Execution Report: Travis Mullis

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A jury found Mullis guilty of capital murder in March 2011 and sentenced him to death.

Following his sentencing, Mullis requested to dismiss his court-appointed attorney and waive all of his appeals. The trial court granted his request to dismiss his attorney. Under Texas law, the first appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is automatic and cannot be waived. The rest of the appeals are waived by simply letting the filing deadline pass, not by making a declaration. Mullis filed no briefs in his automatic appeal. The appeals court reviewed the trial transcripts and affirmed his conviction and sentence in April 2012.

Mullis's next appeal deadline passed on 2 July 2012. On 22 August, he wrote the trial judge to say that he wished to reinstate his appeals because "new evidence has surfaced." Then, in September, the trial court received another letter from Mullis asking for his request to renew his appeals to be withdrawn. He also requested that the courts disregard any filings made in his case that were not made by him pro se. The trial court then received a filing from an attorney stating that Mullis was incompetent and asking for his appeals to be reinstated. The state appeals court denied that motion in December.

Mullis subsequently filed an appeal in federal district court asking to pause his federal appeals while he attempted to restore his right to appeal in the state courts. After that request was granted, Mullis once again disavowed any intention to pursue any further appeals at any level, claiming that all motions to the contrary filed on his behalf had been made by lawyers without his knowledge or permission.

After the federal district court denied Mullis's appeals, he filed an appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal had to do only with Mullis's unusual handling of the appeals process and questions about his competency to represent himself, and not about the trial or the facts of the crime. In June 2023, following a review, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of his appeals.

In 2018, Randy Wallace of Fox 26 News in Houston interviewed Mullis on Death Row in Livingston. Mullis told Wallace that he killed his son because he could not get him to stop crying after he sexually assaulted him.

"The crying after a while just got to be overwhelming," Mullis said.

"I'm guilty of what I did and the death penalty is the legally justified and, I believe, moral sentence for what I've done," he said.

Mullis said that he tried to stop his federal appeals and get his attorney dismissed. "I'm ready to accept my punishment," he said.

Wallace asked Mullis, who said he was a Christian, where he would go in the afterlife. "If I go to Hell, I go to Hell," he answered.

On the afternoon of Mullis's execution, attorney Shawn Nolan, who claimed to represent him, released a statement that Mullis was "a redeemed man."

"He never had a chance at life being abandoned by his parents and then severely abused by his adoptive father starting at age three. During his decade and a half on death row he spent countless hours working on his redemption. And he achieved it. The Travis that Texas wanted to kill is long gone. Rest in Peace TJ," Nolan wrote.

According to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson, Mullis had declined the opportunity to speak with Nolan earlier that day.

Mullis's execution was delayed for about twenty minutes while technicians worked to find a suitable vein. One needle was inserted in his right arm, as usual. The other needle, which is normally inserted in the condemned person's left arm, was inserted in Mullis's left foot.

At his execution, Mullis began his last statement with words of thanks for his friends, pen pals, ministers, prison officials, and prison staff. He said he regretted taking his son's life, apologized to his son's mother, and said he had no will toward anyone involved in his punishment. He said that he took the legal steps to expedite his death as a form of assisted suicide.

"It was my decision that put me here," he said.

The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 25 September 2024.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, fox26houston.com, Huntsville Item, khou.com.