Charles Brooks, Jr.

Charles Brooks, Jr.

Charles Brooks, Jr. (September 1, 1942 – December 7, 1982) was a convicted murderer who was the first person executed by the state of Texas since it resumed capital punishment.[1] Brooks was also the first person in United States to be executed using lethal injection.

Contents

Biography

Brooks was raised in a well-off Fort Worth, Texas family and attended I.M. Terrell High School, where he played football. He had been to prison before, serving time at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth for illegal possession of firearms.

On December 14, 1976, Brooks went to a used car lot and asked to test drive a car. The mechanic, David Gregory, accompanied him in the car. After Brooks picked up his accomplice Woody Loudres, they put the mechanic in the trunk of the car and Brooks and Loudres drove to a motel. There the mechanic was bound to a chair with coat hangers, gagged with tape and then shot once in the head. Neither Brooks nor Loudres would say who fired the shot. In exchange for his testimony at trial, Loudres received a 40 year sentence; Brooks received the death sentence.

The Supreme Court of the United States rejected by 6-3 a petition to grant a stay of execution. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended by 2-1 that the execution should proceed.

After a last meal consisting of a T-bone steak, french fries, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, biscuits, peach cobbler and iced tea, Brooks was rolled into the death chamber at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas. There he made his final statement. Brooks had converted to Islam while in prison and as such said a prayer to Allah: "Yes, I do. I love you. Ash Hadu an la ilah illa Allah, Ash Hadu an la ilah illa Allah, Ash Hadu anna Muhammadan Rasul Allah, Ash Hadu anna Muhammadan Rasul Allah. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Inna li-Allah wa-inna ilayhi rajiun. Verily unto Allah do we belong, Verily unto him do we return. Be strong." [2]

Brooks was executed on December 7, 1982, despite serious doubts about his personal involvement in the murder of David Gregory. Even the prosecutor pleaded that his death sentence be commuted, because no one knew whether he or his co-defendant actually committed the murder. (Charles W. Colson, "That Execution Wasn't Painless," Washington Post, December 11, 1982)

See also

References

Retrieved 4 April 2011.

External links

Preceded by
Frank Coppola
People executed in U.S. Succeeded by
John Louis Evans

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