Johnny Garrett
Encyclopedia
Johnny Frank Garrett was a Texas
inmate executed for the rape
and murder
of a 76-year-old nun, Sister Tadea Benz, on October 31, 1981.
His defense brought in forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis to examine him. To his defense, she found him to have severe childhood trauma and significant brain damage. He also had multiple personalities, one of which ("Aaron") Dr. Lewis claims described committing the rape to Dr. Lewis, but still repeatedly denying that either personality committed the murder. The "confession" described in Dr. Lewis' book consists of a claim by Lewis that Garrett stated that one personality (Johnny) wanted sex, and so the other personality ("Aaron") found a woman and raped her. There are no details about the crime, and when asked about the murder he continued to maintain his innocence. Johnny Garrett also denied making any confession, and no recordings of the supposed confession exist.
From the time of his arrest, until his last words before his execution, Johnny protested his innocence. Johnny's mother has asked that the State of Texas exonerate her son with the DNA evidence that was found at the scene. To this day, the state has refused, and in fact the state threatened a lawsuit against the family.
In March, 2004, cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Perez Rueda as the rapist and murderer of Narnie Box Bryson, another elderly Amarillo victim killed four months prior to the murder of Sister Benz. Immediately following Sister Benz's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant. In both cases, the killer left behind a white shirt at the crime scene. In both cases, black curly head hairs were found on the victims and linked to Rueda. Previously unidentified fingerprints in Sister Benz's room were matched to Rueda. In both cases, the victims suffered matching cuts and stab wounds. And in both cases, witnesses identified dark-skinned men in white shirts at the scene shortly before the killings.
The men linked to Bryson's murder were initially arrested and identified by witnesses in the Sister Benz case, and in fact prosecutors originally planned to charge one of them with Sister Benz's murder. Leoncio Perez Rueda had been caught peeping in a window of another elderly woman two weeks before Sister Benz's death. Back in his native country, Cuba, Rueda was a former prison inmate who served a sentence for rape and murder. Upon his transfer to Texas for trial in the Bryson murder, Rueda was interviewed and admitted not only to the rape of Ms. Bryson, but to having also raped a nun in a later attack in Amarillo. He made the admissions on camera during an interview for the documentary film "The Last Word" detailing the trial and execution of Johnny Garrett. Also on camera, Rueda admitted to recognizing his own shirt in the police photo of the shirt left at the scene of Sister Benz's murder.
The fact that Johnny was only 17 years old when he was sentenced and had also been described by many human rights organizations as severely mentally handicapped, put the entire case into question. The state of Texas has come under heavy criticism for allowing both a juvenile and mentally handicapped individual to be executed.
Garrett's last words were "I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my everloving ass, because I'm innocent." The execution of juveniles was later ruled unconstitutional thirteen years after Garrett's execution, in 2005, in the Roper v. Simmons
case.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
inmate executed for the rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a 76-year-old nun, Sister Tadea Benz, on October 31, 1981.
His defense brought in forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis to examine him. To his defense, she found him to have severe childhood trauma and significant brain damage. He also had multiple personalities, one of which ("Aaron") Dr. Lewis claims described committing the rape to Dr. Lewis, but still repeatedly denying that either personality committed the murder. The "confession" described in Dr. Lewis' book consists of a claim by Lewis that Garrett stated that one personality (Johnny) wanted sex, and so the other personality ("Aaron") found a woman and raped her. There are no details about the crime, and when asked about the murder he continued to maintain his innocence. Johnny Garrett also denied making any confession, and no recordings of the supposed confession exist.
From the time of his arrest, until his last words before his execution, Johnny protested his innocence. Johnny's mother has asked that the State of Texas exonerate her son with the DNA evidence that was found at the scene. To this day, the state has refused, and in fact the state threatened a lawsuit against the family.
In March, 2004, cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Perez Rueda as the rapist and murderer of Narnie Box Bryson, another elderly Amarillo victim killed four months prior to the murder of Sister Benz. Immediately following Sister Benz's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant. In both cases, the killer left behind a white shirt at the crime scene. In both cases, black curly head hairs were found on the victims and linked to Rueda. Previously unidentified fingerprints in Sister Benz's room were matched to Rueda. In both cases, the victims suffered matching cuts and stab wounds. And in both cases, witnesses identified dark-skinned men in white shirts at the scene shortly before the killings.
The men linked to Bryson's murder were initially arrested and identified by witnesses in the Sister Benz case, and in fact prosecutors originally planned to charge one of them with Sister Benz's murder. Leoncio Perez Rueda had been caught peeping in a window of another elderly woman two weeks before Sister Benz's death. Back in his native country, Cuba, Rueda was a former prison inmate who served a sentence for rape and murder. Upon his transfer to Texas for trial in the Bryson murder, Rueda was interviewed and admitted not only to the rape of Ms. Bryson, but to having also raped a nun in a later attack in Amarillo. He made the admissions on camera during an interview for the documentary film "The Last Word" detailing the trial and execution of Johnny Garrett. Also on camera, Rueda admitted to recognizing his own shirt in the police photo of the shirt left at the scene of Sister Benz's murder.
The fact that Johnny was only 17 years old when he was sentenced and had also been described by many human rights organizations as severely mentally handicapped, put the entire case into question. The state of Texas has come under heavy criticism for allowing both a juvenile and mentally handicapped individual to be executed.
Garrett's last words were "I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my everloving ass, because I'm innocent." The execution of juveniles was later ruled unconstitutional thirteen years after Garrett's execution, in 2005, in the Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons, was a decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18. The 5-4 decision overruled the Court's prior ruling upholding such sentences on offenders above or at the...
case.
See also
- Capital punishment in the United StatesCapital punishment in the United StatesCapital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
- List of juvenile offenders executed in the United States
External links
- An Interview with Bishop Leroy Matthiesen, Who knew Johnny Frank Garrett and Sister Tadea Benz
- Texas Department of Criminal Justice Offender Information Sheet
- Letters Written by Garret while on Death Row
- Amnesty International: The Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders
- Amnesty International: Executions of Child Offenders Since 1990
- Amnesty International: The Death Penalty in Texas - Lethal Injustice
- Witness at an Execution: Thoughts on the killing of Johnny Garrett by Mandy Bath (AI International Secretariat, London)
- Actual Innocence: Johnny Frank Garrett and Bubbles the Clairvoyant
