Next In Line To Die: Arthur Burton’s Victim Forgave Him, But Texas Does Not
[UPDATE: Arthur Burton was executed on August 7th, 2024]
Do you know about God? I forgive you. Just leave. Why are you doing it? You don't have to do it, you are a handsome man.
Those were Nancy Adleman's last words, as paraphrased from the testimony of her killer, Arthur Burton. Imagine being kind to your killer as you beg for your life, as he ties your shoestring around your neck.
Nancy liked to jog around the bayou near her Houston, Texas home. She waited until around 7:00 p.m. on July 29, 1997, because who would want to slog through the heat of the day?
Besides, at 7 in July there are still hours of daylight left. It's usually perfectly safe. But Nancy didn't count on the brazen and random attack that took her life.
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Police found Nancy's body the next day, brutally beaten, naked from the waist down, and strangled with her shoelace. The area was heavily wooded, but witnesses said they saw a dirty and angry-looking man sulking around the bayou on a bicycle.
Burton would be identified by a police sketch of the man the witnesses saw. After being brought in for questioning, Burton's story was inconsistent and he eventually confessed.
I rode up behind her and pushed my bike down the hill into the bayou. I ran up behind her and grabbed her and pulled her in the woods. I threw her down and she started screaming and I choked her with my hands.
Burton attempted to sexually assault Nancy, but got too nervous to follow through. Instead, he made sure she was dead and drug her body until they both fell into a hole, and that is where he left her.
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Since Burton attempted a sexual assault on Nancy, her murder was a capital crime, eligible for the death penalty. Burton was granted a re-trial for the punishment phase of his case. Still, the second jury opted for death, just like the first.
Burton had plenty of priors, too. When he was 18, "he had participated in thirty-nine burglaries of vehicles and outbuildings in a single month." Criminal history is usually considered a factor in "future dangerousness" another qualifier for the death penalty.
Unless Burton is granted a stay, or much less likely, clemency, he will be executed on August 7, 2024.
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