DP in Texas

Dave Henry:

Publication Date: 07/24/08
This time next week, Larry Davis is scheduled to die.

Davis, 40, is scheduled to be executed next Thursday by the state of
Texas for the 1995 murder of Michael Barrow.

According to the state - and a Potter County jury that took more than
five hours to convict Davis of capital murder - Davis was responsible
for the fatal stabbing and beating of Barrow, who was stabbed
numerous times with knives and an ice pick and beaten with a pipe
during a robbery. The crime was related to some sort of gang initiation.

Barring any last-minute reprieves by Gov. Rick Perry or the Texas
Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has a meeting scheduled in San
Antonio today, Davis, a Parmer County native, will be the 13th person
from the Amarillo area (Potter and Randall counties) to be executed
since 1976.

What a waste.

Of life.

Defense attorneys in Davis' 1999 trial cited family problems
including violence and substance abuse as reasons for their client's
brushes with the law, which included allegations of another murder in
Dallas in 1993 and the 1995 robbery of a children's clothing store in
Amarillo.

Davis' case has taken a long and winding road.

As part of the appeals process, defense attorneys made issue of
remarks made by a prosecuting attorney questioning why Davis did not
choose to testify during his trial. Former Amarillo Globe-News
reporter Ricky George was called to testify by the defense about the
prosecution' s remarks, as was attorney Jesse Quackenbush.

As of Wednesday morning, no legal maneuver proved successful in
saving Davis' life.

According to the justice system, Davis is guilty of a brutal murder
and faces the ultimate form of punishment.

No one will rejoice or celebrate when Davis is executed.

Davis' death will be a waste of life, but it was another waste of
life that the justice system determined Davis was responsible for
that led to his fate.

And that shouldn't be ignored.

Dave Henry is an editorial writer/columnist for the Amarillo Globe-
News, P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo, Texas 79166.