Posted on 01/22/2007 8:16:45 AM PST by WestTexasWend
'We can't understand why this has been put off this long,' victim's mother says.
LIVINGSTON (TX) — Condemned Texas prisoner Ronald Chambers describes himself as "loaded with patience." Now in his fourth decade behind bars, Chambers' patience hasn't wavered, but time finally may be running out for Texas' longest-serving death row prisoner.
It's been more than 11,300 days since Chambers arrived on death row on Jan. 8, 1976. Since then, 381 of his fellow prisoners have been executed.
He's set to join them this week.
"I knew it was coming," Chambers, 52, said of the letter he recently received notifying him of his Thursday execution date. "No rich folks here. I'm not mad at that. But again, if I had the money, I wouldn't be here."
Chambers' longevity gets him the designation "Old School" by younger inmates. The encounters with other inmates are infrequent because they are kept isolated and get only one hour of recreation time daily outside their cell — alone — in a small concrete enclosure.
Chambers' daughter recently brought her infant son to see his grandfather for the first time. It was a rare meeting with a relative, he said.
"There ain't nobody that owes me nothing," he said. "Always nice to see people, but then again at the same time, I've been gone a long time."
Chambers arrived on death row three days before his 21st birthday.
"By now, I thought it would be one way or another," he said. "I was looking for it to be executed or to get a life sentence."
Chambers, who grew up in the Dallas public housing projects, worked as a house painter and was a new father when he joined Clarence Ray Williams in the robbery, abduction and killing of one college student and the beating of another.
Gerald Ford had been president less than a year, and George W. Bush was in business school at Harvard on April 11, 1975, when Chambers and Williams carjacked Mike McMahan, 22, a mechanical engineering student at Texas Tech University, and Deia Sutton, a University of Texas at Arlington student.
McMahan and Sutton had been with friends at a Dallas club. On their way out, they were confronted at gunpoint by Chambers and Williams, who forced their way into their car. Williams drove to a levee on the Trinity River south of downtown Dallas, where the captors pushed the couple down an embankment.
Chambers ordered them to stop near the bottom, then fired five shots at them. As Chambers and Williams walked back up the hill, McMahan called to Sutton to see if she was OK.
"Deia doesn't respond," Dan Hagood, the lead prosecutor at Chambers' 1992 trial, said. "She wants him to be quiet. Mike says something louder.
"That's when the killers heard him."
The gunmen returned.
Chambers pummeled McMahan in the back of the head 10 to 20 times with a shotgun as Williams choked Sutton and tried to drown her in the muddy water. Chambers also pounded her three times with the shotgun. Then they left.
Sutton told police she counted 15 times to 60 before moving, saw McMahan dead nearby, then managed to walk a half-mile to a hotel to summon police.
McMahan's burned-out car was found in Calvert, nearly 150 miles south, after Williams had tried to sell it in Houston.
Chambers, according to testimony at his first trial, wiped blood from money stolen from the victims and divided it, then played a game of dominoes before going to sleep.
Within days, both Chambers and Williams were under arrest.
A Dallas County jury convicted Chambers, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction eight years later, ruling that a state-appointed psychiatrist who questioned him failed to warn Chambers that his responses would be used against him.
He was retried in 1985 and convicted again.
The U.S. Supreme Court threw out that conviction four years later, ruling that prosecutors improperly excluded three black people from his jury. Chambers is black.
He was tried for a third time in 1992, convicted and sentenced again to die.
Williams, also from Dallas, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and murder, accepted two life sentences and remains in prison.
If Chambers' patience remains firm, it's long been exhausted for McMahan's parents, now in their 80s.
"It has been horrible," said Bennie McMahan, of Kennewick, Wash. "No matter what they do, it's not going to bring our son back."
McMahan and her husband, Mabry, attended Chambers' trials. Now, given their age, they don't plan to trek to Texas to witness Chambers' death.
"We can't understand why this has been put off this long," she said.
Now, Chambers' attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to postpone his execution until justices rule on another Texas capital case, set for arguments early next year, that raises questions about whether jurors were properly instructed to consider mitigating factors when deciding death sentences for some convicted killers.
Another minor issue in the appeal is that Chambers "has been on death row too long to be executed." James Volberding, Chambers' lawyer, said.
"Frankly, there's not a whole lot else we can argue," Volberding said.
Buh Bye Ronald.
Where else but the USA can you be sentenced to die, and live for 30 years on the taxpayers nickel??? Do you think they last 30 years in Venezuela or Commie China ???
I do agree with Chambers' attorney - on one thing.
His client has been on Death Row for way too long.
The bastard should have been executed decades ago.
Why'd it take 31 years for the families of those promising young college students, Mike McMahan and Deia Sutton, to finally see justice?!
No. You are there because you are a stone hearted murderer...
