From: davidc@wa-wd.com   
      
   Arthur Lee Burton, 54, was executed by lethal injection on 7 August   
   2024 in Huntsville, Texas for the attempted rape and murder of a woman   
   while she was jogging.   
      
   On Tuesday, 29 July 1997, Burton, then 27, was riding his bicycle   
   along White Oak Bayou in northwest Houston. He spotted Nancy Adleman,   
   48, jogging along the bayou. According to Burton's confession, he rode   
   up behind Adleman, pushed his bicycle down the embankment, dragged her   
   into a nearby wooded area, and choked her until she was unconscious.   
   He then removed her shorts and underwear and attempted to have sex   
   with her, but in his nervousness, he could not. When she regained   
   consciousness, she began screaming. She asked Burton whether he knew   
   God and said she forgave him. She told him that he did not have to do   
   it and that he was a handsome man. Burton said he got up and was going   
   to leave, but she grabbed his ear and started screaming again. Burton   
   choked her unconscious again and dragged her into a hole. He then   
   began to leave again, but he saw a man walking by. He went back to   
   Adleman, unlaced one of her shoes, and "tied her shoestring around her   
   neck." He then retrieved his bicycle and rode away.   
      
   The police discovered Adleman's body the next morning in a hole about   
   three to four feet deep, located in a heavily wooded area off the   
   bayou jogging trail. The victim's shorts and panties had been removed   
   and discarded some distance away from the body. She had been strangled   
   with her shoelace. Her body looked as if she had been badly beaten.   
      
   Burton lived nearby and had been seen riding his bicycle along White   
   Oak Bayou. He was arrested on 8 August. He initially denied killing   
   Adleman and denied that he ever rode his bicycle along the bayou. He   
   eventually gave the confession related above.   
      
   Sharon Lalen testified that she was watching her children play by the   
   bayou around 7:20 p.m. She turned around and was startled by a "dirty   
   and angry-looking man on a bicycle" standing very close to her. Lalen   
   said, "Hello," but the man only gave her a mean look. Feeling   
   threatened, Lalen called her children and went home. As she was   
   calling her children, she saw Adleman jogging along the bayou. She   
   identified Burton as the man on the bicycle.   
      
   Burton claimed that the police slapped and beat a false confession out   
   of him.   
      
   At Burton's punishment hearing, the state presented evidence that in   
   1988, when he was eighteen, he participated in 39 burglaries of   
   vehicles and outbuildings in a single month. He and his co-defendants   
   stole guns, radios, fishing equipment, and other items.   
      
   A jury found Burton guilty of capital murder in June 1998 and   
   sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned   
   his death sentence in 2000 for ineffective assistance of trial   
   counsel, because his defense attorney did not object to a statement   
   the prosecutor made during the sentencing phase.   
      
   At a new sentencing hearing held in September 2002, after the verdict   
   was announced and the jury was excused from the courtroom, Burton   
   apologized to Adleman's family.   
      
   "I'm sorry," Burton said, sobbing, "for causing y'all so much pain   
   that day... I think about what she said to me, that she forgave me,   
   and did I know God. I couldn't understand why she did that, but I   
   didn't know God then. I looked for answers, but I can tell you now   
   that I know God now, and I know I took a special person away from you,   
   and I'm sorry for that."   
      
   A family member replied, "We thank you for your apology. Thank you."   
      
   Burton then appealed his second death sentence for ineffective   
   assistance of counsel, for his lawyer's failure to object to testimony   
   about a statement Burton made during his prison intake interview,   
   which was that the murder was "just something I couldn't help."   
   Burton's appellate attorneys claimed the interview where that   
   statement was made constituted a custodial interrogation given without   
   the Constitutionally-required warnings and notifications of his   
   rights. After reviewing Burton's claim, the trial court ruled for the   
   state. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were   
   denied. This included a claim that he had a "mild" intellectual   
   disability that prohibited him from being executed, according to the   
   Eighth Amendment.   
      
   A private memorial to Adleman was built on the bank of White Oak   
   Bayou, near the location of the crime.   
      
   Harris County District Judge Ramona Franklin signed Burton's execution   
   warrant on 1 May 2024. On July 26, however, Franklin rescinded the   
   warrant because of a clerical error in which three original signed and   
   sealed specimens of the death warrant were made, rather than one   
   original and two photocopies. State law requires that defense   
   attorneys are allowed to review the original warrant, which gets sent   
   to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and Burton's lawyer   
   claimed that because of this error, there was no way to determine   
   whether she was given "the original" to review. Four days later, on   
   appeal from the Harris County District Attorney's office, the Texas   
   Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Franklin to rescind her order   
   "purporting to recall the execution order," stating that it had no   
   legal effect and she had no authority to make it.   
      
   At his execution, Burton laid on the gurney covered by a white sheet   
   from chest to toe. His leg was visibly twitching from beneath the   
   sheet while his spiritual advisor stood over him and said a brief   
   prayer.   
      
   The witnesses included members of Nancy Adleman's family and Harris   
   County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who watched from a viewing room   
   adjacent to the death chamber. Burton's brother, Michael, watched from   
   a different room.   
      
   "I want to say thank you to all the people who support me and pray for   
   me," Burton said in his last statement, his voice cracking every few   
   words. "For those of you I know and do not know, thank you for your   
   support and prayers. 27, 27, and a full circle," he said. There was no   
   explanation as to what the last phrase meant.   
      
   Burton then expressed love to his fellow inmates in the Polunsky Unit   
   of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He then apologized to the   
   witnesses.   
      
   "To all the people I have hurt and caused pain, I wish we didn't have   
   to be here at this moment, but I want you to know that I am sorry for   
   putting y'all through this, and my family," he said in closing. "I'm   
   not better than anyone. I hope that I find peace and y'all can too."   
      
   The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:47   
   p.m.   
      
   David Carson   
   (Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents,   
   Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, Huntsville Item.)   
   --   
   Texas Execution Information   
   www.txexecutions.org   
      
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