Thomas Bartlett Whitaker

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker (born December 31, 1979) is an American convicted under the Texas law of parties of murdering two family members as a 23-year-old. Whitaker was convicted and sentenced to death in March 2007 for the December 10, 2003, murders of his mother and 19-year-old brother. He spent years on death row at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, before the commutation of his death sentence.

Whitaker's father, whom Whitaker had also attempted to have murdered, had pleaded with Governor Greg Abbott for the commutation of Whitaker's sentence, stating that by executing his son, the state was simply making him a victim once again. On February 22, 2018, about 40 minutes before his scheduled 6:00 pm execution, Whitaker had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole by Abbott, the first such commutation by Abbott and the first in the state since 2007, in which Governor Rick Perry commuted Kenneth Foster's death sentence. As of September 2021, Whitaker is incarcerated at the McConnell Unit near Beeville, Texas.

Early life and education Thomas Bartlett "Bart" Whitaker was born on December31, 1979, to father Kent, the comptroller of a construction company, and mother Patricia (Trish), an elementary school teacher. In that same time frame, Whitaker's parents had bought him several luxury vehicles. Whitaker began attending Baylor University in 2001, transferring from there to Sam Houston State University (SHSU), where he was thought by his parents to be in attendance in late 2003, and from which he was expected to graduate. or being present there as a freshman on academic probation.

Murders

On December 10, 2003, Bart falsely told his family that he was graduating from SHSU.

Upon returning home but before entering the house, Bart said that he needed to collect his cell phone from his parked Yukon, knowing that Brashear was armed and waiting inside to kill his family. Kevin entered the family home first and reportedly smiled when he saw the masked Brashear. Brashear shot Kevin once through his chest, and Kevin fell to the floor. Patricia was then also shot in the chest, also falling to the floor. Kent rushed in and was shot in the shoulder with the bullet shattering his humerus.

Investigation and arrest

Whitaker left for Mexico in June 2004. He told his father he was going to a club and never returned. The acquaintance who had assisted Whitaker to flee became aware of reward money that had been offered for his arrest, and communicated Whitaker's whereabouts to the police. efn Fred Felcman, the original prosecutor in the case, said the board made its decision purely because of the father’s forgiveness, and disregarded the large number of others affected by the murders. He said testimony from psychiatrists and the family’s investigators who [had stated that] Bart was manipulative was disregarded. Champagne to be the getaway car driver and Brashear to carry out the shootings in Whitaker's plan to murder his immediate family. At the trial, Hipp stated that he had contacted the Sugar Land Police Department with information about previous plots after he heard about the Whitaker family murders in 2003; he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying for the prosecution against Whitaker.

The prosecution's theory of motive focused on financial gain, with evidence variously described as pointing to Whitaker standing to inherit "about $1.5 million" after the death of his parents and brother, and had tried at the time of his son's trial, years earlier, to persuade the jury not to deliver a death sentence.

On Friday, March 2, 2007, prosecutor Fred Felcman and the State of Texas rested the prosecution's case in the capital murder trial for Thomas Bartlett Whitaker's role in the deaths of his brother and mother. The lawsuit questioned the purity of the drug—pentobarbital—used to execute prisoners in the Texas prison system. On October 4, 2013, the case was dismissed for Whitaker and Williams because neither had been issued execution warrants at the time of the lawsuit. On October 9, 2013, Yowell was executed with the drug in question after U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes refused to stay his execution. Whitaker and Williams later appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the original dismissal. This case continued back and forth in courts for several years.

After losing a separate appeal in the federal courts early in 2017, Whitaker's legal team appealed his claims to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Commutation of sentence Alongside the legal submission from the Whitaker legal team—an 18-page document from Whitaker lawyers Keith S. Hampton and James Rytting (the latter at Hilder & Associates), Whitaker's father, Kent, also appealed, cooperating with the legal team's submission and writing a letter in the public forum of the Houston Chronicle on January 18, 2018, asking that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles "spare my son". Board Chairman, David G. Gutiérrez, also met with Kent Whitaker for a half hour.

On February 20, 2018, in a rare decision, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. The seven-member Board unanimously recommended clemency to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Abbott also said that “The totality of these factors warrants a commutation of Mr. Whitaker’s death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mr. Whitaker must spend the remainder of his life behind bars as punishment for this heinous crime.”

Whitaker responded to the commutation of his sentence by saying, "I am thankful for this decision, not for me but for my dad." Whitaker had previously stated his strong opposition to the idea of life without the possibility for parole and wrote in his blog from prison: Whitaker had earlier stated, when his execution was still expected, that he felt that his father would be further victimized by the execution.

