Execution Report: Lester Bower

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A jury found Bower guilty of capital murder in April 1984 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in January 1989.

In their appeals, Bower's attorneys claimed that new evidence and new witnesses had been found that would exonerate Bower and show that the airport hangar killings were committed by drug dealers from southern Oklahoma in a deal that went bad. Bower won four stays of execution while on death row, the most recent one coming in February 2015, but the courts ultimately upheld his conviction and death sentence each time.

In an evidentiary hearing in 2000, Bower admitted that he met Tate, Good, and Brown on 8 October 1983. He also stated that he bought an ultralight plane on that day. He testified that he read about the killings in a newspaper the next day. He denied buying the plane or meeting with the victims because he feared becoming a suspect.

"I told them I did not buy the airplane and I was not in Sherman, but I was," Bower said in an interview from death row. "It was poor judgment on my part."

Bower said in interviews that he hid his purchase of the plane from his wife because he knew she would be against it.

The closest Bower came to convincing a judge to grant him a new trial was in December 2012. Grayson County District Judge Fames Fallon wrote that the new evidence produced by Bower's attorneys "could conceivably have produced a different result at trial," but it was not "clear and convincing" enough to prove Bower's innocence or warrant a new trial.

Bower repeated his claim of innocence in a more recent interview. When asked if he committed the murders, he answered, "I did not. What's more, I feel we have had a reasonable number of people come forward with credible stories to say I did not commit these murders."

"I blame myself mightily for the position I'm in," he continued. "The minute you start bucking the system, you immediately go from a person of interest to a prime suspect." Bower said he did not blame the prosecutor, jury, or judge for his conviction because "They did the best job they could do with the information they had at the time. But now there would be a lot of other evidence to consider, and I wish they would have the chance."

Despite maintaining his innocence for 31 years on death row, he was less definitive in his last statement at his execution. "Much has been written about this case; not all of it has been the truth," he said. "But the time is over and now it is time to move on." Bower thanked his attorneys, his family, and friends for their support. "I have fought the good fight, I held the faith. I am not going to say goodbye, I will simply say until we meet again. I love you very, very much. Thank you, warden." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m.

Of the 265 prisoners currently on Texas' death row, only 9 have been there longer than Bower. He was about eight months short of being the prisoner to spend the most time on death row before execution. At age 67, he is the oldest person executed in Texas by lethal injection.

By David Carson. Posted on 4 June 2015.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, court documents, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.