Execution Report: James Moreland

James Walter Moreland, 39, was executed by lethal injection on 27 January 2000 in Huntsville, Texas, for the stabbing death of a 53-year-old man.

In October 1982, Moreland, then 22, was at home, drinking with his brother, when he decided to go into some town to do some more drinking. At about 5 or 6 p.m., he started hitchhiking into town, and two men, Clinton Abbott, 53, and John Cravey, 41, picked him up. Abbot and Cravey had also been drinking, and after they picked him up, the three men drank together. Moreland then accepted their invitation to return to Cravey's trailer home.

At 11 p.m. that night, Abbott and Cravey's bodies were discovered inside the trailer by Cravey's ex-wife, Charlotte, who lived across the street. Both men had been stabbed in the back numerous times. Cravey's body was on the floor in the front room. Abbott's body was on the floor in the back bedroom. Two bloody knives were lying on top of a dresser in the hallway. Cravey's empty wallet was on a table in the front room. Abbott's keys were outside on the ground, beside his car.

Based on an investigation, authorities arrested Moreland in Indiana four days later. They searched Moreland's sister's apartment and found cut-up remnants of Cravey's boots in a trash can. Moreland's father also gave them a medicine bottle with Cravey's name on the label. Moreland gave a verbal and written confession.

In his confession, Moreland stated that when the men invited him to their trailer, he thought that "both of these guys were okay and were just having a good time." He stated that after about an hour and a half of drinking, Abbot left the room. Cravey began to behave amorously and started rubbing his hand on Moreland's leg. When he tried to get away, Cravey grabbed him and followed him into the kitchen. When Cravey struck him on top of the head with something, he picked up a knife from the kitchen table. When Cravey raised his arm to strike him a second time, Moreland thought that "it was either him or me" and stabbed him. Moreland said he was afraid Cravey was going to rape or hurt him. He further stated that when he started for the doorway, Abbott came out of the bedroom and yelled at him. Moreland panicked and ran up to Abbott and stabbed him in the doorway of the bedroom. He then took the money out of Cravey's wallet, to "get out of the area." He took Abbott's car keys, but said he was too scared to drive. He said he did not know that he had killed the men until he arrived in Indiana and his father told him. Moreland said he was preparing to return to Texas to turn himself in when he was arrested.

At Moreland's trial, the county medical examiner testified that Abbott and Cravey had blood-alcohol levels of .24 and .19, respectively. He said that testing indicated both victims had stopped drinking and had probably fallen asleep from 1½ to 2½ hours before their deaths. Each victim had seven stab wounds in their upper middle back. He testified that the wounds in both cases were consistent with someone lying on his stomach and being stabbed by someone standing over him, without any struggle. He said that Cravey also had a superficial stab wound on his front left shoulder, which may have been inflicted in a face-to-face confrontation. Both men were killed from puncture wounds to their lungs and would have been able to move around for a brief time before dying.

Charlotte Cravey testified that she saw Abbott's car pull in front of the trailer at about 8:00 p.m. Shortly before she discovered the victims, she saw a man trying to leave in Abbott's car. When the car became disabled on a steel rod in a neighbor's yard, the man got out and fled.

Moreland testified at his trial. His account of Cravey's death matched the account given in his confession, with the added detail that Cravey gave him some boots and he was wearing them when he left the trailer. His account of Abbott's death differed substantialy from his confession. At his trial, he said that Abbott came all the way down the hall into the front room, yelling at him. They started fighting, and Abbott grabbed him by the neck while he still held the knife. They wrestled down the hall into the rear bedroom, fell on top of the bed, and then he stabbed him. Upon cross-examination, Moreland testified that he told the truth in his written confession.

The state presented several witnesses who knew Cravey and said that he never exhibited homosexual tendencies or made homosexual advances. Although Cravey was known to be a heavy drinker and had been arrested twice for public intoxication and once for disorderly conduct within the past ten months, the police chief testified that Cravey was easy to handle when intoxicated and was never violent during his arrests.

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