Summary:

Porter was convicted of Burglary in 1990 and again in 1991, then sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

He was paroled and in 1995 was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 45 years imprisonment. Porter shot a 40 year old male transient two times in the head and dumped his body in a water well. Porter expressed no remorse for this murder and thought he had done society a favor.

While imprisoned, in 2000 Porter beat to death fellow inmate Rudy Delgado in the prison day room. Porter struck Delgado, who was seated at a table, from behind with a rock sheathed in a pillow case. Delgado fell to the floor and lay helpless on the ground as Porter continued to bludgeon his face and head with the rock.

When the pillow case finally ripped, Porter stabbed Delgado in the head and face with a makeshift knife. Porter then stomped on Delgado’s head and face with steel-toed work boots. Once the attack was over, Porter surrendered to a correctional officer.

Porter gave a written statement to investigators, confessing to the murder of Delgado. In his confession, Porter admitted that he had been planning to kill someone for some time, and had decided to use the rock and the knife the week before the murder. Porter later added that Delgado was a convicted child molester who had made a pass at him.

Final/Special Meal:

Two extra crispy fried chicken breasts, two thighs, onion rings, french fries, fried okra, five slices of buttered garlic bread, a bowl of country gravy, a couple slices of onions, pickles, jalapeno peppers, ketchup, mustard, sliced tomato, one pot of thick coffee and a banana split.

Final Words:

"I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. I know it is a great loss and I want to apologize. I am sorry. And to my family I love you and I will see you all in heaven."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

James Scott Porter Scheduled For Execution

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about James Scott Porter, which is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 4, 2005. Porter was sentenced to death in March 2001 for murdering fellow state prison inmate Rudy Delgado.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

In 1995, James Scott Porter was sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Barry Telford Unit in northeast Texas to serve a 45-year sentence for first-degree murder.

On May 28, 2000, the fifth year of his imprisonment, Porter brutally beat to death fellow inmate Rudy Delgado in the prison day room. Porter struck Delgado, who was seated at a table, from behind with a rock sheathed in a pillow case. Delgado fell to the floor and lay helpless on the ground as Porter continued to bludgeon his face and head with the rock. When the pillow case finally ripped, Porter stabbed Delgado in the head and face with a makeshift knife. Porter then stomped on Delgado’s head and face with steel-toed work boots. Once the attack was over, Porter surrendered to a correctional officer.

Porter gave a written statement to investigators, confessing to the murder of Delgado. In his confession, Porter admitted that he had been planning to kill someone for some time, and had decided to use the rock and the knife the week before the murder. Porter admitted to taking eleven Dilantin pills the night before the murder to help with the “rush of killing someone no one in particular.” Porter admitted he picked his victim at random.

Porter later bragged about the murder in letters he wrote to other inmates and to the district attorney, and repeatedly stated that he would kill again. In a hearing held outside the jury’s presence at his trial, Porter asserted that he wanted to be convicted and sentenced to death for this murder. Porter put on little defense.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In March 2001, Porter was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury in Bowie County, Texas. On automatic direct appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Porter’s conviction and sentence. Porter did not pursue certiorari review from the U.S. Supreme Court.

During the course of his state post-conviction proceedings, Porter informed his attorney that he no longer wished to pursue appeal of his conviction and sentence. Porter and his attorney agreed that, if Porter’s application for post-conviction relief was unsuccessful, counsel would inform the federal court of Porter’s desire to waive appeal. On July 2, 2003, The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals adopted the trial court’s findings and denied post-conviction habeas corpus relief.

On September 26, 2003, Porter filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus and a motion to dismiss that petition, which contained a request that the federal court appoint a mental health expert to determine whether Porter was competent to make the decision to dismiss his federal appeals.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District, Beaumont Division, appointed a psychiatrist who examined Porter and concluded that Porter was competent. On January 30, 2004, the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing to determine Porter’s competency. The court ruled that Porter was competent to dismiss his application. Therefore, the Court dismissed Porter’s application for federal writ of habeas corpus on February 17, 2004.

