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Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Orien Cecil Joiner)

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas Attorney General

MEDIA ADVISORY - ORIEN CECIL JOINER SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Orien Cecil Joiner who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m., Wednesday, July 12th:

Orien Cecil Joiner was convicted and sentenced to death in April 1988 for the December 1986 murders of Carol Lynette Huckabee and Eva Marie DeForest. Joiner murdered Huckabee and DeForest, who were roommates, in their Lubbock apartment. Huckabee was stabbed in the chest and her throat was cut. Evidence also showed that Joiner had raped Huckabee. DeForest was stabbed 41 times and was found with blunt force trauma to her forehead. Also her throat was cut.

EVIDENCE

A resident of the apartment complex where Huckabee and DeForest lived, saw Joiner near their apartment with blood on his shirt and dripping from his hand. Two days after the murders, pictures of Joiner were taken showing a cut on his right hand, cuts on his fingers and bloodstains on clothes he was wearing the day of the murders. Joiner told police that he saw two black men running out the back of the victims' apartment, however, there were no footprints found leaving the scene or on muddy ground on the other side of the fence Joiner told police the men jumped over. Tests done on Joiner's shirt found that a blood stain on the shirt matched the blood type of Carol Huckabee. Another stain found on Joiner's shirt matched DeForest's blood type.

APPEALS TIMELINE

March 18, 1992, Court of Criminal Appeals denied motion for rehearing.
June 28, 1993, United States Supreme Court denied petition for writ of certiorari.
June 11, 1998, Trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that briefing filed in State court be denied.
Sept. 16, 1998, Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief based on its own review.
March 2, 1999, Federal District Court denies relief and affirms Joiner's conviction.
April 6, 1999, District Court denies permission to appeal.
Nov. 30, 1999, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denies permission to appeal.
April 3, 2000, Supreme Court denies writ of certiorari.

To date, Joiner has not filed a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

Joiner had behaved violently toward his wife shortly before he committed the murders. Shortly after Thanksgiving Joiner and his wife agreed to separate. On Sunday, Dec. 14,1986, Joiner arrived unexpectedly at Gustafson's (his wife) apartment. As soon as she let him inside, Joiner closed the door behind him, pulled an open knife from his right rear pocket, and placed it to her throat. Joiner carried this particular knife with him on a daily basis. He then told Gustafson "not to say anything and not to scream or he would kill [her] right there." Joiner then walked Gustafson over to the couch and punched her twice in the face with his right fist. He cut her sweater off and forced her to remove her pants and underwear. He punched her several more times in the face, chest, stomach, and ribs. Joiner continued this physical abuse of his wife throughout that night and the early morning hours of Monday, Dec. 15, 1986. He punched her in the face and mouth several more times and, at one point, attempted to strangle her. During this entire episode, Joiner repeatedly told Gustafson that he "ought to kill [her] right then and there."

Joiner made Gustafson call in sick to work. All that day, he kept her and son James inside the apartment. By Tuesday morning, Gustafson had convinced Joiner that she would not have him arrested and that they would be reconciled. He then allowed her to leave with James to go to work. Gustafson did not return until Wednesday evening, accompanied by a girlfriend and two police officers, to retrieve her clothing and that of her son. Kathleen Gustafson also testified that in 1985, she was doing laundry in the laundry room when she needed to use the bathroom. When she returned, Joiner did not believe her explanation of where she had gone, accusing her of lying and "screwing around." While she held her young son, Joiner hit Gustafson in the stomach with his fist, hard enough to cause her to drop to her knees. The noise caused a custodian to go to the laundry room to check on what had happened. A few months later, Gustafson's son was tickling Joiner as he slept. Joiner grabbed him by his hair and threw him off the mattress. Gustafson remembered slapping Joiner and told him to leave James alone. Joiner then pulled out his knife and threatened, "Don't ever hit me again." Around Christmas, 1986, Joiner called Gustafson from the Lubbock County Jail, following the Huckabee and DeForest murders. He asked if she were going to file for divorce. When she answered affirmatively, Joiner threatened to have both her and her son killed. The jury also heard several other instances of Joiner's violent conduct. Pat Fink, who had worked with Joiner and Gustafson since 1985, testified that he had seen Joiner threaten people with his knife on four or five occasions. In Fink's opinion, Joiner had a quick and violent temper.

