"Grandparents plead for clemency for grandson's killer -- their son," is the video report on Houston's KHOU-TV. It's reported by Kevin Reece.
The parents of a convicted murderer are pleading with the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to stop their son’s planned execution this month. Columbus and Wilma Adams say they don’t want to be victims again.
Timothy Wayne Adams is scheduled for execution on February 22, nearly nine years to the day since he shot and killed his 19-month-old son Timothy Jr. In a custody dispute with his wife, Adams became despondent and suicidal at his southwest Houston apartment.
At his trial in 2002, prosecutors said he had held his son at arm’s length and shot him in the chest, then shot him a second time on the ground.
"He was not in his right mind," said his mom, Wilma Adams, of the military veteran who had no previous criminal record. "I don't know what happened that day but he was not in his right mind. He just snapped. He just lost it."
Adams pleaded guilty and a Houston jury deliberated for two days before returning with a punishment of death by lethal injection. He is on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston.
"This is pain that the family has suffered day in and day out," said his father, Columbus Adams.
This week, attorneys for Adams filed a clemency petition asking the Board of Pardons and Paroles to vote to spare Adams’ life and commute his sentence to life in prison without parole. The petition includes the testimony of Adams’ parents, who say they were first victimized by the death of their grandson and can’t face losing their son as well.
"We are victims, too. This is our grandson," said Wilma Adams.
And:
"I can't imagine to lose him completely," said Columbus Adams, who says he and his wife try to visit their son in prison at least once a week. "I don’t know what it would do to the family. We ask the board of pardon and paroles to please hear our cry."
The board is expected to consider the clemency petition late next week.
Earlier coverage begins with the post, "Family, Friends Urge Killer Be Spared."
The clemency petition, filed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, is in Adobe .pdf format. There is more on the case at the Timothy Wayne Adams website.
You can sign a petition urging clemency at the website. You can send a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles at:
Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
P. O. Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401
You can e-mail Governor Rick Perry or send him a tweet, as well.
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