Thursday, December 15, 2005

Convict's Last Words Accuse His Son





J.D. Schwalm/The Clarion-Ledger

Despite the cold steady rain, protesters gathered outside the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman on Wednesday evening to pray for John B. Nixon Sr. and Virginia Tucker, the woman he was hired to kill in 1985. Nixon was executed Wednesday evening after spending 20 years on death row.

PARCHMAN — Condemned killer John B. Nixon Sr. said the state was illegally killing him as needles were being inserted into his arms inside the execution chamber on Wednesday evening.

"I did not kill Virginia Tucker. I know within my heart who did, and it hurts me in my heart to acknowledge it was a son of mine and a Spanish friend of his and another person in Jackson," Nixon said while inside the chamber.

Strapped to a gurney, Nixon began to hum a little and moved his head to the left. The former Utica mechanic sighed twice and drifted out of consciousness from the lethal injection, ending Mississippi's first execution in three years.

The state medical examiner pronounced Nixon dead at 6:25:08 p.m.

"It was quick and fast," said Rankin County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington, who witnessed the execution.



Rick Guy/The Clarion-Ledger

Elena Voisin, 8, of Jackson bows her head Wednesday evening at Smith Park in downtown Jackson during a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Virginia Tucker and the man convicted of her murder, John B. Nixon Sr. Nixon was the seventh person executed in Mississippi since the death penalty resumed in 1976.



By the numbers

5

U.S. prisoners executed this month

60

U.S. prisoners executed in 2005

1,004

People executed in U.S. since death penalty resumed in 1976

Source: National Coalition To Abolish The Death Penalty

Nixon was convicted in Tucker's 1985 slaying inside her Brandon home and had been on death row for about two decades at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman in Sunflower County.

"I wish to thank God for the opportunity to have lived long enough to witness this day," said Joey Ponthieux, the victim's son, in a written statement.

At age 77, he became the oldest person executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.Gilbert Jimenez, who later testified against Nixon, and Nixon's sons, John B. Nixon Jr. and Henry L. Nixon, also were convicted in connection with the murder. All three have been released from prison.

Nixon and three others were paid $1,000 each by Elster J. Ponthieux, Joey Ponthieux's father and the victim's ex-husband, to commit the crime.Elster Ponthieux is serving a life sentence for capital murder at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County.

Members of Nixon's family, including his sister, Ruth Lee, witnessed the execution. According to witnesses, Nixon's family sobbed quietly. They did not comment afterward.

One of Nixon's daughters, Dorothy Nixon-Clark, remained at her home in Texas on Wednesday but said in a news release that her father's execution "is just and called for. My sympathies go with the remaining family of the victim," said Nixon-Clark, who also wrote about her father's "violent outbursts towards anyone in his path."Thomas Tucker and Joey Ponthieux also witnessed the execution. Tucker remained silent, and Ponthieux said a quick prayer.

For more than two decades, Nixon appealed his conviction several times. Gov. Haley Barbour denied his request for clemency Sunday. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for a stay of execution Wednesday morning.Daryl Neely, Barbour's policy adviser and representative at the execution, said Nixon told him around 5:45 p.m. that he was "ready to go and face what he had coming."

"The fact that he faced execution at age 77 is a result of his own choices," Joey Ponthieux said in his statement. "The idea that any condemned prisoner should have their execution stayed solely on the basis of age, rather than on fact and evidence, is an affront to our legal system and is quite frankly, repugnant."

Throughout the day, Nixon's mood changed, according to corrections officials.In the morning, officers reported he was in a good mood and chatting. But, as the execution time neared, Nixon became somber.

"He's not playing anymore," Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said earlier. "Time is caving in on Mr. Nixon, and it appears to me that he is realizing that."Epps and officials observed Nixon in Unit 17 of the state penitentiary during a portion of his visitation with family members Wednesday afternoon.

The quote Nixon gave his attorneys to pass on — "That I was where I would be/then should I be where I am not/here I am where I must be/where I would be I cannot" — was taken from a Mother Goose poem titled Katy Cruel.

A white van, serving as a hearse, carried Nixon's body away.One of his sisters claimed the body, Epps said.


Others involved Elster J. Ponthieux is serving a life sentence for ordering John B. Nixon Sr. to kill his ex-wife, Virginia Ponthieux Tucker. He is housed at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County and was first eligible for parole in January 1996. His next parole hearing is in April.

John B. Nixon Jr., son of John B. Nixon Sr., was not at the home when Virginia Tucker was killed. He was released from prison Nov. 25,1989, after serving 3 1/2 years of a five-year sentence for accessory after the fact to capital murder.

Henry L. Nixon, son of John B. Nixon Sr., chased Thomas Tucker as he escaped from the crime scene, firing a shot that grazed his head. He was released from prison June 30, 1995, after serving nine years of a 20-year sentence for conspiracy to commit capital murder.

Gilbert Jimenez wrestled Virginia Tucker to the ground before she was shot by John B. Nixon Sr. Jimenez agreed to a plea bargain and testified against Nixon Sr. He was released from prison Oct. 28,1994, after serving about 8 1/2 years for conspiracy to commit capital murder.

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