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Texas Executes Alvin Kelly for the 1984 Killing of a Toddler, One of Three Morgan Family Members Shot Dead

In his last words Kelly denied killing the Morgans but asked forgiveness from the family of another man, John T. Ford, whose killing he admitted.

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Illustration of a cotton field in front of red-brick prison buildings and guard towers under a summer sky. Not an actual scene from the case.

In May 1984, Jerry and Brenda Morgan and their young son, Devin, were found dead in their home in Spring Hill, in Gregg County, Texas. On October 14, 2008, after 17 years on death row, Alvin Andrew Kelly was executed for the boy's killing.

Kelly, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. at the Huntsville Unit, the 10th inmate executed in Texas that year. He was convicted in 1991, after his brother and former wife testified that he had shot the family. He was already serving 30 years for killing John T. Ford, an East Texas man, when he was indicted in the Morgan case. Prosecutors said the killings might have been drug-related.

In his final statement, Kelly addressed the Morgans' relatives. "As I stand before God today, the true judge, I had nothing to do with the death of your family," he said. He then turned to John T. Ford's family: "I ask for forgiveness, because I do stand guilty for my involvement for that." Jerry Morgan's niece said the family did not believe him. "We know he did it, without a shadow of a doubt," she said.

The Lufkin Daily News headline said Kelly apologized for the Morgan family's deaths, while in his final statement he said he had nothing to do with them.

Sources