Texas executes man for 2006 slaying of Dallas real estate agent

Texas on Wednesday set to dying a person who fatally stabbed a suburban Dallas serious estate agent additional than 16 several years in the past, the next execution this calendar year in what has been the nation’s busiest dying penalty condition.

Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 41, obtained a lethal injection at the point out penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced lifeless at 6:33 p.m. He was condemned for fatally stabbing 40-yr-previous Sarah Walker in July 2006. She was found stabbed much more than 30 moments in a design property in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas.

In a quick statement following he was strapped to the demise chamber gurney, Chanthakoummane thanked Jesus Christ, ministers with the Texas prison technique and “all these folks in my lifestyle that aided me in this journey.”

Although no relatives of Walker attended the execution, he offered a concept to them: “I pray my dying will carry them peace.”

As the 5 grams of the effective sedative pentobarbital commenced flowing as a result of IV lines into veins in every of his arms, he appeared towards a window by which his mother quietly viewed a several feet away and mouthed, “Mom, I really like you.”

He then took 4 breaths, gasped marginally and there was no more movement. He was pronounced useless 15 minutes afterwards.

Just right before the execution took spot and at Chanthakoummane’s ask for, a Buddhist monk put his right hand on the inmate’s upper body and read a passage from the E book of Ecclesiastes that refers to “a time for every little thing.” He responded: “Amen.”

Prosecutors say Chanthakoummane entered the product house and then defeat Walker with a wooden plant stand and stabbed her right before thieving her Rolex look at and a silver ring, which had been in no way located. DNA evidence showed Chanthakoummane’s blood was discovered in different destinations within the model house, which includes beneath Walker’s fingernails.

Walker experienced been a major-seller for residence builder D.R. Horton. She experienced two small children.

Chanthakoummane experienced acknowledged he was in the product household, but mentioned he only went within to get a drink of water. He experienced been on parole in Texas soon after serving time in North Carolina for aggravated kidnapping and robbery.

“I am harmless,” Chanthakoummane experienced said in a letter filed in federal court docket in March.

The Texas Court of Prison Appeals declined to delay Chanthakoummane’s execution following his attorneys had challenged the DNA proof applied to convict him. The evidence had been explained by the appeals court as the “linchpin of the state’s situation.” Eric Allen, 1 of his attorneys, reported earlier Wednesday he would not file a closing enchantment with the U.S. Supreme Court.

His attorneys had argued new science elevated the chance Chanthakoummane’s DNA could have been transferred to Walker’s fingernails with no any direct make contact with involving the two.

But authorities stated prior DNA screening in his scenario had unsuccessful to crystal clear Chanthakoummane.

“Any belief by Chanthakoummane that more DNA investigation would yield effects that will be valuable to his case is a fantasy,” lawyers with the Texas Legal professional General’s Office wrote in court docket documents final month.

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had declined to grant Chanthakoummane possibly a 120-working day reprieve or a commutation of his loss of life sentence to a lesser penalty.

Chanthakoummane’s attorneys mentioned their problems about the DNA proof was element of a pattern by prosecutors in using faulty proof in the scenario.

At Chanthakoummane’s demo, a forensic dentist testified the loss of life row inmate was the source of a bite mark on Walker’s neck. Such bitemark evidence has since been discredited and in 2016, Texas became the to start with condition to get in touch with for banning bite mark assessment in felony circumstances.

The two witnesses who stated they saw Chanthakoummane close to the murder scene ended up hypnotized by officers with the Texas Section of Community Security, or DPS, to support discover him.

A 2020 report by the Dallas Morning News identified most Texas judges still allow for evidence derived from hypnosis inspite of criticism it can distort reminiscences and direct to wrongful convictions. In January 2021, DPS stopped utilizing hypnosis. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill that would have banned men and women who have been hypnotized from testifying in a legal demo.

In October 2020, the Texas Courtroom of Prison Appeals observed that though the bitemark testimony would no lengthier be admissible in courtroom, Chanthakoummane’s attorneys experienced unsuccessful to discredit the hypnosis-related testimony.

The appeals court also uncovered the DNA proof was still sturdy.

At his trial, Chanthakoummane’s attorney, Keith Gore, advised jurors his consumer was responsible “and he wanted to rob (Walker), and it didn’t go the right way, and he killed her.”

Walker’s father, Joseph Walker, who died very last 12 months, had opposed Chanthakoummane’s execution and had explained to the Moments Union in New York in 2013 he experienced forgiven his daughter’s killer.

Chanthakoummane was the ninth inmate set to loss of life this calendar year in the U.S.

Whilst Texas has been the nation’s busiest funds punishment state, the use of the dying penalty in the point out has reached near historic lows. Juries have ongoing to situation much less death sentences and in the previous couple of years most executions have been delayed by the pandemic or by lawful questions about what spiritual advisers can do in the dying chamber.