Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 109, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 19, 2015 Page: 3 of 34
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3A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Man executed for setting fire that killed 3 children
BRIEFLY
STATE AND THE U.S.
Holiday, from prison, con-
tended he knew nothing about
the assault.
According to court records,
he showed up at the home and
forced the girls’ grandmother at
gunpoint to douse the interior
with gasoline. After it ignited, he
sped away in the grandmother’s
car, hit a police car that arrived
outside the cabin and then led
officers on a chase that ended
two counties away when he
wrecked.
Defense attorneys at his trial
suggested an electrical problem
or a pilot light started the blaze
in the early hours of Sept. 6,
2000, killing Holiday’s daugh-
ter, Justice, and her half-sisters,
Tierra Lynch, 7, and Jasmine
DuPaul, 5.
The girls’ grandmother told a
jury she watched Holiday bend
down and then the flames erupt-
ed, court records show. Jurors
convicted him of capital murder
and decided he should be put to
death.
in Holiday’s trial court stopped
the execution after Holiday’s
trial attorney filed an appeal say-
ing the conviction and some trial
testimony were both improper.
The judge agreed the issues
should be reviewed and with-
drew his execution warrant. The
Texas attorney general’s office
appealed, the judge’s order was
voided and the warrant reinstat-
ed, clearing the way for the le-
thal injection to move forward
more.
Waco
Grand jury reconvenes
but not for bikers’ cases
By Michael Graczyk
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE - A Texas
inmate was executed Wednes-
day for setting a fire that killed
his 18-month-old daughter and
her two young half-sisters at an
East Texas home 15 years ago.
Raphael Holiday, 36, became
the 13th convicted killer put to
death this year in Texas, which
carries out capital punishment
more than any other state. It has
accounted for half of all execu-
flft 1?;S
The grand jury considering
the cases of almost 200 bikers
arrested following a deadly
shooting outside a Texas restau-
rant in May has reconvened, but
won’t consider the 80 who
haven’t been indicted.
Earlier this month, 106 bik-
ers were indicted on charges of
engaging in organized criminal
activity, but assistant district at-
torney Mark Parker told The As-
sociated Press on Wednesday
that prosecutors weren’t pre-
pared to present the remaining
cases.
4*
I
W
A
tions in the U.S. so far this year.
Asked by a warden if he had a
Holiday
The execution took place
about 2 1/2 hours later than
scheduled because of the late
state court appeal.
Holiday told The Associated
Press recently from a visiting
cage outside death row that he
didn’t know how the log cabin
he once shared with his wife and
the children in the Madison
County woods about 100 miles
north of Houston caught fire in
September 2000.
“I loved my kids,” Holiday
said. “I never would do harm to
any of them.”
Evidence and testimony
showed Holiday was irate over a
protective order his estranged
wife obtained after his arrest for
sexually assaulting one of the
children.
final
statement,
thanked his “supporters and
loved ones.”
Michael Graczyk/AP file photo
Condemned Texas inmate Raphael Holiday is photographed
Oct. 28 during an interview outside death row at the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit near Livingston.
“I love y’all,” he said. “I want
you to know I’m always going to
be with you.”
He thanked the warden. As
the lethal dose of pentobarbital
began, he took two deep breaths
and appeared to yawn, his
mouth remaining open as he
wheezed several times. Then all
movement stopped.
Nineteen minutes later, at
8:30 p.m., he was pronounced
dead.
Nine people were killed and
20 injured in the shooting,
which involved bikers and po-
lice.
Washington
Despite U.S. airstrikes,
IS threat persists
In measuring progress in the
American-led air war against
the Islamic State in Syria and
Iraq, numbers tell one story but
results tell another.
Fighter jets, bombers, attack
planes and drones are dropping
an average of 2,228 bombs per
month on targets ranging from
training camps and machine
gun positions to oil facilities and
weapons shacks. The Pentagon
says it doesn’t do body counts,
but the attacks are believed to
have killed upward of20,000 IS
fighters. The U.S. price tag: $5
billion since August 2014, an
average of $111 million each day.
The bombing has damaged
or destroyed hundreds of mili-
tary vehicles (including Ameri-
can tanks surrendered by Iraqi
soldiers), thousands of build-
ings, hundreds of pieces of oil in-
frastructure and thousands of
fighting positions, among other
targets, according to U.S. Cen-
tral Command figures.
