Texas Executes Convicted Killer

By Michael Graczyk

The Associated Press

Friday, February 25, 2000

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- As Gov. George W. Bush forges ahead with his presidential campaign, he leaves behind what some are calling a missed opportunity to demonstrate his "compassionate conservatism."

Capital punishment opponents and organizations that deal with domestic violence victims had urged Bush to delay the execution of Betty Lou Beets, inundating his office with more than 2,000 calls and letters.

But the governor, following what has become standard practice, denied a last-minute reprieve. Beets, 62, was executed by injection Thursday night for murdering her fifth husband nearly 17 years ago.

"It is an act of which we should be deeply ashamed," said Joseph Margulies, Beets' lawyer, who watched his client die. "It is not an act of compassion."

Beets is the nation's fourth condemned woman to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. She is the second to die in Texas.

"I am confident that the courts, both state and federal, have thoroughly reviewed all the issues raised by the defendant," Bush said in a statement shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Beets' final appeal.

Less than an hour later, she was strapped to the death chamber gurney. She declined to make a final statement and made no eye contact with the victim's family. She smiled at her attorney and a spiritual adviser watching through a window, and continued smiling as she slipped into unconsciousness.

She was convicted of fatally shooting Jimmy Don Beets in 1983 and burying his body under a flower garden. Beets and her lawyers insisted the former bartender-waitress was a victim of years of domestic abuse, a subject that was not a factor at trial.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote to Bush, saying a reprieve "would demonstrate your compassionate conservatism and that you are willing to do what is right even in the face of potential criticism from your constituents."

During Bush's 51/2 years as governor, 121 convicted killers have been executed in Texas. The Republican has said he is certain all of them were guilty. He spared one condemned inmate whose guilt, he said, was in doubt.

Earlier in the week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Beets' pleas for a 180-day reprieve or commutation of her sentence to life in prison. That left Bush, under Texas law, with authority to grant Beets a one-time 30-day reprieve.

Beets insisted she was innocent. Prosecutors convinced a Henderson County jury that she killed Jimmy Don Beets, a Dallas Fire Department captain, to collect his life insurance and pension.

Beets also was convicted of shooting and wounding her second husband, Bill Lane, and was charged but never tried in the 1981 shooting death of her fourth husband, Doyle Barker.

Beets blamed a son for Jimmy Don Beets' death. The son denied any involvement and testified against her. Beets explained Barker's disappearance by saying he left one day and never returned. She blamed Lane for Barker's death.

Beets' claims of domestic abuse surfaced only recently and were not a factor in her 1985 trial.

"That was just the last gasp she had," Barker's son, Rodney, said after watching her die.

Jimmy Don Beets' son, James, who also witnessed the execution, said his father's death was wrong and he hoped his family now could get on with their lives.

"My dad was a Dallas fireman for 26 years," he said. "He lived to help people and not hurt people. I just hope now people know and they can see my dad was a good man."