Kenneth Clark, Texas death row prisoner, 47

[David Carson]

Kenneth Ray Clark, 47, was discovered unconscious in his death row
cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas at approximately 11:30
p.m. Thursday. He was taken via ambulance to a Livingston hospital,
where he was pronounced dead at 1:17 the next morning, 20 December.

Death row prisoners are housed one per cell. TDCJ officials found no
appearance of foul play and no indications of suicide. An autopsy
will be performed and the results will be released in January.

On 10 May 1991, Clark, then 35, entered a Fort Worth service station
with a pistol and demanded money from the clerk, Robert Tate. Robert
H. Campbell, a customer who was waiting on his car, was using the
telephone. After taking money from the cash register, Clark turned to
Campbell and told him to get of the phone and give him money. "Sir, I
don't have any money," Campbell replied. After a scuffle, Clark shot
Campbell, 18, in the back. He escaped with $200. Clark was arrested
the next day and was identified by Tate.

Clark had an extensive criminal past and had been to prison four
times, including 6½ years of a 17-year sentence for aggravated robbery
with a deadly weapon and 4 years of a 13-year sentence for attempted
murder. He was released from the last sentence on 27 March 1991, six
weeks before murdering Campbell. (At the time, early release was
common in Texas because of strict prison population caps imposed by
U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

A jury convicted Clark of capital murder in 1992 and sentenced him to
death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction in
1996 but vacated the death sentence because the trial judge improperly
allowed prosecutors to strike a juror who had misgivings about the
death penalty. After a new punishment hearing before a new jury, his
death sentence was reinstated. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed
the sentence in June 1999.

Clark is the second Texas prisoner to die on death row in 2002.

David Carson
(Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Associated Press, Fort
Worth Star-Telegram.)
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Texas Execution Information
www.txexecutions.org