Execution Report: Richard Smith

Richard Wayne Smith, 43, was executed by lethal injection on 21 September 1999 in Huntsville, Texas, for the robbery and murder of a convenience store clerk.

On 3 December 1992, Smith, then 36, entered a Baytown convenience store and robbed the clerk, Karen Birky, 38, at gunpoint. Birky handed some money to Smith, who then led her outside to the parking lot and attempted to abduct her in the stolen jeep he was driving. When Birky refused to get in the vehicle, Smith shot her once in the neck with a .32-caliber pistol. He then drove away. He was arrested a short time later in the parking lot of his ex-wife's apartment complex with the pistol and stolen cash in his pockets. Birky bled to death on the way to the hospital.

Three eyewitnesses to the scene in the parking lot testified against Smith at his trial. The robbery in the store was captured on videotape by surveillance cameras. Smith said that he had consumed a large amount of drugs and alcohol in the hours before the crime and claimed to have no recollection of committing the murder.

Smith had a prior conviction for auto theft. He served two years of a 10-year sentence from 1979 to 1981. He also served prison time in Louisiana for armed robbery and was on parole at the time of the murder.

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