A death row killer's last words on Wednesday evening were largely directed toward his fellow inmates as he used a bizarre nickname they gave him during his time at the Texas facility.
"Bird is going home," Arthur Lee Burton said before the state killed him by lethal injection for the 1997 murder and attempted rape of a jogger — 48-year-old Nancy Adleman, who had been jogging alone along Brays Bayou near Houston.
"I want to say thank you to all the people who support me and pray for me," he began, according to USA Today. "For those of you I know and do not know, thank you for your support and prayers. ... And a full circle to all the guys at the Polunsky Unit. I love you guys. ... Bird is going home."
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He continued, addressing those affected by his crimes, stating, "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. I'm not better than anyone. I hope that I find peace and y'all can, too."
Burton's execution was a controversial one, as he was described as being intellectually disabled by his lawyers, who attempted to use that as an argument in favor of his clemency.
Burton was condemned for killing Adleman, 48, in July 1997. The mother of three was beaten and strangled with her own shoelace in a heavily wooded area off a jogging trail that runs beside the bayou, the police said. The authorities also alleged that Burton confessed to the killing, saying, "She asked me why I was doing it and that I didn't have to do it." He then recanted that confession at the trial.
But Burton's lawyers argued that reports by two experts as well as a review of records showed that Burton "exhibited low scores on tests of learning, reasoning, comprehending, complex ideas, problem-solving, and suggestibility, all of which are examples of significant limitations in intellectual functioning." They said he scored "significantly below" grade level on standardized testing and that he even had difficulty performing daily activities like cooking and cleaning, the petition for his clemency to the U.S. Supreme Court — which was denied hours before his death — said.
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"This court's intervention is urgently needed to prevent the imminent execution of Mr. Burton, who the unrebutted evidence strongly indicates is intellectually disabled and therefore categorically exempt from the death penalty," the lawyers wrote.
The lawyers' argument stems from a 2002 SCOTUS decision that barred the execution of intellectually disabled individuals, though it gave states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.
The current SCOTUS bench, however, hasn't kept with precedent in many areas, with the justices deciding in many cases to make their own decisions not based on previous cases.
Prosecutors, however, argue that Burton hasn't previously claimed that he is intellectually disabled and waited until just eight days before his scheduled execution to do so. In fact, the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Burton, said Burton scored "generally at or higher than the average U.S. citizen" in reading and writing, which the office said is "inconsistent with" intellectual disability.
"I have not seen any mental health or other notations that Mr. Burton suffers form a significant deficit in intellectual or mental capabilities," Thomas Guilmette, a psychology professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, wrote in a report.
Burton was convicted in 1998, but his death sentence was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000. However, he received another death sentence after a new punishment trial in 2002. He was on death row for 24 years total but imprisoned for 27.
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