William Keith Speer.Photo:Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP
Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP
At 49, William Keith Speer has spent all but the first 16 years of his life behind bars — most of themon death row.
Speer’s execution — for strangling to death another inmate at the alleged direction of his former prison gang leader — is slated for later today. But Sammie Martin, the sister of the man Speer killed when he was 22, has asked the state of Texas to stay his execution.
“I have spent much time reflecting on what justice my brother and my family deserved,” Martin wrote in a letter filed in federal court earlier this week,the Associated Press reported. “In my heart, I feel that he is not only remorseful for his actions but has been doing good works for others and has something left to offer the world.”
In July 1997, Speer and Anibal Canales , Jr. (who is also on death row) strangled to death Gary Dickerson, a 47-year-old inmate, inside his cell, according to Speer’s onlinedeath row information.
“I am so aware of the things that I’ve done,” Speer, who at 16 was locked up on a life sentence for the capital murder of his friend’s father, said in avideosubmitted to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this month. “I’m so aware of the pain and the hurt that I’ve caused. I can just say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
As a teenager Speer became convinced that his friend’s father was abusing him, and he killed the father in response, the supporters say. The 16-year-old was thrown in Harris County Jail with adult prisoners, found ready to stand trial as an adult and, according to his online record, convicted of 1 count of capital murder with a deadly weapon.
Former mugshot of William Keith Speer, circa 1997.Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Growing up behind bars, Speer joined a prison gang, according to the video, leading to his second murder conviction, which put him on death row about 22 years ago.
But the 6-foot, 215 pound man, who had just an eighth grade education when he first went behind bars, according to his online record, began turning his life around, family of both Speer and Dickerson say.
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Speer, who was baptized in a giant kiddie pool in the prison yard, is now a frequent voice on the 6 a.m. prison radio Faith Based Program show. His supporters say his faith in God has given him the grounded stability he craved growing up and that he could spend the rest of his life in jail working as a field minister, making the lives of other inmates better, as he has already begun doing as an official mentor among his fellow prisoners.
The Huntsville “Walls” Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, where the death chamber is located.Aaron M. Sprecher via AP
Aaron M. Sprecher via AP
Dickerson’s sister – his only surviving sibling, according to the AP – has changed her mind about Speer since testifying at his murder trial. While the death of her brother devastated her family, she does not believe justice for her brother’s killing would be found in the death of his killer, she told the court this week.
But lawyers for the Texas Attorney General’s Office responded in court filings this week that “the state retains its interest in deterring gang murders and prison violence, as well as seeing justice done for Dickerson,” the AP reported.
“Nobody’s entitled to — to any of this,” Speer said in the video where he pleaded the state for his life. “I’m appealing for this opportunity to give more — to give back. Not because I’ve done something and I’ve become entitled to a different change. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But what I am asking is for the opportunity to be able to give the love that I’ve been given.”
source: people.com
