1985: Doyle Skillern, under the law of parties
January 16th, 2019 Headsman
A philosophical Doyle Skillern was executed in Texas on this date in 1985, one of the more galling victims of Texas’s controversial “Law of Parties” — in which all parties involved in a lesser felony (such as armed robbery) may be held liable for a greater felony (such as murder) committed by any of their number.
Skillern and a buddy named Charles Sanne were drug dealers being set up for arrest by a narcotics agent.
In the course of a buy, the suspicious Sanne got the officer, Patrick Randel, into his vehicle on the pretext of doing business elsewhere — intending in fact to rob Randel. While Skillern trailed in a different vehicle, Sanne shot Randel to death (and robbed him). By the accounts of both men the shooting wasn’t premeditated; Sanne said that Randel tried to pull a gun on him and a spontaneous fight ensued.
Textbook law of parties case, made more perverse by the fact that the actual shooter, Sanne, received a prison term and was approaching parole eligibility by the time his non-triggerman accomplice, Skillern, went to the gurney.
(In fairness to the great state of Texas we must observe that Skillern’s jury when considering factors to aggravate the crime found out that he had a previous murder on his record, that of his brother. Sanne’s previous record consisted only of petty crimes.)
Prison officials said that an emotionless Skillern mused upon learning of the rejection of his last appeals, “A lot of people will still have their troubles tomorrow and mine will be over.”
On this day..
- 1891: Slumach - 2020
- 1772: Bryan Sheehen, cuck - 2018
- 2014: Dennis McGuire, Ohio botch - 2017
- 1630: Christina Plum, at the stake, in Cologne - 2016
- 2013: A day in the death penalty around the world - 2015
- 1942: Senitsa Vershovsky, Mayor of Kremenchuk - 2014
- 1813: 14 Luddites at York - 2013
- 2003: Daniel Juan Revilla - 2012
- 1400: John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon - 2011
- 1682: Alexander Cockburn, hangman, condemned - 2010
- 1980: Four Iraqi Turkmen - 2009
- 1936: Albert Fish - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Drugs,Execution,Lethal Injection,Murder,Texas,Theft,USA
Tags: 1980s, 1985, charles sanne, doyle skillern, january 16, law of parties, patrick randel
Ummm how the heck that happen so the trigger man who shot the officer was eligible for parole and got a life sentence meanwhile the man that was not even in the car he was in a different car got executed like that is retarded now granted demand wasn’t accomplice it wasn’t premeditated but how do the shooter get life with parole and the man who did nothing but sitting the other car waiting gets executed what kind of justice system is this how are we supposed to trust the system when the system do stuff like this