Execution Report: Kenneth Dunn

Kenneth Wayne Dunn, 39, was executed by lethal injection on 10 August 1999 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a bank teller during a robbery.

On 17 March 1980, Dunn, then 20, entered the Bank of Almeda near Houston armed with a .357 Magnum revolver. He ordered a Houston police officer, R.C. Valenta, who was providing security for the bank, to lie on the floor, then took his weapon. He then ordered Greg Putnam, the bank's vice president, to fill a bag with money. Putnam and Dunn then proceded down the row of tellers, having each teller put money in the bag. When they reached Madeline Peters' window, she was on the telephone, unaware of the robbery. Dunn told her, "put the money in the bag" and put the muzzle of the gun in the window cutout. Peters, 21, responded, "What?" Dunn then pulled the trigger, shooting her in the head. Dunn left the bank with $12,000 in stolen cash. Peters died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

A witness saw Dunn drive away and wrote down his license plate number. He was arrested about three months later in St. Louis. He had spent all but $30 of the loot.

During his trial, Dunn had to be removed from the courtroom several times because of outburts he made. His demands included being tried in federal court and being allowed to serve as his own attorney. A jury convicted him of capital murder in November 1980 and sentenced him to death. In 1987, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction because the court reporter had lost a few pages of trial documents.

At his retrial in 1988, Dunn served as his own attorney. He argued that he did not mean to kill Peters, and said that his gun may not have been pointed directly at her when he fired. Witnesses, however, testified as to how calm he was during the robbery. The jury again convicted him of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

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