Jason Eric Massey Execution
Richard Jackson
press releases contain a fairly complete summary of the crime committed as
well as the trial and subsequent appeals prior to execution. Decide for
yourself if this person is guilty of capital murder, and if he has had due
process. This is the reality of why we use the Death Penalty in Texas.
This
is what this man did, the due process he received, and the penalty he awaits
as a result of his crime.
From the Office of the Attorney General of Texas:
Friday, March 30, 2001
MEDIA ADVISORY
Jason Eric Massey Scheduled To Be Executed
AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following
information
on Jason Eric Massey who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on
Tuesday,
April 3rd.
On Oct. 6, 1994, Massey was found guilty of the capital offense of
murdering
Brian King and Christina Benjamin, that occurred in Ellis County, Texas, on
July 27, 1993. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
In the early morning hours of July 27, 1993, James King was awakened by the
sound of a car pulling up to his house, beeping its horn twice and driving
away. When the car passed by again, he looked out his window and observed a
tan car turn off its headlights and park in front of his house. King got out
of bed and went to the front door. Looking outside, he saw his 14-year old
son, Brian, approach the car on foot and talk to the people in the car. At
this point, King went to the restroom. When he returned, both Brian and the
car were gone.
King waited for about an hour for his son to return before going back to
bed.
When he got up the next morning, King found that Brian and his 13-year old
stepdaughter, Christina, were not in the house. King woke his common-law
wife,
Donna Benjamin, and although worried, they decided to wait to see if they
would return home. When the children did not appear, James and Donna
searched
for them and subsequently filed a missing persons report.
Approximately 10 days earlier, Christopher Nowlin had been riding in a car
with Jason Massey, who was 20 years old and lived in Canton, Texas. Nowlin
convinced Massey to drive over to see Christina, a friend of Nowlin's.
Massey
flirted with Christina, and she told him that she would like to "sneak out"
sometime. Massey agreed, and told Christina that he would drive by her house
around midnight some night and honk his horn and that she was to go to the
old
Fina station on I-45 and wait. When Massey and Nowlin left Christina's
house,
Massey told Nowlin in sexually explicit language what he wanted to do to
Christina, including killing her and cutting her up. Nowlin testified that
he
didn't pay much attention to what Massey said, because it was weird and
Massey
talked about killing girls all the time.
On July 29, 1993, law enforcement authorities found two bodies in a field
near Telico, in Ellis County. The first body discovered was that of a nude
female whose head and hands were missing. She had been shot in the back and
parts of her body mutilated. When the authorities began searching for the
victim's missing body parts they discovered the body of a young boy,
identified as Brian King. Two small caliber bullets were later removed from
his brain and the cause of death was determined to be multiple gunshot
wounds
to the head. No other wounds were discovered on his body.
It was more difficult to identify Christina. A deep wound transected her
torso like an autopsy incision, exposing her internal organs. Due to the
extensive nature of her injuries and several days of decomposition in the
intense summer heat, initial identification was impossible. Eventually, the
body was confirmed to be Christina's based on recent hospital records.
Based on samples of fly larvae from both bodies, it was estimated that
Brian
and Christina had been killed between the late evening of July 26, 1993, and
the morning of July 27, 1993. Bullet fragments recovered from both bodies
appeared to be .22 caliber in size.
A subsequent investigation revealed that Massey's cousin owned a .22
caliber
pistol that he stored at his grandmother's house before leaving on a trip.
Massey took the gun unbeknownst to his cousin. Several witnesses testified
to
seeing the gun on Massey's person. The Walmart sales clerk, who sold bullets
for a .22 caliber gun, two knives, and handcuffs to Massey, picked him out
of
a line-up after his arrest.
Late in July, the owner of a local car wash observed Massey pull in about
11:30 p.m. in a tan-colored Subaru. Massey dumped items in the trash bin and
started to back out, but stopped when he saw the owner watching him. He
pulled
his car back into a bay and started vacuuming. Shortly after this incident,
the owner recognized Massey's picture in the paper as someone who might be
involved with the murders. A search of the car wash trash bin and vacuum
containers resulted in discovery of a red bandana with blond hair on it,
broken car glass, and a payroll receipt from Kentucky Fried Chicken with
Massey's name on it.
Police searched Massey's house and found two newspaper articles about the
murders, handcuffs and a knife box. After a search of Massey's car, the
console, steering wheel, step to the car, and spots in the passenger seat
tested positive for blood, as did a knife in the glove box and items in the
trunk, including duct tape, tissue paper, electrical tape, a wrench, a
screwdriver, a denim shirt, the head of a hammer, and a jacket. DNA testing
revealed a genetic match between Christina's blood and the blood found on
the
car seat, duct tape and hammer.
