Rickey Bryant, Bruce Gardner, Georgia Reed, 
Scotty Reed, Earline Barker
By Melissa Estes

A terrible injustice occurred in August 1999---a cold-blooded killer was scheduled to be executed, instead he got a last minute stay of execution from the toughest court in the country--- the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Here's why: Because his mother thinks he's insane and she has recruited powerful political forces to her cause.

Larry Keith Robison brutally murdered five people 17 years ago. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He has exercised every possible appeal known to the court system in this country. Every appeal was denied by every court which heard it. Then his mother went to work. She launched a massive media campaign aimed at powerful advocacy groups including Amnesty International, the Catholic Church, the National Association of Mental Health and nationally syndicated columnists from her home state of Texas. They all climbed onboard to do "God's work" --- save a man from execution.

These special interest groups don't seem too concerned about the real evidence, they just want to adopt a liberal cause and heroically save a life. Not just any life, but a man scheduled to be executed. An ordained minister is Robison's chief attorney. Many attorneys and mental health professionals have donated their services as this coalition tries to undermine the cornerstone of our legal justice system, trial by jury. Robison was granted a stay for the court to determine if he is mentally competent to be executed. He has already been found mentally competent at the time of the murders, at the time of the trial, at the time of sentencing. Robison could have asked for this most recent stay as long ago as last May, but instead he and his powerful legal team decided to drag out the drama until the last possible time--- the day before his execution. The decision was handed down just four hours before his scheduled lethal injection. He had already had his last meal, his last meeting with his mother, and had prepared his last statement.

The question is---is this man the right poster boy for the forces opposed to the execution of mentally ill prisoners? There's no question that some prisoners on death Row are mentally ill, but is this particular prisoner actually insane or did his mother just manage to convince the right people?

Of course the larger question is: Should the Catholic Church and Amnesty International be able to interfere this deeply in the justice system of this country. This smacks of the violation of Church and State in the Constitution. If the courts decided this man had a fair trial, every appeal was exercised, all his constitutional rights were observed---isn't this attempt to overturn the verdict of the jury after a fair trial actually an act of subversion? If so, it is a threat to the very heart of our system of government. Are we a democracy based on laws under the Constitution or can special interest groups lobby the right people, affect the right election, influence the right governor to impose their beliefs on the majority? Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Texas legislature in 1974, it has never been challenged. Every poll result has been overwhelmingly in favor of keeping it. Despite this support, Amnesty International and the Catholic Church have decided they know what's best for the citizens of Texas, and will use any means necessary to impose their will against the wishes of the majority. Amnesty International couldn't base their objections to Robison's execution on race because this is a white man who killed five white people.

This stay certainly has nothing to do with the fact that Governor George W. Bush is running for president, although his opponents suggest that his reputation as a "compassionate conservative" suffered a blow when Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker---an axe murderer who was "born again" in prison and also had a massive media campaign from her support groups. Erroneously, some advocacy groups are calling for Governor Bush to commute this man’s sentence. Actually, Governor Bush can’t commute the sentence unless the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends that action. The Parole Board voted 17-0 on Friday, August 13, 1999, against a commuted sentence for Robison.

Tarrant County Prosecutor Greg Pipes, who prosecuted Robison at trial and will prosecute the competency hearing, stated in a local newspaper that under Texas law, if Robison's death penalty sentence is commuted, he would walk out of prison a free man. Texas has a "mandatory release" statute which, in 1982, applied even to capital murderers. This means that if a prisoner on Death Row gets a commuted sentence to life in prison, then he gets credit for time served at the rate of a day and a half per day. Robison soon will have served the minimum time required for mandatory release, and if commuted, the man would walk. Naturally the media hasn't shown much interest in this little piece of information.

Here's the guy who might soon be living in your neighborhood. Slightly more than 17 years ago, Robison stabbed his roommate to death to steal his car. Furious when he couldn't find the car keys, he went next door to steal the neighbor's car. Georgia Reed lived next door with her 11- year-old son, Scotty Reed. Georgia's mother, Earline Barker, had recently been released from the hospital and was staying with Georgia to recuperate. When Robison burst into their home and demanded that Georgia give him the keys to her car, she refused. So he stabbed her to death. When Earline emerged from her bedroom to help her daughter, Robison stabbed her to death. Scotty had attacked Robison with a hammer to try to stop the murder of his mother and grandmother. Robison took the hammer from Scotty and struck him in the head, then he stabbed Scotty to death. He stabbed Georgia in the face until all the skin and muscle tissue had been removed and only the skeletal structure of her face remained. Robison admitted later that he stabbed Georgia in the face because he was angry at her for refusing to date him.

