Associated Press
Johnathan Moore HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A self-described fascist who adopted the dark punk and goth lifestyle was executed Wednesday for the slaying of a San Antonio police officer 12 years ago.
Johnathan Moore repeatedly apologized to the officer's widow.
"It was done out of fear, stupidity and immaturity. It wasn't until I got locked up and saw the newspaper; I saw his face and smile and I realized I had killed a good man." Moore told Jennifer Morgan, who stood next to the death chamber window surrounded by comforting friends.
He wished her happiness. He then counseled a friend who was a witness to quit using heroin and methadone. He told his father that he loved him.
He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal dose of drugs began.
Moore, 32, was the second condemned Texas prisoner executed this year and the second of five scheduled to die this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Moore was convicted of gunning down Fabian Dominguez, 29, who interrupted Moore and two companions during the burglary of a house in the officer's neighborhood in January 1995. Dominguez was returning home from his overnight shift when he spotted a suspicious car in the driveway of the house and stopped to investigate.
When he confronted Moore, seated in the passenger side of the car, Moore opened fire with a .25-caliber handgun. Moore also retrieved the officer's service revolver and shot him three more times in the head.
He was arrested the day following the shooting after leading police on a chase into neighboring Bandera County and wrecking his car by hitting a couple of police cars.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Moore's case late last year. An appeal to stop the punishment by challenging the state's lethal injection execution procedure was rejected Tuesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Supreme Court then rejected a similar appeal about two hours before Moore's scheduled execution time.
The San Antonio Police Officers Association chartered a bus and about two dozen officers holding blue glow sticks stood outside the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to honor their fallen colleague while prison officials inside carried out the punishment.
Moore is the first person convicted of killing a San Antonio police officer to go to the death chamber since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
The two others with Moore the night of the shooting were arrested a short time after his arrest. Peter Dowdle, now 29, is serving a 25-year prison term. Paul Cameron, also 29, is serving life.
On an Internet site, Moore said he "hung out with the Industrial, Punk and Goth scene" and described himself as "a full-blown fascist."
But he added: "I have disappointed and let down everybody that has ever loved me."
Moore told the San Antonio Express-News last week the shooting was the result of "fear and stupidity" and credited Dominguez for being "the man."
"He was taking charge and he was running right into a situation that required a lot of strength and courage," Moore said. "I think about that a lot."
Moore's capital murder trial was hardly routine.
Following his conviction and before punishment testimony was to begin at his trial, he fired his lawyers so he could represent himself, then rehired them the following day. Before the trial, he had tried to escape from custody during a visit to a health clinic, grabbing a stun gun and a can of pepper spray hidden for him in a restroom and unsuccessfully trying to overpower a deputy guarding him. Authorities found a handcuff key inside a shoe in his cell.
During the punishment phase, his mother, from the witness stand, shouted profanities at lawyers for both sides and was arrested after deputies said she bit a court bailiff.
Dominguez had been an officer about 21/2 years at the time of his death. He had infant twin daughters, who now are 12.
More than a dozen other Texas inmates already have execution dates for 2007, including two more next week.
On Jan. 24, Larry Swearingen, 35, is set to die for the December 1998 abduction and strangling of a 19-year-old Montgomery County woman, Melissa Trotter. The next day, Ronald Chambers, 51, is scheduled for injection for abducting and fatally shooting Mike McMahan, 22, a Texas Tech student from Washington state, during an April 1975 carjacking in Dallas.
source: http://www.wfaa.com
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I AM A PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN LIFE. BUT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE SAVAGELY AND BRUTALLY TAKEN LIVES AWAY NEED TO BE EUTHANIZED. THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO LIVE AND BREATHE FOR TAKING THE LIFE OF ANOTHER. MAN IS NOT GOD AND I HATE FOR THE COURTS TO SAY THAT A MAN WILL BE EXECUTED, BUT LIFE IS NOT FOR THE TAKING...EXCEPT BY GOD. ANY LIFE.
