Execution Report: Jeffery Caldwell

Jeffery Henry Caldwell, 37, was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, 30 August, in Huntsville, Texas, for the murders of his father, mother, and sister.

In July 1988, Henry Caldwell III went to check on his parents at their home in southwest Dallas, after neighbors told him they hadn't seen them in several days. He checked inside the house and found no one, but noticed a foul odor coming from the motor home parked in the driveway. Looking inside, he discovered the bodies of his father, Henry, 47; his mother, Gwendolyn, 46; and his sister, Kimberly, 19. All three had been stabbed to death and beaten on the head with a hammer and another unknown blunt instrument. Mrs. Caldwell's car was also missing.

Henry's brother, Jeffery Caldwell, was arrested the next day and gave a voluntary statement to police. He told police that he was having an argument with his father because he gave money to his sister but not to him. During the argument, he said, all three family members accidentally fell onto his knife.

Jeffery Caldwell had an arrest record going back seven years and had been to prison twice in the previous five years. He served 15 months of a 3-year sentence for burglary and 1½ years of an 8-year sentence for robbery. (At this time, early release was common in Texas because of strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.) Caldwell had been on parole for less than four months when he killed his family.

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