But what has been the result?
In a word, stalemate, although
U.S. military officials say they
see the tide gradually turning in
their favor.
law wife. The mother initially
stood at the back of the death
chamber witness area, watching
from behind a corrections offi-
cer. About 10 minutes later, with
Holiday motionless on the death
chamber gurney, she walked to-
ward a window to see him.
She and other relatives of the
slain children declined to speak
with reporters afterward.
The punishment was carried
out after the U.S. Supreme
Court rejected an appeal seeking
to halt Holiday’s punishment so
new attorneys could be appoint-
ed to pursue additional unspeci-
fied appeals in his case. Austin-
based lawyer Gretchen Sween
argued that Holiday’s court-ap-
pointed attorneys abandoned
him after the justices in June re-
fused to review his case. Those
lawyers advised Holiday his le-
gal issues were exhausted and
new appeals and a clemency pe-
tition would be fruitless.
Earlier Wednesday, the judge
The lethal injection was the
last one scheduled for Texas this
year, but at least five inmates
have execution dates set for early
next year.
Texas carried out 10 execu-
tions in 2014.
Holiday never addressed or
looked at witnesses, including
the children’s grandfather and
mother, his former common-
Obama threatens to
veto House GOP bill
on Syrian refugees
From Page 1A
Johnson
sible to his constituents, failing
to support government trans-
parency and weakening local
rules for drilling and hydraulic
fracturing.
Tamez called Johnson’s re-
quest for an investigation “dis-
turbing.”
Will Wooten, head of Black-
land Prairie Rising Tide, said the
local chapter does not get in-
volved in local political cam-
paigns.
For about five years, a hand-
ful of Denton residents have
been involved with Rising Tide
North America, an international
network of volunteers con-
cerned about climate change.
The group has protested the
Keystone Pipeline and other
projects it sees as a threat to the
climate.
One of the local members of
Rising Tide North America
made national news in 2012 af-
ter The Washington Post exam-
ined government investigations
into environmental activism. Al-
though eco-terrorism was wan-
ing, The Post reported the gov-
ernment investigations were
continuing, even into nonvio-
lent groups like Rising Tide.
The FBI came to Denton to
question philosophy professor
Adam Briggle about University
of North Texas student Ben
Kessler and Rising Tide, The
Post reported. Briggle told The
Post that the 30-minute inter-
view with the FBI was “off-put-
ting.”
Luther King Jr. Recreation Cen-
ter and that maybe the city
should know who was using its
facilities.
“There’s been a lot of whis-
pering going on about a group
that’s been promoting anarchy
in our city,” Johnson said.
A District 1 neighborhood
group booked the recreation
center Wednesday to discuss
plans to recall its council mem-
ber, Kevin Roden. Earlier this
week, Roden told the Denton
Record-Chronicle that he ques-
tioned whether that was an ap-
propriate use of a city facility, be-
cause it was a political cam-
scribed the bill as a middle-
ground approach. It institutes
tough new screening require-
ments, but steers clear of de-
mands from some Republicans,
including presidential candi-
dates, for religious questioning
or a complete end to the U.S. ref-
ugee program. It is scheduled for
a House vote today.
“This is common sense. And
it’s our obligation,” Speaker Paul
Ryan of Wisconsin said on the
House floor ahead of the veto
threat.
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
White House on Wednesday
threatened a presidential veto of
House Republican legislation
aimed at increasing screenings
for Syrian and Iraqi refugees be-
fore they enter the United
States, calling new requirements
in the bill “untenable.”
The legislation, which sets
high hurdles for refugee admis-
sions, including FBI back-
ground checks and individual
sign-offs by top federal officials,
“would provide no meaningful
additional security for the
American people, instead serv-
ing only to create significant de-
lays and obstacles in the fulfill-
ment of a vital program that sat-
isfies both humanitarian and
national security objectives,” the
White House said.
President Barack Obama
would veto the legislation if it
reaches his desk, the statement
concluded.
Republican leaders, eager to
respond quickly to Friday’s ter-
ror attacks in Paris, had de-
Briggle himself has become
an activist since then. He was ar-
rested in June for blocking ac-
cess to a gas well site in far west-
ern Denton.
