Texas executes man for killing daughter, stepdaughters in 2000

Texas executed Raphael Holiday by lethal
injection for killing his daughter and two
stepdaughters in 2000

The state of Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
executed Raphael Holiday on Wednesday
night for setting the fire that killed his
daughter and two other children 15 years
ago.
The execution, by lethal injection at the
state’s death chamber in Huntsville, was the
13th this year by Texas . The state has
accounted for about half of all the executions
in the U.S. in 2015.
The lethal injection was carried out after the
U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal
seeking to halt Holiday's punishment so new
attorneys could be appointed to pursue
additional unspecified appeals in his case.
Asked by a warden if he had a final
statement, Holiday thanked his "supporters
and loved ones."
"I love y'all," he said. "I want you to know I'm
always going to be with you."
He thanked the warden. As the lethal dose of
pentobarbital began, he took two deep
breaths and appeared to yawn, his mouth
remaining open as he wheezed several times.
Then all movement stopped.
Nineteen minutes later, at 8:30 p.m. CST, he
was pronounced dead.
Holiday never addressed or looked at
witnesses, including the children's
grandfather and mother, his former common-
law wife. The mother initially stood at the
back of the death chamber witness area,
watching from behind a corrections officer.
About 10 minutes later, with Holiday
motionless on the death chamber gurney, she
walked toward a window to see him.
She and other relatives of the slain children
declined to speak with reporters afterward.
Earlier Wednesday, the judge in Holiday's trial
court stopped the execution after Holiday's
trial attorney filed an appeal saying the
conviction and some trial testimony were
both improper. The judge agreed the issues
should be reviewed and withdrew his
execution warrant. The Texas attorney
general's office appealed, the judge's order
voided and the warrant reinstated, clearing
the way for the lethal injection to move
forward.
At the Supreme Court, Austin-based lawyer
Gretchen Sween argued that Holiday's court-
appointed attorneys abandoned him after the
justices in June refused to review his case.
Those lawyers advised Holiday his legal
issues were exhausted and new appeals and
a clemency petition would be fruitless.
Holiday protested, wrote a federal judge to
order them off his case and asked that
Sween be allowed to represent him
"I'm not afraid of dying," Holiday told The
Associated Press recently from a visiting
cage outside death row. "I know at some
point we all die. It's just the way of dying.
"If I have to die, I want at least a fair chance
of fighting."
Holiday insisted he didn't know how the log
cabin he once shared with his common-law
wife and the children in the Madison County
woods about 100 miles north of Houston
caught fire in September 2000.
"I loved my kids," Holiday said. "I never would
do harm to any of them."
Prison officials said the girls' mother planned
to witness Holiday's execution. She declined
to speak with reporters.
Evidence and testimony showed Holiday was
irate over a protective order obtained by his
estranged wife after his arrest for sexually
assaulting one of the children. Holiday, from
prison, contended he knew nothing about the
assault.
According to court records, he showed up at
the home and forced the girls' grandmother
at gunpoint to douse the interior with
gasoline. After it ignited, he sped away in the
grandmother's car, hit a police car that
arrived outside the cabin and then led
officers on a chase that ended two counties
away when he wrecked.
Defense attorneys at his trial suggested an
electrical problem or a pilot light started the
blaze in the early hours of Sept. 6, 2000,
killing Holiday's daughter, Justice, and her
half-sisters, Tierra Lynch, 7, and Jasmine
DuPaul, 5.
The girls' grandmother told a jury she
watched Holiday bend down and then the
flames erupted, court records show. Jurors
convicted him of capital murder and decided
he should be put to death.