Ernest Denman had been Joiner's employer from September 1984 until March 1986. He saw Joiner threaten co-workers with his knife on two occasions. First, Joiner had indicated his desire to cut off facial features, i.e., a nose, tongue, or ear. On the second occasion, Joiner threatened to make "a woman" out of a male co-worker. Joiner was also placed on a 90-day probation by Denman for pulling his knife on a group of workers who were unloading his trailer.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Carol Huckabee, 26, and Eva DeForest, 29, were waitresses and roommates in Lubbock Texas. They were found murdered inside their apartment and both women had been bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly. Carol was raped, and suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest, back and face before having her throat slashed. Eva was beaten, stabbed 41 times in the chest and her throat was cut. A broken knife blade was found sticking out of her chest.

Joiner lived in the apartment next door and initially told police that he saw two assailants fleeing from the apartment and gave conflicting statements about how he found the murdered women. A photograph taken of Joiner's right hand immediately after the murders showed cuts on his hand and fingers. During the trial, Joiner's estranged wife presented testimony of Joiner's violent nature, which had escalated prior to and during the couple's separation. She said that Joiner had repeatedly beaten her and, towards the end, had put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. One resident of the apartment complex where Joiner and the two waitresses lived testified that he had seen Joiner near the women's apartment on the night of the murder with blood on his shirt. Tests done on the blood stains showed that the blood was, in fact, that of both Huckabee and Deforest. A friend who knew Joiner well also testified that Joiner had a violent temper and had, on numerous occasions, threatened him and others with a knife that he carried.

Texas Execution Information Center

Orien Cecil "O.C." Joiner, 50, was executed by lethal injection on 12 July in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of two next-door neighbors. Carol Lynette Huckabee and Eva Marie DeForest were two waitresses who shared an apartment in Lubbock. In December 1986, an intruder bound both women with duct tape and stabbed them to death. Huckabee, 26, was raped and suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest, back, and face, and her throat was slashed. DeForest, 29, was beaten, stabbed 41 times in the face, and her throat was cut. A broken knife blade was left sticking out of her chest.

Joiner, then 37, called the police and told them that he discovered the bodies then observed two men running from the apartment complex and escaping over a fence. When police checked the muddy ground around the fence, they could find no footprints. Joiner was arrested after telling the police conflicting stories about how he found the murdered women. A witness told police that he saw Joiner near the victim's apartment with blood on his shirt and dripping from his hand. Blood on his shirt and his shoes matched the blood types of both of the slain women. He also had cuts on his right hand and fingers.

Four weeks earlier, Joiner had been hospitalized for emotional problems. Witnesses at his trial testified that he carried a particular knife with him on a daily basis and that he had threatened people with that knife on different occasions. He reportedly threatened to kill or injure his estranged wife, co-workers, and others. Three days before the murders, Joiner unexpectedly showed up at his estranged wife's apartment and physically abused her throughout the night and into the next day. He allowed her to leave after she promised not to have him arrested and to reconcile with him.

In a death-row interview, Joiner said that he was innocent. He said he saw the bloody bodies through a window, put his fist through the window to get the door opened, then called police. He said that the blood on his shoes got there when he and a police officer walked through the apartment. He also said that although he was innocent and about to be executed, he was "happy as a lark" because of his belief in God.

"As I have said from the very first day, I am innocent of this crime and God knows I am innocent and the poor people that were murdered know I am innocent and when I get to Heaven, I (will meet them) and we'll all talk, Joiner said in his final statement. While receiving the lethal injection, he mouthed "I love you" to someone. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

Abeline ReporterNews.Com

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Former long-haul trucker Orien Cecil Joiner went quietly to his death Wednesday, proclaiming his innocence while insisting he was ready to die. “My work on earth is done,” Joiner said before receiving a lethal injection for the fatal slashing and stabbing of two Lubbock women who lived in an apartment next to him in December 1986. Joiner's statement lasted less than two minutes. He spoke matter-of-factly and nodded and smiled at a friend. “As I've said since the very first thing, I am innocent of this crime,” he said. “And God knows I'm innocent, and the poor people that was murdered knows I am innocent. And when I get to heaven, I'll be meeting you and we'll all talk.”