A subsequent comparison of blond hairs found in the car, hairs on the red
bandana recovered from the car wash and hairs found near Christina at the
crime scene revealed a microscopic match. Carpet fibers from Massey's car
matched a fiber found on one of Brian's shoes. In addition, hair found on
Brian's pant leg was microscopically matched with Massey's. An arrest
warrant
was issued; when placed under arrest, Massey smiled. He was indicted for the
capital offense of murder of two persons. He pled not guilty, but was
convicted by a jury on Oct. 6, 1994.
PUNISHMENT EVIDENCE/PRIOR HISTORY
A State witness testified that while on a walk in the woods, he had come
across a cooler containing animal skulls and jaw bones and journals encased
in
plastic labeled "Slayer's Book of Death," volumes 1-4. The journals were
labeled, "the thoughts of Jason Massey."
A former friend testified that Massey had spoken many times about killing
dogs, cats, and cows, and remarked that Massey had a fascination with
setting
fires. This witness relayed that Massey had told him that he killed because
of
the "adrenaline rush, a high, a turn on, a love to mutilate." He also
described Massey's subsequent armed robbery of a fast food restaurant and
the
detailed journals that Massey kept.
A State psychiatrist, Dr. Kenneth Dekleva, described his June 1991
examination of Massey. Massey's mother had brought him in for evaluation
after
discovering two of his journals and becoming very disturbed by their
content.
Dekleva's review of the journals revealed Massey's desire to begin a "sacred
journey" as a serial killer. In the journals, Massey listed the names of
several girls he wanted to kill and stated that he wanted to engrave his
name
on society. He also wrote about his desire to lash out at society and to
reap
immense sorrow and suffering. Massey described his very violent and sadistic
fantasies and expressed a desire to read about criminal and police
procedures
to eliminate the possibility of getting caught for his intended crimes.
Dekleva testified that the most alarming thing from Massey's journal
entries
was the apparent shift from fantasy to more deliberate planning, including
the
purchasing of weapons. After his evaluation, Dekleva concluded that Massey
was
suffering from anti-social personality disorder and that he represented an
imminent threat to others. Dekleva, therefore, had Massey committed to the
Dallas Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit. Dekleva testified that there were no
successful treatments for someone like Massey, that such individuals pose a
lasting threat to society and are at an extraordinarily high risk of killing
again and again.
Massey's ninth-grade teacher and a former seventh-grade classmate testified
to Massey's extremely disturbing behavior, both stating that his comments
often centered around killing. His teacher testified that Massey idolized
Charles Manson, and his classmate described the threatening phone calls and
letters she received from him describing dreams of killing her. The
classmate's dog had been killed and mutilated and the blood smeared on her
car. In subsequent testimony it was noted that Massey had written about this
incident in his journal.
The State showed that in the late spring of 1993, Massey was stopped by
Ennis
police. Marijuana, a Persian cat with a rope around its neck, a three-prong
knife and diary that listed names with check marks next to them were found
in
his car.
An investigator for the Ellis County sheriff's department read to the jury
portions of letters that Massey had written while he was in prison. Massey
had
written that he liked to read about guns, war, and police investigations.
In one journal, also read to the jury, Massey stated that he was about to
start his career as a serial killer and mass murderer. Massey wrote that he
wanted "to grab society by the throat and shake 'em with terror until
they're
awake and realize what's up so they will remember who I am, when and why I
came their way." Massey also wrote that he anticipated that he would become
a
"murder machine." His journals became increasingly violent and set goals for
vast numbers of killings.
The State also proffered testimony from Dr. Clay Griffith, a forensic
psychiatrist, who having read portions of Massey's journals, letters, the
recorded observations of Dr. Dekleva and the autopsy reports for the present
victims, concluded that Massey would be a future danger to society and that
he
could not be rehabilitated. Griffith also testified that while
anti-personality disorder can abate with some individuals over time and with
age, it would not in a case as severe as Massey's. FBI agent Allen Brantley,
who also reviewed the case file, testified similarly.
PROCEDURAL TIME-LINE
March 17, 1994 - The State indicted Massey for the capital offense of
murder
of two persons in the same criminal transaction to which Massey later
entered
a plea of "not guilty."
October 6, 1994 - A jury found Massey "guilty" of the capital offense.
October 12, 1994 - Following a punishment hearing, the jury answered the
special issues submitted pursuant to article 37.071 of the Texas Code of
Criminal Procedure; an affirmative answer was given to the first special
issue
and a negative answer was given to the second special issue. In accordance
with Texas law, the trial court assessed Massey's punishment as death.
