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Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Brian Roberson)

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas Attorney General

MEDIA ADVISORY - Brian Keith Roberson Scheduled to be Executed

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Brian Keith Roberson who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m.,Wednesday, August 9th:

Brian Keith Roberson was convicted and sentenced to death for the August 1986 murder of 79 year-old James Louis Boots. Roberson knocked on the door of Boots' home, which was across the street from his own house, entered the home and then stabbed James Louis Boots and his wife, 75-year-old Lillian Wallace Boots, to death with a knife. Before Roberson left the Boots' home, he ransacked the house and took jewelry. A day later, Roberson was arrested and police found jewelry belonging to the Boots' in his possession. Roberson's bloody fingerprints were found inside the victims' home. Roberson gave a written confession to police admitting that he ransacked the house and stabbed both Mr. and Mrs. Boots.

EVIDENCE

Roberson gave a written confession to police admitting that he killed Mr. and Mrs. Boots and ransacked their house. Police found Roberson wearing a necklace belonging to Mr. Boots when he was arrested. Roberson's bloody fingerprints were found inside the Boots' home.

APPEALS TIME-LINE

May 12, 1993 - Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Roberson's conviction and death sentence.
Nov. 8, 1993 - U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review.
Jan. 22, 1997 - Habeas Trial Court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law denying Roberson relief.
June 4, 1997 - Court of Criminal Appeals affirms denial of state habeas relief.
June 19, 1997 - A Federal District Court stayed Roberson's execution scheduled for June 24, 1997.
June 3, 1998 - Roberson filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus.
July 28, 1999 - Federal District Court denied habeas relief .
Sept. 15, 1999 - Federal District Court denied Roberson permission to appeal.
April 5, 2000 - U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Roberson permission to appeal.
June 30, 2000 - Roberson filed certiorari petition with U.S. Supreme Court which is currently pending.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

Evidence was introduced during the punishment phase of Roberson's trial about his involvement in multiple burglaries, arson, sexual assault, possession of marijuana and the use of inhalants.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Fingerprints linked Brian Roberson to the Aug. 30, 1986, slayings of next-door neighbors James and Lillian Boots. The electrician later confessed to stabbing the Dallas couple to death before stealing jewelry from the home. James Boots, 78, and his 75-year-old wife, Lillian, were stabbed to death in their Oak Cliff home 14 years ago this month. Their bodies were discovered near their security alarm, which was triggered during a horrific attack in which a knife blade was buried in Mr. Boots' brain. Within a day, Dallas homicide investigators arrested a 22-year-old neighbor, Brian Keith Roberson. Roberson had a piece of jewelry that was stolen from the couple's home. One of his bloody fingerprints was found inside the house. He told police and a reporter for The Dallas Morning News that he committed the murders after a night of drinking liquor and smoking a form of PCP mixed with formaldehyde. Bettye Roberson said last week that she remains convinced of her son's innocence. "His fingerprints were not found on either weapon," Ms. Roberson said.

State District Judge Janice Warder, one of the prosecutors at the murder trial, said there was no question about Roberson's guilt. "This was a horrible murder of very nice people," Judge Warder said. "They were nothing but kindly neighbors. He killed both of them, stabbed them brutally to death." Roberson's own words hurt him at trial. "I was walking home yesterday, and I went up to the Boots' front door," Roberson said in his initial confession to police. "I knocked on the door, and he came to the door. He opened the door, and I pushed my way in. I started fighting with Mr. Boots. The lady came up from behind him. I started stabbing them. After I stabbed them, I went through the house, and then I went out the front door. I don't remember why I was there," Roberson told the News in 1986. "But I remember some violence coming over me." When he was arrested, Roberson added, "I had a gold necklace on my neck I must have took from them, and my right hand was cut up." Roberson expressed remorse at that time, noting that he had frequently mowed the Boots' lawn. "They were the nicest people on the block," he said the day after the killings. He said the couple and his family exchanged Christmas cards for several years. "I know I did it, but I don't know why," Roberson said. "I was just juiced up. It don't make sense."