Joiner, 50, said he felt sorry for the family of the victims, but that someday the real killer would be caught and another execution would have to take place. “If it takes my death to make them feel happy, then I will bless them. I don't have hard feelings toward anyone because the Lord feels that it is my time to come home to him,” he said. The lethal drugs were administered at 6:11 p.m. Joiner was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. While being injected, he mouthed “I love you” to someone. Then he gasped, coughed and closed his eyes.

Joiner's execution brought to 25 the number of condemned inmates put to death in Texas this year. One more execution is set for later this month and at least six are scheduled for August. Joiner had called police the week before Christmas 1986 to tell them he discovered the bloody bodies of waitresses Carole Huckabee, 26, and Eva Marie DeForest, 29, after seeing two men flee the women's apartment and escape over a backyard fence. Authorities, however, determined it was Joiner who was responsible for the carnage.

Both victims were bound with duct tape. DeForest was stabbed 41 times, her throat was cut and the broken knife blade was left sticking out of her chest. Huckabee, her roommate, had her face and neck slashed plus four stab wounds to her chest. Both were raped during or after the fatal attacks. Prosecutors produced a witness, a neighbor, who testified he saw Joiner near the victims' apartment with blood on his shirt and dripping from his hand. Tests of blood stains on Joiner's shirt matched the blood types of both women. “The state doesn't have to prove motive, but obviously the sexual aspect looms large in that regard,” former Lubbock County District Attorney Travis Ware, who prosecuted Joiner, said this week. “Presumably they were objects of his fancy.” Joiner, in a recent death row interview, said he spotted the bloody bodies when he looked through a window, put his fist through the window to get the door open, then called police. He said blood on his shoes, which prosecutors used against him at his trial, got there when he and a police officer walked through the apartment. “I'm very sorry for their families, along with my family, thinking I did something I didn't,” he said.

Police investigating Joiner's report that two men ran from the victims' apartment could find no footprints in the muddy ground where Joiner said he saw the men hop a fence. The punishment drew far less attention than the execution last month of convicted killer Gary Graham. Graham's claims of innocence and an unfair trial focused attention on Texas as the nation's most active execution state and the support of the death penalty by Bush, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

”(Graham) had a lot of important people backing him and he was black,” Joiner, who is white and was known in prison as O.C., said. “He was in the cell next door to me. He told me: 'If I wasn't black, O.C., I wouldn't be getting all this publicity.'” Asked if that troubled him, Joiner replied: “At first, it did... I don't mind dying, if that's what the Lord wants, but I want my innocence proven. If not for my belief in the Lord, I'd be a nut case. But I'm happy as a lark. I know where I'm going.” Joiner, who grew up in Macon, Ga., said he moved his small trucking business from North Carolina to Texas to take advantage of Texas' lower taxes. “Greed brought me to Texas,” he said.

Four weeks before the killings, Joiner was hospitalized for emotional problems. Evidence showed three days before the murders, he held his estranged wife hostage at knifepoint and assaulted her. Prosecutors also showed the jury he had an explosive temper and an affinity for knives.

www.DeathRow.at

Joiner (50) was executed for killing two women who lived in the apartment next to him in 1986. In his very short last statement he said: "As I've said since the very first thing, I am innocent of this crime," he said. "And God knows I'm innocent, and the poor people that was murdered knows I am innocent. And when I get to heaven, I'll be meeting you and we'll all talk."

Prosecutors produced a witness, a neighbor, who testified he saw Joiner near the victims' apartment with blood on his shirt and dripping from his hand. Tests of blood stains on Joiner's shirt matched the blood types of both women.

Joiner, in a recent death row interview, said he spotted the bloody bodies when he looked through a window, put his fist through the window to get the door open, then called police. He said blood on his shoes, which prosecutors used against him at his trial, got there when he and a police officer walked through the apartment.