Chronology of cases

Finalisation of Whitaker's conviction within the Texas system. Case No. AP-75,654, arising from Cause No. 42,969 in the 400th District Court, Fort Bend County, Texas. The court opens, noting that the Appellant did not "challenge the sufficiency of... evidence" supporting the original conviction for capital murder, appealing only the sentence of death, there raising "raises nine points of error". The court cursorily rejected five as having been earlier decided (without subsequent change in court opinion). Four others the Court addressed as new arguments, regarding the prosecutions reference at trial to Whitaker's original pre-trial "proffer" for penalty other than death and its omission from the trial record, "nonuniform 'application of the law'" during trial and sentencing, and admission at trial of arguably prejudicial parts of a recording related to the 2001 murder plot; the Appellant argued these constituted reversible error denying Whitaker's state and federal constitutional rights to a fair trial. The Court concluded, "inding no merit in any ... points" and "affirmed the judgment of the trial court", including sentence. Thomas Whitaker, Perry Williams and Michael Yowell v. Brad Livingston et al. (S.D. Tex. October 1, 2013, Case 4:13-cv-02901). Whitaker, Williams, and Yowell argued that the drugs used for lethal injection in Texas prisons "runs a substantial risk of grave pain." "Before Prado, Elrod, and Graves, Circuit Judges. / Per Curiam / Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in ... 47.5.4." Case No. 13-20750, Appeal of the Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) dismissal, by the district court, of a defendant civil action that had asserted that their rights to due process, access to the courts, and punishment not cruel or unusual were violated. Here, the order of the district court was vacated, and the case remanded "so that Whitaker [and Williams be] able to fully develop ... claims based on the existing protocol for an appropriate trial on the merits." Appeal of Whitaker's case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Case No. 17-5080, Capital Case, docketed on July 6, 2017, information drawn from a posting of the Order List for 583 U.S. for Tuesday, October 10, 2017 (entry on p. 6 of 12 pp.). For the Supreme Court record listing all proceedings and orders arising from the July 6, 2017 U.S. docketing of the appeal of the April 4, 2017 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (lower court, case no. 16–70013), see this record, accessed January 6, 2022. The petition was certiorari denied on October 10, 2017, with the Court providing no comment or explanation. Whitaker vs. Stephens Thomas Bartlett Whitaker vs. Lorie Davis Thomas Whitaker and Christopher Wilkins, et al. v. Oliver J. Bell, Members of the Tx. Brd. of Criminal Justice, John Whitmire, David J. Callender, M.D., Governor Rick Perry, et al.

Other post-conviction developments Thomas Whitaker and other inmates initiated an unsuccessful class action against the State of Texas, addressing the conditions on its death row, where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

Kent Whitaker and his father, the only surviving victim of the crime, wrote the book, Murder by Family: The incredible true story of a son's treachery and a father's forgiveness, which — as described by Barry Leibowitz for CBS News — is about his "heart-wrenching journey ... to forgive the nameless stranger" responsible for his wounding, and the "brutal murder of his wife and son," a journey that included his realizing that the murder "had been orchestrated by [his] oldest son Bart." efn Murder by Family ... is the story of Kent Whitaker's heart-wrenching journey toward forgiveness and faith after the brutal murder of his wife and son. While lying in the emergency room after being airlifted from his home, Kent soon learned of his family's fate. His emotions called for a response to either forever hate the murderer ... or forgive him. At that moment, Kent made the decision to forgive the nameless stranger who had taken so much. 'I have had a hundred people tell me that they think I'm nuts — that I should hate the shooter and cry out for vengeance,' writes Kent. 'Perhaps I am crazy, but I believe that in those early moments God worked supernaturally, allowing me to forgive completely and immediately ... Little did I realize just how important my decision to forgive would be in the coming months.' An investigation uncovered that a murder plot had been orchestrated by Kent's oldest son Bart — whom Kent had unknowingly forgiven. Kent Whitaker gives readers a behind-the-scenes account from the day of the murders up to Bart's sentencing, and includes excerpts of letters from Bart as he tries to explain why he did it. and a Master's degree in Humanities from California State University, Dominguez Hills. This master's thesis has been the subject of some controversy, as someone appears to have offered it as a book for sale (see also below).

Writing Whitaker has contributed to Solitary Watch, where he wrote about the effects of solitary confinement on himself and other death row inmates. He also contributed to Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement.

Whitaker won prizes in PEN America's Prison Writing Program for his essay "Hell's Kitchen," efn The PEN Prison Writing Program ... has a slightly different agenda ... to help convicted criminals become writers '[believing] in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing' ... [and] 'use of the written word as a legitimate form of power.” But what is the nature of the “power” of the written word? And what, moreover, will this power restore and rehabilitate? [Is PEN] honoring an important strand of America’s liberal intellectual heritage? ...pledging allegiance to a romantic coupling of art and freedom? ... inadvertently helping to bind prisoners ever more insidiously to the carceral regime? Or ... claiming something that is actually true? This article addresses these questions through a reading of Thomas Bartlett Whitaker’s prize-winning essay “Hell’s Kitchen” and finds that the power of Whitaker’s prison writing resides in its capacity to shock readers into a sensory appreciation of the radical strangeness of life lived in a state of civil death. a program that aims to support creation of "written works of lasting merit that illuminate critical issues related to mass incarceration and catalyze public debate." Scholarly attention has been directed toward this PEN program, noting that while PEN was an esteemed human rights organization known for the defense of free speech rights, in particular of persecuted writers, the Prison Writing Program presented a distinct agenda, namely in a "[belief] in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing" to "help convicted criminals become writers," an aim which raises questions about the nature and residence of the power inmates are given and about its impact on prisoners and on society. The name of the blog references "the hour at which executions take place in Texas."

As of 2019, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was investigating a report that Whitaker's master's thesis was being offered for sale online.

Bibliography of Whitaker's written work

Examples of the prison writing of the title subject, with dates of their first publication, include: