Execution Report: Clyde Smith

Clyde Smith Jr., 32, was executed by lethal injection on 15 February 2006 in Huntsville, Texas for the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of two taxi drivers.

On 6 February 1992, taxi driver David Jacobs picked up Smith at a downtown Houston hotel. Smith told Jacobs to drive to an apartment complex parking lot. Smith then shot Jacobs three times in the back of the neck with a .38-caliber pistol, and robbed him. Jacobs' body was discovered the next day.

On 22 March, Smith robbed and killed another tax driver, Victor Bilton. He also shot Bilton three times with the same handgun.

On 5 April, police were called to investigate a shooting at a Houston apartment complex. Smith had shot himself in the leg with a .38-caliber pistol. Ballistic tests linked Smith's pistol to the one used to kill the two taxi drivers. Smith then confessed to both murders. He said that he stole $230 and a watch from the drivers, which he used to pay a rental car bill and his girlfriend's bills.

At his trial, Smith recanted the confessions, saying that he made them under duress. He did admit being involved in the robberies, but he said that someone else pulled the trigger and killed the drivers.

Two of Smith's girlfriends testified against him. One of them said that she was in the cab when he committed one of the slayings.

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