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Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Tony Chambers)

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas Attorney General

Friday, November 10, 2000 - MEDIA ADVISORY - Tony Chambers Scheduled To Be Executed

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Tony Chambers who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m., Wednesday, November 15th. Chambers was convicted and sentenced to death for the November 1990 rape and murder of 11 year-old Carenthia Bailey in Tyler, Texas. Chambers was seen leaving a school basketball game with Carenthia Bailey. She never returned home. Carenthia's body was found two days later in the woods near Dogan Middle School. It was determined that she had been strangled. There was also evidence that Bailey had been raped and there were twenty or more puncture wounds to her abdomen. The same day Carenthia's body was found, Chambers admitted to police that he had met up with her at the basketball game, then walked with her into the woods where he had sex with Carenthia and strangled her.

Chambers made oral, written and videotaped confessions.

In a taped statement to police, the day Carenthia Bailey's body was found, Chambers admitted to having sex with Carenthia and strangling her.

A jailer overheard Chambers tell another inmate "You know that little girl that was killed; that was me."

When police told Chambers that Carenthia's body had been found, Chambers replied, "Oh no. Oh, my. I didn't mean to hurt her."

Four people who attended the basketball game that Carenthia attended, saw Chambers with her the night she disappeared.

Two witnesses saw Chambers after Carenthia's disappearance and he told them that he had killed her.

APPEALS TIME-LINE

October 27, 1993 - Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Chambers' conviction.

December 8, 1993 - Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied rehearing

May 16, 1994 - U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review.

March 18, 1998 - Court of Criminal Appeals denied Chambers' application for writ of state habeas corpus.

May 6, 1999 - A federal magistrate judge issued a report and recommended that Chambers' petition be denied, based on a second federal habeas petition Chambers filed in November 1998.

June 29, 1999 - District court adopted the magistrate's report and recommendation and denied habeas relief.

August 10, 1999 - District court denied permission to appeal.

June 20, 2000 - Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied permission to appeal.

July 24, 2000 - Court of Appeals denied rehearing.

October 24, 2000 - Chambers filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court which is pending.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY
Chambers' girlfriend Juanita Benson testified at trial that while she and Chambers lived together, she frequently called police due to fights they had. Benson also testified that after she broke up with Chambers, he would come by and throw rocks at her house, pulled the phone cord out of the wall and set a bottle on fire and threw it into a window in her house. Benson also said that Chambers threatened to shoot her in front of police if they came to arrest him. Chambers had been previously arrested for public intoxication, evading detention, traffic tickets, burglary and assault/retaliation.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Tony Chambers was convicted and sentenced to die for the November 19, 1990 abduction and murder of 11 year old Carenthia Marie Bailey in Tyler, Texas. Carenthia disappeared after attending a middle-school basketball game and was last seen leaving the school with Chambers. Her body was found dumped near a road and she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Chambers called police and told them he had taken Carenthia but later denied involvement. After her body was found, he gave both a written and verbal confession and has confessed at least 5 times.

Amarillo Globe-News

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Tony Chambers was executed Wednesday night for the abduction, rape and strangulation of an 11-year-old Tyler girl. Chambers, 32, was the 37th inmate to be put to death in Texas this year, tying the record number of executions carried out by the state in 1997. The execution of Johnny Paul Penry is set for tonight.

Chambers was convicted in the murder of Carenthia Marie Bailey, who disappeared after attending a middle school basketball game 10 years ago in Tyler. Chambers was seen leaving the basketball game with the girl Nov. 19, 1990. Her body was found two days later in a wooded area near Tyler's Dogan Middle School. On it were some 20 etchings carved into her stomach. Prosecutors said Chambers carved those marks in her body, using a scalpel and protractor.

In a brief statement, he expressed love to his family and his friends present. "Mom, I just want y'all to know that I love you," he said. "No matter what in life, I want you to stay strong." He did not acknowledge the presence of the mother of his victim, who watched through a window a few feet away. As the drugs were to about to be administered, however, he addressed his father. "Dad, I want you to stay strong." He coughed six times, then sputtered once, the breathed a long sigh. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., six minutes after the drugs began flowing into his arms.

Tonight, Johnny Paul Penry, a mentally retarded inmate, is set to die for the 1979 rape-slaying of Pamela Moseley Carpenter, a Livingston housewife. After 21 years in prison, two competency trials and two murder trials, Penry, 44, is set to die today for the 1979 rape and murder of Pamela Moseley Carpenter of Livingston. The Texas board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a plea Tuesday for a reprieve. An appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court was pending.

Texas Execution Information Center

Chambers was convicted in the November 1990 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Carenthia Marie Bailey in Tyler. Bailey disappeared after attending a middle school basketball game. She was last seen leaving the school with Chambers. When police found her body two days later, she had been raped and strangled. Her stomach had also been cut or etched more than 20 times with a scalpel and a protractor.

When two people who saw Chambers leave with Bailey confronted him after she failed to return home, Chambers responded with a vulgarity about her and fled. He then called police to tell him the witnesses, who he said were her cousins, were trying to harm him. Later, he confessed to police, describing how he raped the girl, tied her to a tree with her shoelaces, and choked her for about 3 mintues. Then he untied her and carved on her stomach. Authorities said his descriptions of the carvings contained details only the killer would know. He also told police, "I didn't mean to hurt her."

Chambers had no prior prison record, but had a history of arrests for public intoxication, burglary, and assault. His former girlfriend testified that after they broke up, he threw rocks at her house, ripped out the phone lines, and tossed a Molotov cocktail through a window.

Chambers later recanted his confessions and tried to blame the slaying on an acquaintance. He declined to be interviewed by reporters on death row.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Chambers' appeal in June. The U.S. Supreme Court and Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his appeals and requests for clemency in November.

At his execution, Chambers expressed love for his parents. After the lethal dose began, he coughed six times, sputtered once, then breathed a long sigh. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.