TEXAS LAST MEAL
DOMINIQUE GREEN
October 26, 2004

..."Legally, it doesn't mean anything.".....

Last Meal: No final meal request.

The skinny: Green was executed for killing a man in a convenience store parking lot while robbing him of $50.

Spree!: Green and three other men took part in a series of robberies in the Houston area over a period of several hours and continuing into the early morning hours of the following day.

After 6 a.m., the men ended up at a convenience store, where they confronted the victim in the store parking lot and demanded his money. When he refused, Green shot him with a Tech-9 semi-automatic gun, then took $50 from his wallet. Green and his accomplices split the proceeds of their robberies.

Three days later, Green was driving a vehicle stolen from a robbery victim and led Houston Police on a high speed chase for almost 50 miles until swerving off the road into a ditch. Green fled on foot, but was eventually arrested hiding in a nearby field. Others in the car were also arrested. A loaded Tech 9 semi-automatic gun, identified as the murder weapon, was found in the vehicle. Following arraignment, Green admitted to being present at the scene of the murder, but claimed that he was only a "lookout." At trial, nine victims identified Green as the person who robbed them during a 3-day crime spree.

Two companions, who like Green were black, testified against him at his trial and received lesser sentences for robbery. A fourth person at the scene, a white man, never was indicted, spurring complaints of racial bias. Harris County prosecutors said the case against the fourth person went to a grand jury, but the panel refused to indict.

Leading up to: Green was executed despite last-minute legal battles and pleas from relatives of the murder victim that Green's life be spared.

A U.S. District Judge had blocked Green's execution after his attorneys argued that boxes of improperly stored and catalogued evidence kept by the Houston Police Department crime lab and recently discovered could contain information relevant to the case.

But the stay was later lifted by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay. Harris County prosecutors have said all evidence in the case had been accounted for in Green's case.

His case has garnered the support of an unlikely array of people, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, who earlier this year traveled from South Africa to visit Green on death row

More on the victim's family: In a rare face-to-face session in a Texas prison between a death row inmate and a relative of a murder victim, the victim's son met for 90 minutes Monday with the man convicted of killing his father. "Texas is going to put a righteous person to die like an animal, putting him on a table, strapping him up, putting those needles in his arms, putting him to sleep," the son said. "We're not dogs. We're human beings just like everybody else. He's a human being, just like me, just like you."

Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney in Harris County who handles capital murder appeals. "Legally, it doesn't mean anything."

Last words and such: "There was a lot of people that got me to this point and I can't thank them all. But thank you for your love and support. They have allowed me to do a lot more than I could have on my own . . . . I have overcame a lot. I am not angry but I am disappointed that I was denied justice. But I am happy that I was afforded you all as family and friends. I love you all. Please just keep the struggle going . . . . I am just sorry and I am not as strong as I thought I was going to be. But I guess it only hurts for a little while. You are all my family. Please keep my memory alive."

Factoids: Green was the....

53rd murderer executed in U.S. in 2004
938th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
18th murderer executed in Texas in 2004
331st murderer executed in Texas since 1976