Edward Lewis Lagrone was convicted of murder twice, fourteen years apart. In 1977 he received a twenty-year sentence for murder. In May 1993 a Tarrant County jury convicted him of three counts of capital murder for the deaths of three members of one Fort Worth family in May 1991, and he was sentenced to death. Texas executed him on February 11, 2004.
At the punishment stage of his 1993 capital trial, the State introduced evidence that he had been convicted of murder in 1977 and had received a twenty-year sentence. The county, the victim, the trial court, the exact charge and the date of his release from that sentence are not on record.
In May 1991 the Lloyd family of Fort Worth consisted of eight people. Three of them died in a single episode that month: Shakeisha Lloyd, who was ten years old, and two older women of the family, Zenobia Anderson and Caola Lloyd. The two women's ages are given as 83 and 76 and also as 87 and 80, and the second woman's name also as Caroline Lloyd; the girl was their great-niece. Five members of the family survived, among them the girl's mother.
The indictment charged capital murder under the Texas provision for the murder of more than one person in the same criminal transaction. The 1991 deaths were a single transaction in law, and the 1977 murder was a separate, earlier case: two events, each with a conviction.
The date of Lagrone's arrest is not on record. The investigation was led by the Fort Worth Police Department.
Lagrone was tried in May 1993 on three counts of capital murder. The jury found him guilty on all three counts and answered the special issues in a manner consistent with a death sentence, and the trial court then sentenced him to death. The trial judge is not on record. He was represented on appeal by Allan K. Butcher and William S. Harris of Fort Worth; the State was represented by Steven W. Conder, an assistant district attorney in Fort Worth, and Matthew Paul, the State's Prosecuting Attorney.
At the punishment stage, the State put on evidence of his prior murder conviction, of other offenses, and testimony from a reputation witness. One extraneous offense was dated February 23, 1986. The jury also heard evidence of drug dealing in 1990 and 1991. The girl's mother testified at trial, and her credibility was one of the issues raised on appeal.
The automatic appeal went to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which sat en banc. Judge Keller wrote the opinion, most of which had been prepared by Judge Bill White before his retirement. The court decided the case on February 5, 1997, and denied rehearing on April 9, 1997. It raised twenty-six points of error and overruled all of them; one, an improper jury argument about drug use in prison, was found to be error but harmless. The judgment and the death sentence were affirmed. Judge Baird, joined by Judge Meyers, concurred on points five and six, and Judge Overstreet concurred in the result on those points while dissenting from the reasoning.
The best-known part of the opinion concerned the State's request for a psychiatric examination. The defense had signaled that it would offer expert testimony on future dangerousness, and the trial court ordered Lagrone to submit to an examination by a State expert. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that when a defendant shows an intent to present such testimony, trial courts may order an independent, State-sponsored psychiatric examination before it is heard. It also rejected his claim that defense counsel had to be present at the examination. On October 14, 1997, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari.
Lagrone's execution was set for February 11, 2004. On that day the Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed a motion for a stay of execution from Tarrant County, ruling that he had no case pending before it and had not invoked its jurisdiction; Judge Womack did not participate. The Supreme Court of the United States, in its order list of the same day, denied an application for a stay that had been presented to Justice Scalia and referred to the Court, and denied a petition for certiorari in Lagrone v. Dretke. Justices Stevens and Ginsburg noted that they would have granted the stay.
He was executed in Texas that day, at the age of 46.
His last statement, recorded by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, began: "Yes. I just want to say I am not sad today or bitter with anybody." He then said, "I did not go in there and kill them - but I am no better than those that did," and ended with the words "Jesus is Lord." He maintained to the end that he had not killed them.
Lagrone denied the killings in his last statement while also saying he was no better than those who did them; the jury's verdict on all three counts stood through the appeal. The details of the 1977 case and the year of his release from that sentence are not on record. The two women's ages are given as 83 and 76 and as 87 and 80, and the second woman's name as Caola and as Caroline.
1977: Lagrone is convicted of murder and receives a twenty-year sentence.
May 1991: Shakeisha Lloyd, Zenobia Anderson and Caola Lloyd die in Fort Worth.
May 1993: Lagrone is convicted of three counts of capital murder and sentenced to death.
February 5, 1997: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirms the judgment and sentence (Lagrone v. State); rehearing is denied April 9, 1997.
October 14, 1997: The United States Supreme Court denies certiorari.
February 11, 2004: The Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court deny relief; Lagrone is executed in Texas.