October 23, 1996 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his
conviction and sentence in a published opinion.
June 23, 1997 - Massey filed an application for state habeas corpus relief
pursuant to article 11.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. (At a
later date, the state habeas court entered findings of fact and conclusions
of
law recommending that relief be denied. Thereafter, the Court of Criminal
Appeals adopted the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law
and
ordered that Massey's request for state habeas relief be denied.)
March 6, 1998 - Massey filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in federal
district court.
January 10, 2000 - The U.S. Magistrate recommended relief be denied.
February 24, 2000 - The recommendations were signed and judgment was
rendered
against Massey.
March 23, 2000 - Massey filed a motion for certificate of appealability
(COA)
in federal district court.
March 27, 2000 - The district court denied the motion.
March 23, 2000 - Massey filed a notice of appeal and the case was
subsequently docketed in the Fifth Circuit.
May 26, 2000 - Massey filed a motion for COA in the Fifth Circuit.
September 13, 2000 - The Fifth Circuit denied COA.
October 2, 2000 - Massey filed a motion for rehearing in the Fifth Circuit.
October 17, 2000 - The motion for rehearing was denied.
January 16, 2001 - Massey filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the
U.S.
Supreme Court.
March 19, 2001 - The petition for writ of certiorari was denied.
Richard Jackson
People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers,
instead of their conscience, be their guide.
Will Rogers (1879-1935), U.S. humorist.
I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth
in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white
is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this
society all the rest of the people are as slaves.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Anglo-Irish satirist
John Rennie
"Richard Jackson" <ri...@MailAndNews.com> wrote in message
news:3ACA...@MailAndNews.com...
> The following is a press release from the Attorney General of Texas. Such
> press releases contain a fairly complete summary of the crime committed as
> well as the trial and subsequent appeals prior to execution. Decide for
> yourself if this person is guilty of capital murder, and if he has had due
> process. This is the reality of why we use the Death Penalty in Texas.
snipped
Yet another appalling murder. Neil described in detail recently the
extraordinary lengths a murderer went to to prolong the agony of his female
victim before actually killing her. Are these types of crime unique to the
USA?
Richard Jackson
=====
I don't believe so, John. I believe that the openness of public records
here
gives media the access to full details of crimes which is not readily
available in other nations sometimes. Except in case of national security,
virtually anything known to the government is available for public
examination. Other nations sometimes conceal, or attempt to conceal many
aspects of crime within their land.
I believe that such concealment, along with different ways of classifying
different crimes, often make some countries appear much better or worse than
they really are in relation to other nations crimewise.
JIGSAW1695
From: "John Rennie" Jo...@rennie2000.greatxscape.net
Date: 4/2/01 12:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <9a90mc$4k7$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk>
snipped
===============================
I seriously doubt it.
jigsaw
Neil
> Yet another appalling murder. Neil described in detail
> recently the extraordinary lengths a murderer went to to
> prolong the agony of his female victim before actually
> killing her. Are these types of crime unique to the
> USA?
This week's Ivan Gowch Award is comes to us from England, in
special honor of John Rennie and the absurdity of his above
statement.
From Lowery v. The Queen, 58 Cr App Rep 35 (England & Wales
Reports) (Privy Council 1973).
Rosalyn Nolte was a young girl of 15 years of age living
with her parents in Hamilton. On the evening of Sunday, 31st
January, she left her home between approximately 6.15 and
6.30 pm taking her Corgi dog with her for a walk. Later in
the evening, at approximately 8 pm, she was walking with the
dog in Grey Street, Hamilton, and at the same time the
applicants were driving along that street in a Holden panel
van owned and driven by the applicant Lowery. The panel van
was brought to a stop, and after some conversation between
the applicants and the girl, she entered the panel van with
the dog. It would appear plain from the evidence that
deception of some kind was practised by the applicants upon
her, and that she was no consenting party to the journey on
which the panel van was then driven to a bush area known as
the Mt Napier Reserve, some ten miles out of Hamilton. The
last half mile, approximately, of that journey was along a
narrow unmade bush track, wide enough for one vehicle only,
and flanked on either side by heavy thick scrub.
In that area the girl either left or was removed from the
vehicle, and save for her socks, she was stripped of her
clothing. She was then attacked by one or both of the
applicants, and in the course thereof she suffered many
injuries from kicks or punches and one of her elbows was
broken. She was tied up by the applicants, or one of them,
with plastic covered electric flex cord, which was knotted
around her neck so that it bit deeply into the flesh. One
end of it was passed around her ankles, with her knees
flexed behind her and the other end secured her wrists and
arms behind her back. The flex was placed around those
portions of her body several times, and it was so tightly
drawn that the weight of the body caused such pressure and
tension of the flex on or about the throat as to strangle
her. It may be interpolated at this point that strangulation
was, according to the medical evidence given at the trial,
the cause of the girl's death.
