Execution Report: Willie Pondexter

Continued from Page 1

In September 2002, a federal district court vacated the guilty verdict in Pondexter's case, finding that he received ineffective assistance from his trial lawyer, who neither consulted a pathologist for the trial, nor did he interview witness Michael Kendricks. The following year, however, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision and reinstated his guilty verdict. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

James Lee Henderson was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. He remains on death row as of this writing. According to the Associated Press, Deon Williams and Ricky and James Bell received prison terms.

"I wasn't the guy who killed her," Pondexter stated in an interview from death row the week before his execution. He admitted that he shot the victim after Henderson handed him the gun. He blamed himself for being "a follower". "For the part I played in it, I apologize."

Martha Lennox was a multimillionaire at the time of her killing, but neither she nor either of her brothers ever married. Her family fortune is now under the control of a charitable foundation that has supported the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

"I am not mad," Pondexter said in his last statement at his execution. "I'm a little upset and disappointed in the courts. I feel I've been let down." He said he hoped that people would learn from his life. He then looked toward the district attorney who prosecuted him and a distant cousin of his victim and said, "I know I'm wrong asking you to forgive me." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 4 March 2009.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's Office, Associated Press, court documents.