Texas Executes Carjacking Murderer

A Texas criminal who killed an elderly woman during a carjacking was executed late Tuesday.  Juan Lozano and Michael Graczyk of the Associated Press report that Jedidiah Murphy passed out a few seconds after receiving an injection of the anesthesia pentobarbital and was pronounced dead 25 minutes later.  A 2018 Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision  and a news story in the Dallas Morning News describe the murder of 80-year-old Bertie Lee Cunningham.  On the afternoon of October 4, 2000, Murphy forced his way into the woman’s car as she was driving home from shopping.  He had her drive to a secluded area then made her get into the car’s trunk before shooting her in the head.  He then dumped her body into a creek and drove off.  Hours later he used the victim’s credit cards to purchase alcohol and cigarettes.  Police caught up with him two days later.  

Following his arrest Murphy took detectives to Cunningham’s body and admitted to the killing, but said that it was an accident.  At trial Murphy’s defense attorney challenged his confession as coerced, but was unable to rebut the significant evidence of his guilt.  After the jury was instructed on both first-degree aggravated murder and manslaughter, it unanimously found Murphy guilty of murder in the first degree.  At the sentencing trial, the prosecution presented evidence of Murphy’s commission of another carjacking and kidnapping three years before the murder. The victim came forward after seeing Murphy’s picture on the television news. She identified him from a photo lineup and later in court. She told the court that she was kidnapped at about 11:30 am in Arlington, but managed to escape. Her car was found the next day in Wichita Falls. In the car were the belongings of a woman who was assaulted and had her purse stolen in Wichita Falls later that same day that the car was stolen.  The defense introduced the testimony of mental health experts who suggested that Murphy’s difficult childhood, alcoholism and depression reduced his responsibility for Cunningham’s murder. Prosecution experts testified that their evaluation of Murphy indicated that he was violent, impulsive and manipulative.  The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty.

While Murphy argued on appeal that his trial counsel was ineffective, multiple post-conviction reviews of Murphy’s trial and sentencing failed to find reversible errors. In his last minute petitions, he argued that he should have received a DNA test, that his mental health problems made him ineligible for execution, and that the state’s execution drug had been stored improperly and might not work. The Fifth Circuit rejected these claims.

There had never been any question regarding Murphy’s guilt.  It is unfortunate that it took 23 years for justice to be served.