Chambers, who grew up in the Dallas public housing projects, worked as a house painter and was a new father when he joined Clarence Ray Williams in the robbery, abduction and killing of one college student and the beating of another.
...when Chambers and Williams carjacked Mike McMahan, 22, a mechanical engineering student at Texas Tech University, and Deia Sutton, a University of Texas at Arlington student.
McMahan and Sutton had been with friends at a Dallas club. On their way out, they were confronted at gunpoint by Chambers and Williams, who forced their way into their car. Williams drove to a levee on the Trinity River south of downtown Dallas, where the captors pushed the couple down an embankment.
Chambers ordered them to stop near the bottom, then fired five shots at them. As Chambers and Williams walked back up the hill, McMahan called to Sutton to see if she was OK.
Chambers pummeled McMahan in the back of the head 10 to 20 times with a shotgun as Williams choked Sutton and tried to drown her in the muddy water. Chambers also pounded her three times with the shotgun. Then they left.
Hell no, it isn't, if it's held off for 30+ years.
Oh yes, we owe you something. Sorry it took so long to give it to you.
Although I have mixed feelings on the death penalty, it is ridiculous that a person stays on death row for years and years. I understand folks going for an appeal etc.---but the system is quite broken. I thought DNA would solve many of the dilemmas.
Two lawyers(liars) were able to retire on money from the the public dole shuffling papers in this case.
OJ ring a bell?
Well, its about time this bum joined the Tookster.
"Chambers' patience hasn't wavered", what a guy
Despite all that spare time he's had, he still didn't learn basic English in prison.
Perhaps he only wanted to 'make a difference' in the world.
James Volberding
One American Center
909 E.S.E. Loop 323
Suite 700
Tyler, TX 75701
Phone: (903) 597-6622
Fax: (903) 597-5522
In a word: Lawyers.
Since this sack of vomit is black, I wonder why we haven't heard from Sean Penn or any of the other hollyweirdos from the looney left?
"No rich folks here"
That's right, you POS. That's cause rich folk typically don't do car jackings and kill people. Rather, they create wealth and pay taxes so vermin like you can live on the dole for 30 years before getting what you deserve.
I bet that guy is a Democrat precinct chair.
Umm, if you hadn't killed someone you wouldn't be there. Have a good time in hell, Ronald.
Wanna bet?
I hate lawyers.
Yep. FLUSH!!!!
For the sake of my immortal soul, I refused to become a lawyer.
I agree, we still need a real appeals process. Some folks here seem to think you should be executed as soon as you are convicted. I have no problem with capital punishment but every safeguard against executing an innocent person should be in place. After all,most people that are on trial for capital offenses are represented by court appointed attorneys. How could you trust a life to some of these guys that you can't trust with 25 cents. Remember,98% of the lawyers give the rest a bad name.....(no offence meant to lawyers who are reading this,I assume you are of the 2%)
I also agree with those who think this appeals process should be hurried along as much as possible, even 10 years seems like an excessively long time to me.
Hell no, it isn't, if it's held off for 30+ years.
Capital Punishment is just that - punishment. It's not intended as a deterrent. If it were, we would call it Capital Deterrence.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Our lawyers and judges have made justice all but impossible for felonies.
Priceless.
Maroon eyes??? Maroon??
Usually a rabid dog is put down immediately. Why the wait?
...and only 210 days to kill a baby in the womb .... go figure .....
... ever notice they always show the person that's going to be executed but never the people they've killed ....????
I saw that he had maroon eyes also! Weird
Bingo! That's why he's still alive and well.
By his own admission, he was too stupid to steal from wealthy people. Even if he had been making the 1975 minimum wage of $2.10 for the past 30 years, working 40 hour weeks, he would have earned $131,040.00. Perhaps he should have written and sold some children's books.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
"No rich folks here. I'm not mad at that. But again, if I had the money, I wouldn't be here."
He's as guilty as sin and should have been dispatched long ago....but his statement is correct. OJ Simpson and others less famous but equally wealthy have skewed the system terribly. The loss of those two potentially very productive people while this fungus is allowed to live in comfort for 31 years is sickening.
He has liven longer then the life expectancy of many 3rd world countries and our sorry asses have fed him and given him shelter too boot.
Totally pathetic situation.
Name one innocent put to death with the current death penalty? If you cant come up with a name in your head already it has NOT happened.
I've seen a few folks who were sloshed to the gills from alcohol so maybe this guy was a heavy connoisseur of red wine or at least Thunderbird or Mad Dog 20-20. Since he's been in the slammer for so long, I wonder if he still has "maroon" eyes?
BTW, wku, I graduated from EKU, also known as the "Maroons".
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I've met ONE lawyer (they don't deserve to be called attorneys as it sounds dignified) in my life of 40+ years that wasn't a complete jerk.
I heard earlier this execution has been put on hold pending another hearing.
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