, and a homemade handcuff key fashioned from a paper clip from Escamilla's cell. She suspected her client might cause a problem in the courtroom, so she removed pens and paper clips from the defense table before the verdict was read.

"I didn't really think about the water pitcher, though," she said.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Escamilla's conviction and sentence in June 2004.

Escamilla was indicted, but not tried, for two counts of attempted capital murder for shooting Lockett and another officer. He was also charged with Torres's killing. Public records do not show the disposition of that case.

At the trial, the defense portrayed Escamilla as a naturally gentle young man who had become traumatized or heavily influenced by the recent death of his mother and by being an innocent victim of an assault by strangers when he was eleven years old. Two of the witnesses who testified to this effect were Escamilla's father and his half-sister. The prosecutor countered their testimony by claiming that it showed Escamilla had been raised in a stable home with family members who loved him and attempted to teach him right from wrong, and that he chose to become a criminal despite having "no disadvantages in his background."

On appeal, Escamilla's lawyers presented evidence that his father was an alcoholic who physically abused his mother, his siblings, and him, that Escamilla and his brothers had been using and selling drugs since he was five, and that nearly every male member of his immediate and extended family had a criminal history. The appeal asserted that the failure of Escamilla's trial lawyers to investigate his background resulted in an inadequate defense that allowed the prosecution to convince the jury that Escamilla deserved the death penalty. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in February 2015 that while the defense's strategy at Escamilla's punishment hearing might have been different had it done a more thorough investigation of his background, the appeals lawyers failed to demonstrate that there was a reasonable probability that the jury's verdict would have been different, in light of the substantial aggravating evidence presented by the prosecution.

A half dozen members of the Dallas police department attended Escamilla's execution Wednesday evening. They were joined by members of the Huntsville police department and members of the Thin Blue Line Motorcycle Club.

Officer James's daughter, Shelby Hall, watched Escamilla's execution from a viewing room. "God bless your heart," Escamilla said to her in his last statement. He then turned to his relatives, watching from another room, and told them he loved them.

"Pope Francis and God's children have asked the state of Texas to switch my death sentence to life in prison," he continued. "But the state of Texas has refused to listen to God's children. They will have to take that up with God. Let everyone know it's not over."

The lethal injection was then started. The rumbling of motorcycle engines could be heard inside the chamber. As the drugs began to take effect, Escamilla's sister, Maria Escamilla, cried, pressed up against the glass, and screamed repeatedly, "Licho, no, please don't go! Please, Lord, don't take him! Please, Licho! No!" Corrections officers escorted her outside.

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 15 October 2015. Minor style edit made on 16 November 2015.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, Huntsville Item, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, court documents, public records.