The Impending Execution of Keith Thurmond

Keith Thurmond sits on death row awaiting execution by the people of Texas.  I provide the details of his crime twice, once as reported by YourHoustonNews.com and once as summarized by an appellate court.

From YourHoustonNews.com:

With several unsuccessful appeals behind him, Keith Steven Thurmond, who killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend in 2001 while the Thurmonds’ young son watched, appears to be set for his execution Wednesday evening in Huntsville. 

But Thurmond’s latest appellate attorney stated in an email to The Courier Friday he will file a petition for writ of certiorari Monday in another attempt to stop Thurmond’s execution by lethal injection. 

A Montgomery County jury convicted Thurmond in 2002. The day of the killings, a judge had ordered Thurmond, who lived in the Magnolia area at the time, to stay away from his wife and 8-year-old son. 

Instead, he armed himself and headed to the home of Guy Fernandes, where Fernandes, Sharon Anne Thurmond and the Thurmonds’ son were in a pickup truck. 

The boy told investigators at the time how he had seen his father, with the gun, chasing his mother around the yard while Fernandes, 35, ran into the mobile home, The Courier previously reported. The boy then said he saw his father shoot his mother “a couple of times and ... then ran into Guy’s mobile home with the gun,” according to arrest warrant affidavits. 

The boy then told investigators he heard several shots, and he then ran to his father’s home across the street. 

Keith Thurmond then barricaded himself and his son inside his home. He later released the boy unharmed, but he remained inside the mobile home armed with at least one pistol and another firearm. 

Officers persuaded Thurmond, 41 at the time, to surrender peacefully after a couple of hours. 

Sharon Thurmond, 32, had sought protective orders against her husband twice, including the one issued the day she died.

Now from Thurmond v. Thaler (2011)

Sharon Thurmond separated from her husband a few months before the murder. She took their child and moved across the street to live with Guy Sean Fernandez. The day of the murders, deputies served Thurmond with a protective order and placed his six-year-old son in the custody of his wife. Thurmond was unhappy that his wife was living across the street with another man. After the deputies left with the child, Thurmond became very upset. He then shot and killed both victims.

I oppose executions in which there is some reasonable chance the person to be executed might be factually innocent. In all other cases, I stand mute.

With respect to the impending execution of Keith Thurmond, I stand mute.