Porter did not request clemency.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

In 1990, Porter pleaded guilty to burglary of a building and was sentenced to eight years probation.

In 1991, Porter was convicted of burglary of a building and sentenced to five years. Porter was released on parole.

On April 21, 1995, Porter was convicted and sentenced to forty-five years in prison for murder with a deadly weapon. Porter shot a 40 year old white male transient two times in the head and dumped his body in a water well. Porter expressed no remorse for this murder and thought he had done society a favor. Porter was serving this sentence when he committed the capital murder in prison.

While in prison on the murder charge, prior to committing the capital murder, Porter was convicted of possessing a deadly weapon.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

James Porter - TEXAS - January 04, 2005

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute James Porter, a white man, Jan. 4 for the May 28, 2000, murder of Rudy Delgado, a Latino man. The murder took place while both men were serving time in prison at the Telford Unit in Bowie County. Porter was in prison for murder with a deadly weapon.

Porter, who has been called a white-supremacist, has reportedly maintained that his killing Delgado was honorable. He killed Delgado, a gay man, by bludgeoning him to death.

Porter asked U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield in federal district court to declare him mentally competent so that he could withdraw any further appeals of his conviction or sentence.

Texas has executed more people in the modern era than the next five states combined. The state has been under increased scrutiny for its handling of death penalty cases. In the past year, the Supreme Court has heard three appeals from inmates on death row in Texas, and in each case reversed the findings of the lower courts.

According to a recent New York Times article, legal experts maintain that the Supreme Court's decision to hear these cases demonstrates "its growing impatience with two of the courts that handle death penalty cases from Texas: its highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans." The article also quoted Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote in June that the Fifth Circuit was "paying lip service to principles" regarding appellate law in upholding death sentences with "no foundation in the decisions of this court."

The Court of Appeals' apparent disregard for upholding justice coupled with the massive Houston Crime Lab scandal has caused many prominent Texans, including former Gov. Mark White, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, and State Senator John Whitmire - all death penalty proponents - to call for a moratorium of executions in Harris County. Considering the existence of wide-scale problems such as crime lab scandals and flagrant disregard for international law Texas should not be in the business of state killing under any circumstances. Yet it continues to carry out death sentences.

Please take a moment to write Gov. Perry asking for a moratorium on all executions in Texas and to spare the life of James Scott Porter. Also, please write the Board of Pardons and Paroles asking them to recommend clemency in all cases considering the overwhelming turmoil within the state justice system pertaining to the death penalty.

Inmate who killed child molester executed

Houston Chronicle

AP January 4, 2005

Condemned inmate James Porter was executed tonight for fatally beating a convicted child molester nearly five years ago while in prison.

Porter, who dropped his appeals and ordered nothing be done to stop the first execution of the year in the nation's most active capital punishment state, apologized to the relatives of his victims and expressed love to his family. "I am sorry for the pain I have caused you,'' he said in a brief final statement. "I know it is a great loss and I want to apologize. I am sorry. ``And to my family I love you and I will see you all in heaven.''

He closed his eyes and quickly stopped breathing as the lethal drugs took effect and his mother sobbed while watching through a window nearby. Six minutes later, at 6:12 p.m. CST, Porter was pronounced dead.

Porter, 33, from Lake Dallas, was sentenced to die for using a smuggled rock wrapped in a pillowcase to fatally pummel fellow prisoner Rudy Delgado, 40. Porter's lawyer, Robin Norris, said Porter had been advised that attorneys were ready to help him, even at the last minute.

Porter already was serving a 45-year term for the 1995 shooting death of a transient in Denton County when he attacked Delgado in May 2000 at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Telford Unit near Texarkana. Delgado, who also was stabbed and kicked, was serving a 15-year term for sexually assaulting a child in Dallas County.

