Execution Report: Dominique Green

Dominique Jerome Green, 30, was executed by lethal injection on 26 October 2004 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a man in a parking lot robbery.

On 14 October 1992, Green, then 18, Michael Neal, 18, Paul Lyman, and another unidentified accomplice spotted Michael Lastrapes in the parking lot of a Houston-area convenience store. While Lyman and the other person waited in a car, Green and Neal approached Lastrapes and demanded his wallet. When Lastrapes refused, Green shot him in the chest. Green then ripped Lastrapes' pants pocket off and took his wallet, which contained $50.

Three days later, a Houston police officer spotted a stolen car traveling on a highway. The officer pursued the vehicle until it swerved off the road into a ditch. The driver, Dominique Green, attempted to flee on foot, but was found hiding in a nearby field. Two of the other robbery participants were also in the car, as was a Tec-9 semiautomatic rifle. A firearms expert later testified that the weapon found in the car was the same one used to murder Andrew Lastrapes.

While in jail awaiting trial, Green wrote a letter that included the phrase "I forever be a trigga happy nigga," a quotation from a rap recording about a violent armed robbery.

All three of Green's accomplices testified against him at his trial. Green admitted being involved in the robbery, but denied being the trigger man. Under Texas law, a defendant can be found guilty of capital murder if he participated in the crime, regardless of whether he directly caused the victim's death.

At age 18, Green had no prior prison record, but he had previous convictions for burglary, weapon possession, and marijuana possession. At his punishment hearing, nine people testified to being robbed by Green and his co-defendants.

Continued on Page 2