It would appear from some of the evidence that the tying up
of the girl commenced on the unmade track by passing the
flex around her throat, that by pulling on the flex she was
then dragged by one or both of the applicants into the scrub
at the side of the track, and that the tying up was then
completed. Other evidence, however, may be taken to indicate
that the tying up procedure was completed on the unmade
track, and that she was then dragged into the scrub. On
either view, she was left to remain in the scrub in the tied
up state.
The applicants then departed from the scene in the panel
van, and after reaching the main road the Corgi dog was put
out of the vehicle and left by the roadside. The applicants
then returned to Hamilton where they visited a sports centre
and spoke to several persons, and later drove out of the
town and threw from the car a transistor which the deceased
girl had been carrying at the time when she was picked up.
The applicants then visited the home of Lowery's
parentsin-law, Lowery being a married man of 18 years of age
whose wife was expecting a child. King also was 18 years of
age, but unmarried. After participating in or witnessing a
game of cards at that home, the applicants, together with
Lowery's wife and others, went to a drive-in theatre, and
ultimately returned to their respective places of abode in
the early hours of Monday morning, 1st February.
JIGSAW1695
Date: 4/3/01 1:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <Pine.GSO.4.21.01040...@general3.asu.edu>
===============================
does that answer your question John, or do you want more?
Dan Cutrer
Richard Jackson wrote:
I've previously cited this case as one of those that changed my mind about
capital punishment. The tragedy is, Christina realized there was something
terribly wrong with Massey, which is why she took Brian with her when she
slipped out of the house to go meet him.
Adding a bit more to the story, the father of Brian and step-father of
Christina is interviewed in today's (Tuesday 4/3) Dallas News, he's in jail
south of Dallas for traffic tickets, admitted he did some time after stabbing a
guy in an argument in his early 20's. He won't make it to Huntsville to view
the festivites.
Massey's folks hauled him to shrinks, teachers tried to do something with him,
he was obsessed with becoming another Ted Bundy. I recall that, just like Anna
Nicole Smith (been wondering how long it'd be before her name popped up in this
NG, haven't you ...) who in the Houston trial over her "inheritance", would
place a small photo of her Dearly Departed 90-something year old Husband on the
table in the courtroom and stare lovingly at it all day in front of the jury ...
Massey would take out pictures of Charles Manson and Bundy and stare at them in
his high school classes ...
I was involved in a Dallas County murder trial almost two decades ago where the
proceedings were sparked a bit by the Retired Judge asking, in front of the
jury, after they'd been sworn, "Did the Old Boy NEED killing?" Massey is one
who does. I'll sleep a tiny bit easier tonight knowing he's not sharing the
same Earth and polluted air in Texas.
Richard Jackson
>Richard Jackson wrote:
>
>> The following is a press release from the Attorney General of Texas. Such
>> press releases contain a fairly complete summary of the crime committed as
>> well as the trial and subsequent appeals prior to execution. Decide for
>> yourself if this person is guilty of capital murder, and if he has had due
>> process. This is the reality of why we use the Death Penalty in Texas.
>> This
>> is what this man did, the due process he received, and the penalty he
awaits
>> as a result of his crime.
>>
>> From the Office of the Attorney General of Texas:
>>
>> Friday, March 30, 2001
>>
>> MEDIA ADVISORY
>>
>> Jason Eric Massey Scheduled To Be Executed
>>
<snip>
I agree. Massey is a prime example of someone who shouldn't be allowed to
breath any longer than is absolutely necessary. He's one of those human
predators who deserves the death penalty as a form of societal self-defense.
Dave Proctor
news:20010403062637...@ng-xc1.aol.com...
[...snip 5KB of Neil's post...]
> ===============================
>
> does that answer your question John, or do you want more?
You mean you left 5Kb of stuff there just to add11 words?
Dave
ZogofAlbania
>special honor of John Rennie and the absurdity of his above
>statement.
>
>From Lowery v. The Queen, 58 Cr App Rep 35 (England & Wales
>Reports) (Privy Council 1973).
>
I do not know if the poster was trying to imply that this terrible murder
occured in England, but for what it is worth Mount Napier and the town of
Hamilton are near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. See
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/parks/v140.htm. The Privy Council is/was the
highest appeal court for many Commonwealth countries and sits in London,
England.