Nothing appears to have
come of the 2012 investigation
into Rising Tide. President Ba-
rack Obama vetoed the Key-
stone Pipeline this month. The
Guardian reported in May that
the FBI may have violated its
own internal rules when it failed
to get approval before opening
investigations into protesters in
Texas.
The
paign.
Since the recall petition was
filed, some of Hawkins’ support-
ers have fought back on social
media and labeled the recall
In the Senate, lawmakers
emerging from a closed-door
briefing with administration of-
ficials Wednesday night said
Democratic Sen. Dianne Fein-
stein and Republican Sen. Jeff
Flake planned to introduce a bill
that would restrict visas for any
individual who had been in Iraq
or Syria in the past five years.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said
Republicans are focused on a
refugee program that is “serious
and arduous,” but 20 million
foreign visitors come to the U.S.
with visa waivers with no finger-
printing or background vetting.
Spokane, Wash.
3 killed, thousands sans
power in Northwest
Cleanup crews took to the
streets Wednesday in Washing-
ton state after a powerful storm
killed three people, cut power to
more than 350,000 residents
and flooded rivers.
The winds on Tuesday ex-
ceeded 100 mph in some areas
of the Inland Northwest, where
fallen trees were blamed for the
deaths.
The city secretary’s office is
continuing to evaluate the peti-
tion to recall Hawkins and ex-
pects to be finished by the close
of business Monday. Because
Hawkins was unopposed in his
re-election in May, it would take
only 76 valid signatures to force
a recall election in May 2016.
Hawkins has said he will not
supporters “anarchists.”
District 4 resident Elida Ta-
mez, who was among those who
circulated the petition against
Hawkins, said she laughed ini-
tially when she heard the label.
“When does someone who
seeks the democratic process get
labeled an anarchist?” Tamez
said.
resign.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE
can be reached at 940-566-
6881 and via Twitter at
@phwolfeDRC.
As required by the city char-
ter, the petition District 4 voters
signed includes three grievances
against Hawkins: being inacces-
— The Associated Press
Minneapolis police shooting
stirs old racial tensions
From Page 1A
Cart
because of traffic.
Lately, he’s been driving the
golf cart more than usual. He
took it out Saturday, Sunday,
Monday and even Tuesday to
collect signatures for a petition
that he started to stop a pro-
posed city ordinance regulating
the use of golf carts on city
streets.
Kerr drove his golf cart from
his home behind Sonic Drive-In
all the way out to Bebo’s Cafe in
Pilot Point, talking to residents
about the proposed ordinance.
He collected nearly 250 signa-
tures, then drove his cart to the
Aubrey City Council meeting
Tuesday night to present it.
The council voted to not pass
the ordinance.
Kerr says he doesn’t know
what he would do if he couldn’t
drive his golf cart around town.
He’s only owned it a couple of
years. He saw it advertised on
Craigslist. He says he liked the
color.
ment before a seizure strike and
a few moments after. When he
hit the fireworks stand, the
stand worker thought Kerr was
drunk because he was acting
groggy, and yelled at him.
Growing up, Kerr says, no
one knew he was having sei-
zures. In school, teachers just
thought he wasn’t paying atten-
tion whenever he suffered a sei-
zure. He didn’t realize he was ex-
periencing epileptic seizures un-
til his teenage years.
After the accident, Kerr
spent 15 years depending on the
Denton County Transportation
Authority. He says he moved to
Denton because of his parents
going off to work, and he re-
turned to Aubrey because of
their deaths. He’s spent most of
his life in Aubrey. He knows a lot
of people by name.
‘Whenever you’re disabled,
you’re not able to get around,”
Kerr said. “It’s about half a mile
from here to the grocery store,
and what if you need to get a
bunch of groceries? It’s hard to
carry them all when you’ve got to
walk back home.”
Kerr isn’t the only one driv-
ing golf carts around, and some
of those residents showed up to
Tuesday’s council meeting to
voice their concern about the
proposed ordinance regulating
golf carts.
Aubrey City Administrator
Matt McCombs said the ordi-
nance to regulate golf carts
wasn’t proposed because of
Kerr. It was broader than any
one person, and it wasn’t pre-
sented by any one person, he
said.
“It was kind of one of those
things that popped up a number
of times,” McCombs said.
McCombs said city staff
would hear a person here, a per-
son there making reference to a
golf cart nuisance. Then a pro-
posed ordinance appeared as
“Item N” on the council’s agenda
for Tuesday night.