My cousin, Bruce Gardner, was dating Georgia. Two weeks earlier, Robison had asked Bruce to teach him to shoot the gun he had recently purchased. While Robison was still searching for the car keys, Bruce arrived to take Georgia and Scotty on a picnic. As he came through the door, Robison shot my cousin in the head with the gun Bruce had showed him how to use. Then Robison removed the keys and wallet from my cousin's body, stole Earline's wallet, showered, and changed clothes. Robison changed the license plates on my cousin's car, and attempted to escape by driving to St. Louis. He was captured in Kansas the following day and returned to Fort Worth for prosecution.

When the media announced the details of the murders, the public was outraged at the viciousness of the crime. As he was escorted into the courthouse for arraignment, the police and sheriff's departments called out extra officers and put up barricades in the streets to protect Robison from the angry mob who shouted death threats at him. The newspapers described this a "near riot".

Now the man is portrayed as a national victim. How and why did this transformation occur?

Because Larry Robison's mother sincerely believes he is insane so that she can live with the horror of his acts. The issue of his insanity was thoroughly presented to the jury at his trial. His mother submitted many pages of evidence and testified on his behalf for three days. Robison, 25 at the time of the murders and a long-term drug abuser, had used cocaine, methamphetamines, PCP, angel dust, LSD and amphetamines. The jury heard all the testimony, observed all the witnesses, and reviewed all the evidence. They didn't believe the defense claims of insanity.

I've spared you the really gory details--they are too horrible to describe. The man was hyped up on methamphetamines and lack of sleep for four days. He planned to use the gun which he had purchased in advance, so this was a pre-meditated act. He was rational enough to steal the wallets and change the license plates on the stolen car. He even returned to his home long enough to shower and change clothes. At one point he remarked that if had been able to find the car keys after the first murder, he would have gotten away with it. I guess he got frustrated at not finding the keys. It must have been all that methamphetamine making him testy.

Then his mother tried to convince the jury that he was a paranoid schizophrenic and that she had tried for years to get him committed. The evidence was flimsy and the jury didn't buy that either. They returned a guilty verdict, and a death sentence by lethal injection. Later, in a taped interview from prison after the trial, Robison recanted his trial testimony of "hearing voices" and admitted that this had been fabricated to bolster his insanity defense. Robison was undeterred by the jury's decision. He had said all along that his mother would get him released, and it seems he may be right.

Every stage of the trial has been intensely scrutinized by the courts. There was no prosecutorial misconduct. The murderer has exercised every possible appeal through the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. All of his constitutional rights have been observed.

Even though he confessed to the killings, Robison has never accepted personal responsibility for the murders. It was always the drugs, or his insanity, or the fact that he was a little testy from the methamphetamines when he couldn't find the car keys. Since "drug-induced killing spree" didn't work for Karla Faye Tucker, his mother has pushed this insanity plea Lois Robison traveled the country enlisting the aid of advocacy groups, even appearing on national talk shows to drum up support for her new organization, Save Our Sons or S.O.S. It seems she used most of the donations to pay the legal expenses for just one of the sons---her own.

But we can't fault her for that. After all, she has completely convinced herself that he was insane, otherwise she has to live with the horror of what he did. I'm a mother, I have a son---I can't imagine her agony in living with the horror of knowing her son brutally murdered five people.

His mother's chief argument is that she didn't get to present all her evidence at trial. Well, the trial judge wisely decided to exclude one little piece of evidence---a family member testifying that he thought Robison was mentally ill. If he had allowed that testimony, I imagine quite a few more of Robison's brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins would volunteer to testify about how crazy they thought he was. On her talk show circuit, Mrs. Robison drags out a stack of papers she claims establishes her son's insanity. But on close examination, it seems there is only one possible diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, which was one alternative along with personality disorder and sociopath. Mighty flimsy evidence to overturn the decision of a jury which has been upheld all the way to the Supreme Court.