Dave Proctor
news:20010404062030...@ng-fh1.aol.com...
Which is why the Australia Act 1986 finally gave total independence to
Australia. No appeals are possible from an Australian court to the Privy
Council - the court of last resort is the High Court of Australia, hich
operates in a similiar way to SCOTUS (in that you need to apply for leave to
appeal, if leave to appeal is granted then they will hear your appeal).
Dave
Neil
>
> I do not know if the poster was trying to imply that
> this terrible murder occured in England, but for what it
> is worth Mount Napier and the town of Hamilton are near
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. See
> http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/parks/v140.htm. The Privy
> Council is/was the highest appeal court for many
> Commonwealth countries and sits in London, England.
Then why the bloody hell did Lexis put this case into its
"England and Wales Reports"?
The problem with British murder cases is that they don't
always lay out the facts of evidence as clearly as American
death penalty cases. This is because death penalty cases are
often decided on how depraved the conduct was, while the
British cases I'm finding are often based on issues not
relevant to the facts.
Thus, when I do a search for British cases of vicious
murders, this is the typical result I find:
"On 7 October 1977 at Northampton Crown Court he was
convicted of a most brutal and sadistic murder. The victim
was a man who just happened at the time to be walking alone
in a public park. There are differing accounts of the
applicant's motive, or lack of motive, for the killing. It
is more than likely that he did it in the course of
robbery."
And that's it. No justification for the "brutal and
sadistic" description.
But here's a series of murders by the same defendants in the
UK (as far as I can tell) that are somewhat descriptive. The
point being, of course, that depravity is by no means unique
to the United States:
R v. Howe, [1987] Crim LR 480 (England and Wales Reports)
(House of Lords, 1987).
"Michael Anthony Howe and John Derrick Bannister appealed
with leave of the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division against
the decision of that court (Lord Lane CJ, Russell and Taylor
JJ) on 27 January 1986 dismissing their appeals against
their convictions of two counts of murder in the Crown Court
at Manchester before Jupp J and a jury on 28 January 1985.
The facts are set out in the opinion of Lord Hailsham LC.
[...]
Murder of Elgar. The first victim was a 17-year old youth
called Elgar. He was offered a job as a driver by Murray.
On the evening of 10 October [1983] all five men were driven
by Murray up into the hills between Stockport and Buxton,
eventually stopping at some public lavatories at a remote
spot called Goytsclough. Murray at some stage told both
appellants in effect that Elgar was a ''grass'', and that
they were going to kill him. Bannister was threatened with
violence if he did not give Elgar ''a bit of a battering''.
From thenceforwards Elgar, who was naked, sobbing and
begging for mercy, was tortured, compelled to undergo
appalling sexual perversions and indignities, he was kicked
and punched. Bannister and Howe were doing the kicking and
punching. The coup de grace was executed by Bailey, who
strangled Elgar with a headlock. It is unnecessary to go
into further details of the attack on Elgar, which are
positively nauseating. In brief the two appellants asserted
that they had only acted as they did through fear of Murray
believing that they would be treated in the same way as
Elgar had been treated if they did not comply with Murray's
directions. The prosecution were content to assent to the
proposition that death had been caused by Bailey strangling
the victim, although the kicks and punches would have
resulted in death moments later even in the absence of the
strangulation. The body was hidden by the appellants and
the other two men.
Murder of Pollitt. Very much the same course of conduct took
place as with Elgar. On 11 October the men picked up
Pollitt, a 19-year-old labourer, and took him to the same
place where all four men kicked and punched the youth.
Murray told Howe and Bannister to kill Pollitt, which they
did by strangling him with Bannister's shoe-lace."
-N
ZogofAlbania
>> this terrible murder occured in England, but for what it
>> is worth Mount Napier and the town of Hamilton are near
>> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. See
>> http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/parks/v140.htm. The Privy
>> Council is/was the highest appeal court for many
>> Commonwealth countries and sits in London, England.
>
>Then why the bloody hell did Lexis put this case into its
>"England and Wales Reports"?
>
I guess it is there because the Privy Council is located in England and it was
therefore a case before a London based court. But as I said, it is the highest
appeal court for many Commonwealth (former British Empire) countries. So the
incident happened in Australia and at the time the highest Australian appeals
court was the Privy Council in London. Since then Australia, understandably,
has created an Australian based highest supreme court. However, several former
colonies, even ones that no longer have the Queen as head of state, still use
the Privy Council as the ultimate appeals court. This is the case with some
West Indian states where they are looking to replace the Privy Council because
being made up of English Law Lords, it is essentially anti the death penalty.