Kerr is glad the proposed or-
dinance was defeated. He says
it’s a lot easier for him to pull
over a golf cart than a pickup
when a seizure strikes.
It usually happens once or
twice a month. He can usually
tell when a seizure is going to hit,
but it’s hard to explain the symp-
toms.
By Amy Forliti
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS - The fa-
tal shooting of an unarmed
black man by a Minneapolis po-
lice officer has pushed racial ten-
sions in the city’s small but con-
centrated minority community
to the fore, with a police precinct
besieged by a makeshift en-
campment and hundreds of
protesters in recent days.
Police have tried to improve
race relations in recent years, and
succeeded in some areas. But
some community activists say ra-
cial disparities — high unemploy-
ment rates for blacks, a dispro-
portionate number of arrests for
minor crimes and inequities in
housing and the school system
have been going on for so long
that Sunday’s shooting of Jamar
Clark, and the reaction from the
community, was no surprise.
We call Minneapolis a tale of
two cities: The best of times if
you’re white, and worst of times
if you’re black,” said Nekima
Levy-Pounds, president of the
Minneapolis chapter of the
NAACP, and one of 42 people
arrested when protesters shut
down an interstate highway
Monday night.
Clark, 24, was shot in the
head during a confrontation
with two officers. Police said he
was a suspect in an assault and
was interfering with paramedics
trying to treat the victim. Police
said there was a scuffle, and
Clark was shot. Some people
who say they saw the shooting
J
Jim Mone/AP
Jamar Clark’s sister, Danielle Burns, right, grieves as she and
other family members gather during a news conference held by
the Minneapolis Urban League on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
joining the Minneapolis force,
said he is white.
Members of the Minneapolis
chapter of Black Lives Matter
and other demonstrators want
Kerr says that whenever he
starts feeling symptoms, he pulls
over to the side of the road, turns
off the golf cart and waits for the
feeling to pass. It usually takes a
few minutes for it to pass. Then
he opens his eyes, fires up the
cart and continues on his way.
An Aubrey police officer has
stopped to check on him in the
past, and Kerr says he hopes that
if officers catch someone misus-
ing a golf cart — such as a teen-
ager taking one out for a joy ride
— they should give a warning-
first, then write a ticket if they
catch them doing it again.
“But if it is someone like me
who is being safe, leave them
alone,” he says.
claim Clark wasn’t struggling
and was handcuffed. Police ini-
tially said he wasn’t handcuffed,
but the state agency that’s inves-
tigating the shooting, the Bu-
reau of Criminal Apprehension,
said one thing it’s looking at is
whether Clark was restrained.
The president of the Minne-
apolis police union, Lt. Bob
Kroll, said Wednesday in an
email that Clark was “disarm-
ing” the officer and was not
handcuffed.
The officers involved in the
shooting
Wednesday as Mark Ringgen-
berg and Dustin Schwarze, both
with seven years of experience
including 13 months with the
Minneapolis department, but
their race wasn’t released be-
cause it’s private under state law.
Police in Maple Grove, where
Ringgenberg worked before
police to release video of the
shooting, but the BCA has de-
clined to do so, saying it would
taint the investigation. The FBI
is also undertaking a civil rights
investigation.
Tensions
He felt freedom the first time
he got behind the wheel of the
golf cart and drove it through his
neighborhood. More than a de-
cade had passed since he’d driv-
en on the road. He says the Texas
Department of Public Safety
took away his license after he
crashed into a fireworks stand
on Fishtrap Road.
Kerr suffers from epileptic
seizures that cause him to black
out for a few moments. When it
happens, his body tenses up. In
the case of the fireworks stand,
he says his body tensed with his
foot on the gas.
He can remember the mo-
ramped
Wednesday afternoon when po-
lice moved to clear protesters
out of the vestibule of the 4th
up
identified
Precinct station where several
had been sleeping since the
shooting. They pulled down a
pop-up shelter and doused a
bonfire, prompting protesters to
chant, “Shame on you!” before
relighting the flame.
Chief Janee Harteau said po-
lice have to keep the vestibule
clear for safety.
were
CHRISTIAN McPHATE can
be reached at 940-566-6878
and via Twitter at @writeron
theedge.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 109, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 19, 2015, newspaper, November 19, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124611/m1/3/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .