Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Jeffery Tucker)

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Jeffery Tucker, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On the afternoon of July 11, 1988, a passing motorist found the body of Wilton Benthel Humphreys lying on a rural road in Parker County about 20 miles outside of Granbury, Texas. Humphreys had been shot twice in the chest and once in the face, had blood coming from his mouth and back of his head, had broken legs, and had tire marks on his pants. Humphreys' driver's license found in his pants pocket led investigators to his home where his wife explained that her husband had left earlier that day with a man, later identified as Tucker, to finalize the title transfer of a truck and travel trailer they had advertised for sale in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Tucker was arrested three days later in New Mexico driving the stolen truck in the course of a high-speed chase resulting from an armed robbery of a gas station. After Tucker's arrest, he confessed in detail to Humphreys' murder and to other crimes committed during the four-day crime spree culminating in his arrest, including an armed robbery of an Arlington motel clerk the day after Humphreys' murder.

The day before Humphreys' murder, Tucker, who had recently been released from prison, searched the classified advertisements for a vehicle suitable for travel and camping where Tucker could inexpensively and unnoticeably travel cross-country in a nationwide robbery spree. Tucker spotted the Humphreys' ad in the newspaper, and, using an assumed name, called to arrange a test drive. Then, Tucker stole two checks from his brother's checkbook and wrote one out for $423, which he then cashed at his brother's bank. Next, in violation of his parole, Tucker used the money to buy a gun at a pawn shop, which he used in the murder of Humphreys and in two armed-robberies following the murder.

Tucker's confession revealed the following details: The Humphreys', who were selling the truck and trailer because they had purchased a large RV to travel in together, met with Tucker at their home. Tucker went on a test drive with Humphreys and later visited with Mrs. Humphreys in her living room while Humphreys left to get some attachments for the trailer. Then, after making a pretextual phone call, Tucker and Humphreys left together in the truck to go to the bank in Granbury to transfer the paperwork and finalize the sale. Once the two men were in the truck alone, Tucker pulled out the gun from a paper sack he had been carrying and forced Humphreys to drive out of town. About 20 miles outside of town, Tucker forced Humphreys to pull onto a road off the main highway. Tucker instructed Humphreys to stop and get out of the truck, allegedly so Tucker could tie him up on a fence post. Tucker alleges that while both he and Humphreys were out of the truck, Humphreys tried to get back into the truck and lock Tucker out. Tucker's confession states that a struggle then ensued that ended up with Tucker shooting Humphreys two times. The autopsy revealed that Humphreys had been shot twice in the chest and once in the face. After Tucker shot Humphreys, Tucker shoved him out of the truck and drove off, at which time the rear wheels of the truck and the wheels on the left hand side of the trailer ran over Humphreys' legs.

Procedural History

Tucker was indicted on October 13, 1988, for the capital offense of murdering Wilton Benthel Humphreys in the course of committing and attempting to commit robbery. On Tucker's plea of not guilty, he was tried and convicted of capital murder. A punishment hearing followed, and based on the jury's answers to the special issues, the trial court assessed a punishment of death in accordance with state law. Tucker's appeal was automatic to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed the conviction and sentence in an unpublished opinion dated June 9, 1993. Tucker then filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which the Supreme Court denied on March 28, 1994.

Because Texas law at the time did not provide indigent defense for state habeas appeals, Tucker filed an initial application in federal district court without going through the state habeas appeal process. The federal district court limited Tucker's federal claims to those that he had raised on his state direct appeal. He appealed this ruling to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fifth Circuit dismissed Tucker's federal petition without prejudice to permit Tucker to go back to state court and file a state habeas appeal in light of a then newly-enacted state law that provided for the appointment of counsel to indigent applicants. Through court-appointed state habeas counsel, Tucker filed his original application for writ of habeas corpus in the state trial court on April 11, 1997, followed by a supplemental application. The state trial court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that relief be denied. Based on the trial court's recommendation, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief in an October 21, 1998, unpublished order.

Tucker initiated his federal habeas proceedings on November 2, 1998, by filing a preliminary petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division. On September 9, 1999, the court denied Tucker's request for federal habeas relief. The court next denied Tucker's motion to alter or amend the judgment, but granted Tucker's application for a certificate of appealability. Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit followed. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment denying Tucker habeas relief. Tucker's petition for rehearing was denied on March 28, 2001.

Finally, on June 25, 2001, Tucker filed a petition for certiorari review in the Supreme Court, which denied both the writ of certiori and the stay. By order dated July 2, 2001, the 43rd Judicial District Court of Parker County, Texas, scheduled Tucker's execution for September 11, 2001. Tucker's application for stay of execution in the Supreme Court is also pending.

Criminal History

Tucker's documented criminal history reflects a decade-long pattern of offenses, increasing in severity and indicating an unwillingness to conform to society's laws. Prior to the capital murder of Humphreys and the two armed robberies that followed,Tucker had been convicted of nine felony offenses and had been to the penitentiary three times.

In 1979, Tucker was convicted of two counts of passing a forged check that, after parole violations, resulted in two concurrent three-year terms of incarceration. In 1980, Tucker was convicted of third-degree felony theft and sentenced to three years in prison. Also in 1980, Tucker was found guilty of possession of marijuana and was sentenced to four years incarceration in the Texas Department of Corrections. Tucker's prison records reflect that he was found guilty of several disciplinary offenses, including soliciting the assistance of an inmate to violate prison rules and failing to obey orders.

In 1984, Tucker was convicted of two counts of forgery by the making of a check and was sentenced to concurrent six year terms of imprisonment. On November 30, 1984, Tucker was convicted of third degree felony theft and was sentenced to six years incarceration. Tucker's prison records revealed that during this term of incarceration he was found guilty of numerous disciplinary offenses, including damaging property, possession of contraband, sexual misconduct, destruction of property, possession of a weapon, refusing to obey orders, fighting without a weapon, failure to work, creating a disturbance, and stabbing an inmate. The stabbing incident involved Tucker's attack on his cellmate by stabbing him in the head with a homemade knife made of a metal rod and a toothbrush. Testimony at Tucker's capital murder trial revealed that the cellmate was found shoved under the bunk in the cell with a piece of a toothbrush handle attached to a metal rod protruding from his temple, and another rod that was stuck in his throat. A search of the cell revealed another weapon fashioned from a sharpened piece of a red drinking glass found underneath Tucker's mattress. Tucker pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and received a five-year sentence.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.

Jeffery Eugene Tucker, 41, was executed by lethal injection on 14 November in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a man whose classified ad he answered. In July 1988, Tucker, then 28, answered a newspaper ad for a pickup truck and travel trailer for sale. Using the alias J.D. Travis, Tucker went to see the owner of the vehicle, Wilton B. Humphreys, 65, and his wife, Peggy. After test driving the vehicle, Tucker told Mr. and Mrs. Humphreys he would buy the pickup and trailer and pay the $18,000 asking price in cash. Mr. Humphreys said he would accompany Tucker to the bank so he could deposit the money once the paperwork was completed.

Once the two men were in the truck alone, Tucker pulled a pistol from a paper sack he had been carrying and told Humphreys he was stealing the truck and trailer. They turned onto a rural road. Tucker told Humphreys to get out, so he could tie him to a fence post. While both men were out of the truck, Humphreys tried to get back in and lock Tucker out. A struggle ensued, and Tucker shot Humphreys three times in the chest and face. He then shoved him out of the truck and ran over his legs while driving off. Humphreys' body was found by a passing motorist later that day. Tucker was arrested in New Mexico three days later, after he robbed a service station of $800. He confessed the Humphreys murder to police. He also confessed other crimes committed over a four-day span, including an armed robbery of a motel clerk the day after Humphreys' murder. He said that he wanted the truck and travel trailer to use to roam the country while committing robberies.

Tucker had been in prison three times over the previous eight years for forgery, possession of marijuana, and felony theft. He served 22 months of a 4-year sentence from 1980-82, 12 months of a 4-year sentence from 1982-83, and 3½ years of a 7-year sentence from 1984-88. During this prison term, Tucker stabbed his cellmate in the head with a homemade weapon and received another five-year sentence for aggravated assault. He was paroled in June 1988, one month before murdering Wilton Humphreys. (At the time, parole was easily obtained in Texas because of strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.) A jury convicted Tucker of capital murder and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in June 1993. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal courts were denied.

In a death row interview, Tucker said that he only meant to steal the truck and trailer to support his expensive cocaine and heroin habit. "I'm sorry it happened," he said. "I've had to wake up every day for the last 13 years and look at myself in the mirror and know that I took a man's life." He accepted full responsibility for the crime and he also accepted his punishment. "I am guilty of this crime," he said in a death-row interview. "If my death will give [Humphreys' family] peace, then I will give them that peace." However, he also said that his life of crime and Humprhey's murder might have been avoided if the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had attempted to get him off of drugs. "I wish they would have rehabilitated me. If they'd put me in a drug rehab and counseling the first time I was in, it would have been over and that would have been it."

Tucker was scheduled to be executed on 11 September 2001, the day that terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and caused other destruction in Washington, D.C. and southern Pennsylvania. The U.S. Supreme Court had already denied Tucker's appeal, and Tucker himself had expressed a wish to drop his final appeals. Nevertheless, his lawyers filed another appeal a few days before his execution date. Governor Rick Perry issued an emergency 30-day stay, citing the terrorist acts and the fact that the courts were closed, preventing the appeal filed by Tucker's lawyers from being heard. This was the first time Governor Perry used his power to grant an emergency stay of execution since he took office in January 2001. Tucker's final appeal was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on 10 October, and his execution was then rescheduled for 14 November. At Tucker's insistence, his lawyers filed no further appeals.

At his execution, Tucker reiterated his feelings of apology and acceptance. "To the Humphreys family, I am sorry for the pain and suffering I caused them," he said, looking at Peggy Humphreys. "It was just a simple accident, and if my death can bring you peace and solace, then I bring that to you. I know that I leave this world for the crime I committed." He then thanked his family, attorneys, and spiritual advisor and recited the Lord's Prayer. After he said "Amen", the lethal injection was administered. Tucker was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

On the afternoon of July 11, 1988, a passing motorist found the body of Wilton Benthel Humphreys, 65, lying on a rural road in Parker County about 20 miles outside of Granbury, Texas. Wilton had been shot twice in the chest and once in the face, had blood coming from his mouth and back of his head, had broken legs, and had tire marks on his pants. Wilton's driver's license found in his pants pocket led investigators to his home where his wife explained that her husband had left earlier that day with a man, later identified as Jeffery Tucker, to finalize the title transfer of a truck and travel trailer they had advertised for sale in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Tucker was arrested three days later in New Mexico driving the stolen truck in the course of a high-speed chase resulting from an armed robbery of a gas station of $800.

After Tucker's arrest, he confessed in detail to Wilton's murder and to other crimes committed during the four-day crime spree culminating in his arrest, including an armed robbery of an Arlington motel clerk the day after Wilton's murder. The day before Wilton's murder, Tucker, who had recently been released from prison, searched the classified advertisements for a vehicle suitable for travel and camping where Tucker could inexpensively and unnoticeably travel cross-country in a nationwide robbery spree. Tucker spotted the Wilton's ad in the newspaper, and, using an assumed name, called to arrange a test drive. Then, Tucker stole two checks from his brother's checkbook and wrote one out for $ 423, which he then cashed at his brother's bank. Next, in violation of his parole, Tucker used the money to buy a gun at a pawn shop, which he used in the murder of Wilton and in two armed-robberies following the murder.

Tucker's confession revealed the following details: The Humphreys, who were selling the truck and trailer because they had purchased a large RV to travel in together, met with Tucker at their home. Tucker went on a test drive with Wilton and later visited with Mrs. Humphreys in her living room while Wilton left to get some attachments for the trailer. Then, after making a fake phone call, Tucker left with Wilton in the truck to go to the bank in Granbury to transfer the paperwork and finalize the sale for $18,000. Once the two men were in the truck alone, Tucker pulled out the gun from a paper sack he had been carrying and forced Wilton to drive out of town. About 20 miles outside of town, Tucker forced Wilton to pull onto a road off the main highway. Tucker instructed Wilton to stop and get out of the truck, allegedly so Tucker could tie him up on a fence post. Tucker alleges that while both he and Wilton were out of the truck, Wilton tried to get back into the truck and lock Tucker out. Tucker's confession states that a struggle then ensued that ended up with Tucker shooting Wilton. The autopsy revealed that Wilton had been shot twice in the chest and once in the face. After Tucker shot Wilton, Tucker shoved him out of the truck and drove off, at which time the rear wheels of the truck and the wheels on the left hand side of the trailer ran over Wilton's legs.

Tucker's documented criminal history reflects a decade-long pattern of offenses, increasing in severity and indicating an unwillingness to conform to society's laws. Prior to the capital murder of Wilton and the two armed robberies that followed, Tucker had been convicted of nine felony offenses and had been to the penitentiary three times. In 1979, Tucker was convicted of two counts of passing a forged check that, after parole violations, resulted in two concurrent three-year terms of incarceration. In 1980, Tucker was convicted of third-degree felony theft and sentenced to three years in prison. Also in 1980, Tucker was found guilty of possession of marijuana and was sentenced to four years incarceration in the Texas Department of Corrections. Tucker's prison records reflect that he was found guilty of several disciplinary offenses, including soliciting the assistance of an inmate to violate prison rules and failing to obey orders. In 1984, Tucker was convicted of two counts of forgery by the making of a check and was sentenced to concurrent six year terms of imprisonment. On November 30, 1984, Tucker was convicted of third degree felony theft and was sentenced to six years incarceration.