Last week Judge Warder, the former prosecutor, said: "It appeared that he knew what he was doing." She said Roberson removed a ring from Mr. Boots' finger before leaving the house, adding: "I didn't see any credible evidence of diminished capacity." Judge Warder said opponents of the death penalty should pick another prisoner to promote the cause. "I just remember that the Bootses were a kindly couple who tried to help Brian Roberson," Judge Warder said. "They had invited him into their home before. This shouldn't have happened to them."

Texas Execution Information Center

Brian Keith Roberson, 36, was executed by lethal injection on 9 August in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of an elderly couple who lived next door to him.

In August 1986, Roberson, then 22, stabbed James Louis Boots, 79, and his 75-year-old wife, Lillian, to death, then burglarized their home of assorted jewelry. Roberson was identified through a bloody fingerprint found in the house. He was also found in posession of a piece of the Boots' jewelry.

"I was walking home yesterday, and I went up to the Boots' front door," Mr. Roberson said in his initial confession to police. "I knocked on the door, and he came to the door. He opened the door, and I pushed my way in. I started fighting with Mr. Boots. The lady came up from behind him. I started stabbing them. After I stabbed them, I went through the house, and then I went out the front door." Soon after his arrest, he told a reporter, I don't remember why I was there, but I remember some violence coming over me." When he was arrested, Roberson added, "I had a gold necklace on my neck I must have took from them, and my right hand was cut up." A day after the killings, Roberson said, "I know I did it, but I don't know why. I was just juiced up." Roberson said that he had just come off a night of drinking liquor and smoking PCP mixed with formaldehyde. "They were the nicest people on the block," he added, noting that he had frequently mowed their lawn and their families had exchanged Christmas cards for several years.

Mike Fleming, a grandson of the Boots', told reporters that his grandfather had loaned Roberson some money and that Roberson still owed him that money when he went over to borrow some more. Fleming believes that James Boots refused to lend Roberson any more money, and Roberson became enraged. In 1974, Roberson's own father was stabbed to death by a drug addict. At his mother's wishes, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in that case. Roberson's father's murderer was paroled after 6 years in prison.

Roberson's attorneys alleged that he did not get a fair trial, that his trial lawyers were incompetent, and that the jury was improperly selected to exclude blacks. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Roberson's request for a stay by an 18-0 vote. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal by a 7-2 vote.

At his execution, Roberson addressed his family first. He then said, "To all of the racist white folks in America that hate black folks and to all of the black folks in America that hate themselves, the infamous words of my famous, legendary brother Nat Turner - y'all kiss my black ass. Let's do it." He then taunted the victim's family before receiving the lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

Abeline ReporterNews.Com

Thursday, August 10, 2001 - HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Two condemned killers, one of them a prisoner opponents said was mentally retarded and should not be executed, were put to death Wednesday evening in the nation's busiest death chamber. [About 30 minutes before the execution of Oliver David Cruz] Brian Keith Roberson, condemned for the 1986 stabbing deaths of an elderly couple who lived across the street from him in Dallas, was executed. Smiling and defiant to the end, Roberson, 36, lashed out at family members and police officers who testified against him at his trial. “You ain't got what you want,” he said. He then said he wanted to tell all the “racist white folks that hate blacks” and all the “black folks who hate themselves” that in the words of his brother Nat Turner, “You all can kiss by black a**. I'm ready. Let's go. I'll see you when you get there.” Roberson then said goodbye to his family members and died at 6:17 p.m. CDT, five minutes after the lethal drug cocktail was injected.

He lost an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court by a 7-2 vote earlier Wednesday. “This has brought closure to this grim and gruesome situation,” said Randy Fleming, grandson of Roberson's victims, and one of the people who watched Roberson die. Roberson's twin brother, Bruce, who also watched the execution, was critical of Gov. George W. Bush but said he was going to party Wednesday night. “When God comes, he's going to kick ass and take names,” Bruce Roberson said. “And justice system: You can kiss my a**.” The back-to-back lethal injections were the first multiple executions in Texas since June 1997 and marked the third time since capital punishment resumed in the state in 1982 that more than one inmate was executed in one day.

Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Roberson becomes the 27th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 226th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Roberson becomes the 57th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 655th overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977. And Roberson becomes the 139th condemned inmate to be put to death during the tenure of Governor George W. Bush, who took office in Jan. 1985.