But she managed to use that flimsy evidence to convince the National Mental Health Association of her cause. This guy seemed to fit the bill for a poster boy for mentally ill prisoners they could help save on Death Row. Since Texas has been dubbed the Death Penalty Capitol of the World, this seemed like a good place to make a stand.

All the right groups were interested in this killer---the liberal media had decided to run his story as a black eye to Governor Bush, the liberal advocacy groups have been lobbying all their constituents, and it's easy to beat up on Texas for killing people. The frustration of the victims’ families mounted as the media refused to hear the facts in this case. They had already decided how they were slanting this story, based on information fed to them from the murderer and his powerful advocacy groups, and they didn’t want to know the truth. My cousins and I decided to witness the execution to counter the media’s portrayal and as a statement of support for the law. I made this decision reluctantly as I was opposed to the death penalty. After what I saw transpire in Texas, the contrast between the screaming protestors from Amnesty International, and the compassion shown by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, I've changed my mind about the conflict between spiritual beliefs and the law. Texas has a Victim Services Division of their Criminal Justice Department whose assistant director, Dan Guerra, prepares the families of victims to witness the execution of the person who murdered their loved one.

Last Tuesday, Dan had his hands full as the family members of the victims of Larry Robison literally physically collapsed on hearing the news that this vicious cold blooded killer had been granted yet another delay in his meeting with his Maker.

Naturally the media didn't want to hear from the victims' families, they already had plenty of coverage fed to them by Amnesty International and the other special interest groups. I used to be a member of Amnesty International, until last Tuesday. I joined to protest the imprisonment of political prisoners, not to undermine the laws of the United States. The inaccurate information widely disseminated by Amnesty Int’l is a travesty of justice and an embarrassment to the organization. How many other issues have they reported completely inaccurately just to enhance their fundraising?

This latest stay was granted because Robison now claims that since he has lived on Death Row for 17 years, as a result of all the appeals he has filed, he no longer understands the concept of death. I'm willing to volunteer to explain the concept to him. If I'm still alive after this latest round of hearings and multiple appeals, I plan to return to watch Robison executed. This time with no emotional turmoil about the death penalty. I learned that some people deserve to die for their crimes.

11/8/99 UPDATE:

Larry Keith Robison's own words helped seal his fate Monday during a hearing to determine whether the convicted killer is mentally competent to understand his death sentence.  State District Judge Everett Young found that psychiatric reports indicate Robison, 42, understands he is to be executed for a rampage in which 5 people were killed 17 years ago near Fort Worth. And Robison's statement to the court Monday further convinced him, Young said.  Robison, shackled at his wrists and ankles, took the stand during the brief hearing to apologize to the victims' friends and family "if the recent media coverage caused (them) any pain and suffering."  He added that he had been "ready to go peacefully" Aug. 17 – his previously scheduled execution date - before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blocked the lethal injection and  agreed with Robison's attorneys that their claims of the inmate's mental problems deserved a look.  "The competency hearing wasn't my idea," said Robison, who earlier had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. But "there are people out there who love me as well and they want me to live."   Lois Robison has led the fight for years to have her son spared and treated for mental illness.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that mentally ill people could be executed as long as they understood the punishment  that awaited them and why they were being put to death.   Young said Robison's attorneys failed to prove he was "incapable of understanding he is being executed."  The judge is expected to issue the written ruling declaring Robison's mental competency Nov. 15. Then the appeals court will consider it, and if it accepts the judge's ruling, Young will set another execution date.   Prosecutors said the judge could set a date before the end of the year, but the actual execution would likely occur in 2000.   Melodee Smith, one of Robison's attorney, said she plans an appeal.  The victims' relatives issued a statement saying they are thankful Robison has accepted responsibility for the murders and "for the years of suffering these delays have caused us.  We, the families of the victims, hope the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will honor the decision of the court and respect Larry Keith Robison's request to lift the stay."   Ms. Robison said she does not feel her son received a fair hearing and insisted he did not want to die.   But in recent psychiatric  evaluations, Robison is quoted as saying that he feels "ready to accept responsibility for what I did to those people that day."  When asked Aug. 21 if he understood his sentence, Robison told a psychiatrist, "How could I not? I have been on death row for 16 years.  I've watched others go to their deaths."  In an Oct. 10 interview with the doctor, Robison said he hoped his execution will "bring the victims' families some  relief."