Tucker's prison records revealed that during this term of incarceration he was found guilty of numerous disciplinary offenses, including damaging property, possession of contraband, sexual misconduct, destruction of property, possession of a weapon, refusing to obey orders, fighting without a weapon, failure to work, creating a disturbance, and stabbing an inmate. The stabbing incident involved Tucker's attack on his cellmate by stabbing him in the head with a homemade knife made of a metal rod and a toothbrush. Testimony at Tucker's capital murder trial revealed that the cellmate was found shoved under the bunk in the cell with a piece of a toothbrush handle attached to a metal rod protruding from his temple, and another rod that was stuck in his throat. A search of the cell revealed another weapon fashioned from a sharpened piece of a red drinking glass found underneath Tucker's mattress. Tucker pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and received a five-year sentence.

New Hampshire Coalition Against The Death Penalty

HUNTSVILLE - Spared two months ago on the day when terrorist attacks disrupted the federal government, Jeffery Tucker was executed tonight for fatally shooting a Hood County man more than 13 years ago. "I'd like to tell the Humphreys family that I'm sorry," he said as he looked at Wilton Humphreys' widow, Peggy, from the gurney in the death chamber. "It was just a simple accident and if my death will give you any solace, I gladly give that to you." He told his attorneys he knew they were upset him for stopping his appeals. "I know you wanted to continue my appeal, but you know my reasons," he said. "Have a happy heart knowing I leave this world in peace." Tucker then began reciting the Lord's Prayer as his eyes shut.

When Tucker finished the prayer, Humphreys' son, Jon Brad Humphreys, said "Amen" with him. Humphreys' family comforted each other following Tucker's death. Tucker took two deep breaths. His eyes, behind thick-rimmed black glasses, were shut. He made a slight gurgling sound as the drugs took effect. He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.. 11 minutes after the lethal injection began. Government offices, including the federal courts, were shut in the immediate response to the attacks on New York and Washington Sept. 11, the same day Tucker had been scheduled for lethal injection. Gov. Rick Perry gave Tucker a 30-day reprieve, fearing the courts would not be able to respond that day to any 11th-hour plea from attorneys for the condemned man. The reprieve was not welcomed by the inmate.

"He sent us a letter saying he just wanted it go through," Donald Schnebly, the Parker County district attorney, said Wednesday. "He just wants the sentence carried out." When the reprieve expired, the new execution date was set. "Death to me would be relief," said Tucker, who declined interviews with reporters since the Sept. 11 reprieve. "The hardest thing for me is to look in a mirror for 13 years and know I took a life. "The memory haunts me. I say put me on the gurney and maybe the pain will stop." Tucker was condemned for the death of Humphreys, 65, of Granbury, who was shot July 11, 1988. Tucker had responded to a newspaper ad Humphreys placed to sell his truck and the pair had gone out on a test drive.

Tucker was the 15th condemned prisoner to be executed this year in Texas and the first of two this week. A Dallas man convicted of killing a restaurant manager during a robbery was set to die Thursday evening.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier refused to halt Tucker's punishment and no new appeals were filed since a September request was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. When arrested for the slaying, Tucker already had been in and out of Texas prisons three times, with convictions including drug possession, check forgery, theft and assault from at least five counties: Tarrant, Collin, Harris, Palo Pinto and Anderson. While in prison in 1984, he pleaded guilty to stabbing a cellmate, leaving a sharpened toothbrush stuck in prisoner's head and a metal rod thrust in his throat, then shoving the man under his bed. Less than four years later, the former truck driver from Tarrant County was paroled. A month later, he was arrested for the Humphreys killing. "I think he was truly just a mean person, " Schnebly said. "Obviously, he had not been rehabilitated."

When he was pulled over by state police in New Mexico following a chase near Santa Rosa, N.M., Tucker was driving Humphreys' truck and also was wanted for robbing a service station three days earlier. He gave authorities a confession. Humphreys was shot three times -- twice in the chest, once in the face -- then was run over with his own truck. "He lunged at me," the convict said. "I had the gun in my hand. It went off." Testimony from a medical examiner at his trial showed Humphreys was hit in the back of the head before the fatal shots were fired. Prosecutors also insisted the killing was planned since Tucker stole checks to buy the gun from a pawn shop and falsified documents to obtain the weapon. "I'm guilty," he said from death row. "I've never denied my guilt."

