Execution Report: Vincent Cooks

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Early witness identifications pointed to a killer who was much shorter and smaller than the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Cooks. Nevertheless, a jury found Cooks guilty beyond reasonable doubt and convicted him and sentenced him to death in December 1988. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction in September 1992. Cooks was originally scheduled to be executed in 1996, but a U.S. District Court issued a stay in order to hear one of his appeals. That court rejected his appeal in 2000, and all of Cooks' subsequent motions to appeal were denied.

Throughout his appeals and his stay on death row, Cooks claimed he was innocent of shooting McCarthy. "I haven't been a saint, but I didn't commit this murder," he told a reporter last week. "I did many wrong things, but they're executing me for something I didn't do." He admitted committing the other armed robberies, but "nobody was hurt."

At his execution, Cooks expressed love for his family. He also apologized to his mother. "I'm sorry, Teach [Mom] for not being a better son and not doing better things," he told her. Addressing the victim's family in a booth on the other side of the room, he said, "You people over there, you know what these people are doing. By them executing me, ain't doing nothing right. I don't weigh 180 pounds, 5-foot-7." After Cooks finished his statement, he said, "Do what you do, warden." The lethal injection was begun, and Cooks was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m.

Tracy Dewayne Stallworth and Tony Ray Harvey were convicted of several crimes including aggravated robbery. All sentences were set to run concurrently, with each man's longest sentence being 20 years. News reports did not provide any information on either man's current status, but public records show that Stallworth renewed his driver's license in 1992.

By David Carson. Posted on 13 December 2001.
Sources: Texas Attorney General's Office, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press, Huntsville Item.