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Jeffery Tucker, 41, is scheduled to be executed on November 14 in Huntsville, Texas. Texas has accelerated its rate of killing in recent months, having four scheduled executions in August and two more in September. Mr. Tucker was convicted in October, 1989 for the murder of Wilton Humphries. After being denied state habeas relief in 1997, he first petitioned for federal relief in 1998. His final appeals were denied this past February, when several of his compelling claims were dismissively shelved by the Texas Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Tucker feels that his counsel did not adequately represent him during the punishment phase of his trial, failing to present significant mitigating evidence. Strickland v. Washington established in 1984 that an appellant must not only demonstrate the ineffectiveness of counsel, but also prove that the jury’s decision would have been different had counsel presented this additional evidence. The court denied relief, asserting that this additional evidence “would have had little mitigating effect”. The evidence in question speaks to Jeffery Tucker’s long history of physical and sexual abuse. It is perhaps rash to assume that this evidence would have no affect on a jury’s decision to impose the death penalty. Mr. Tucker asserts that had counsel conducted a more thorough investigation into his personal background they also would have discovered his affliction with organic brain impairment and his strong addiction to cocaine.

Mr. Tucker’s early years were both tumultuous and bleak. His parents were forced to marry when his mother realized she was pregnant at age sixteen. They subsequently divorced, remarried, and divorced again. Jeffery Tucker’s birth was the result of an unwanted pregnancy; his aunt testified that Tucker’s mother admitted that “she didn’t love him, never wanted him.” Tucker’s mother sent Jeffery to a state home when he was a child and to another residential program in his adolescence. When released, Tucker contacted the state authorities and requested that he be removed from the custody of his mother. While still a teenager, Jeffery responded well to the psychiatric medication prescribed by his therapist. His mother never refilled his prescription, leaving his condition to worsen. Several of Jeffery’s relatives described him as “insecure”, “love-starved” and “very sick” due to such a miserable upbringing. The State claims that most of this evidence is irrelevant to Mr. Tucker’s crime and would fail to exert any influence over a jury deciding his ultimate fate. The state claimed that Tucker was unable to show that “if the newly proffered evidence had been presented and explained by counsel, there is a reasonable probability that the result of the sentencing phase would have been different.”

As November 14 quickly approaches, please petition on Mr. Tucker’s behalf as Texas continues to kill brutally and excessively. If you live in Texas, it is especially important to let your government know that killing in your name is unacceptable

American Civil Liberties Union

September 7, 2001

The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of the State of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428

Re: Jeffrey Eugene Tucker

Dear Governor Perry:

Jeffrey Tucker is scheduled to be executed on September 11, 2001. On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, we urge you to commute Mr. Tucker's sentence of death to life imprisonment. A stunning combination of factors in this case merits this extraordinary relief.

Mr. Tucker came into the world in the most unfortunate of circumstances, which never improved throughout his life. A frail child at birth, by the age of five, he had sustained a number of serious head injuries and had been molested. By the age of 8, he had been physically abused by a number of adults and older children, had suffered further head injuries, had been raped, and had been introduced to marijuana. By the time Jeff Tucker was 11, a State psychiatrist had concluded that Jeff Tucker would never be able to remain mentally stable, unless he stayed on anti-psychotic medication for the rest of his life. Mr. Tucker's mother, in whose custody he was at the time, chronically failed to ensure that her son take the medications prescribed. By the time of the crime, Mr. Tucker had become a mentally ill man addicted to drugs in an effort to dull the numerous traumas of his life.

The State has ample records both of the diagnoses issued to the young Jeff Tucker and the failure of his mother to administer the medications. The State's attorney, however, failed to turn these records to Mr. Tucker's trial attorney. As a result, the history of Mr. Tucker's mental illness was not considered at the sentencing phase of his trial.

The ACLU opposes capital punishment in all cases as a barbarous anachronism and in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In Mr. Tucker's case, the extraordinary relief of clemency is particularly warranted, in mercy and as an act of grace, because Mr. Tucker's guilt should be viewed through the prism of his mental illness, of which the jury that sentenced him never had a chance to learn.

Sincerely,

Diann Rust-Tierney
ACLU Capital Punishment Project

William Harrell
ACLU of Texas

Vladimir Kouznetsov
Pro Bono Counsel
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP
1201 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20004