"I believe he was taken out too easy,'' Anna Acevedo said after watching her brother's killer die. "He didn't feel the same pain my brother did. I would have been happy to see him feel the same pain my brother felt. "His apology wasn't good enough for me.''

Porter said Delgado was gay and made a pass at him, which the former white supremacist didn't appreciate. "What I done is what I done,'' Porter told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "I'd taken a 2-pound rock to somebody's head and spread them all over the place. I guess at that time, I just lost all my cool and didn't care anymore.''

He wrote letters to James Elliott, the Bowie County prosecutor handling his capital murder trial, referring to his victim in epithets and said he should be applauded for ridding society of a child molester. Elliott used the letters at Porter's trial, telling jurors the convicted murderer was boasting and proud of killing Delgado. ``In a way, I was,'' Porter said from death row. ``That dude never touched any little boys again.''

In another letter, Porter warned he would murder again and didn't care if it was another prisoner or a corrections officer. ``The letter where he said 'I'm going to kill again the next chance I get' was fairly convincing,'' Elliott said.

Norris said Porter had a difficult childhood that included being raped. He ran away from home when he was about 14 and linked up with supremacists who shared his hatred of gays, Norris said. In prison, Porter claimed allegiance to white gangs and acquired extensive tattoos, including letters that spell ``HATE'' on four fingers of his right hand.

``I'm over that,'' Porter said. ``I've kind of stepped out. There's too much ignorance that comes with it.'' He said he eventually realized he was wrong to repunish Delgado ``for something he was already punished for.'' ``I'm just thankful I had the chance to get salvation,'' he said, adding that he was convinced he would be going to heaven ``although I don't deserve it.'' ``I know where I'm going. I know what's going to happen,'' Porter said. ``I'm set. I'm secure in that and I'm at a real peace with it. I've never felt that kind of peace. And I like it, instead of all the hate, the chaos, the anger and the aggravation I usually feel.''

Porter was one of at least nine men in Texas with execution dates already this year, including four in January. The state carried out 23 executions last year.

Killer of child abuser set to be executed today

By Michael Graczyk - FortWorth Star-Telegram

Jan. 04, 2005

LIVINGSTON - Convicted killer James Porter figured he did society a favor by fatally beating a child molester, even though he wound up on Death Row for it. Now he believes he's doing himself a favor by short-circuiting his appeals to ensure a trip to Texas' death chamber today. "I'm the type of individual to face up to my responsibility and my mistakes," Porter, 33, said recently.

At Porter's request, no appeals were pending in the courts, and no clemency petition was filed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said his lawyer, Robin Norris. "I believe as much as I can determine that he is in fact determined to go," Norris said.

The tattoo-covered Porter, whose body art touts what he said is his former allegiance to white-supremacist prison gangs, is the first of nine Texas inmates set to die this year, including four in January. Texas carries out the death penalty more often than any other state, with 23 executions last year.

Porter was serving a 45-year term for the 1995 fatal shooting of a transient in Denton County when he killed fellow inmate Rudy Delgado in 2000. According to court records, Porter smuggled a rock into his cell at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Telford Unit near Texarkana, stuffed it in a pillowcase and used it to beat Delgado, serving a 15-year term for sexually assaulting a child in Dallas County. "Dude was a homosexual," Porter said of Delgado, 40. He "asked me several times if that was something I might dig. One day, frustration started eating on me, like a little old black shroud covering my eyes. I'm going to kill someone. "I guess at that time I just lost all my cool and didn't care anymore."

By the time prison officers stopped the attack, Delgado's head had been battered with the rock and by kicks from Porter, and he had been stabbed in the neck. "Porter stomped the man until his face could not be recognized as being that of a human," said James Elliott, the assistant district attorney in Bowie County who prosecuted Porter.

Texas executes killer incited by gay hate

By Ann Rostow - PlanetOut.com

Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Prison officials in Huntsville, Texas, executed the first death row inmate of 2005 on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. James Porter, 33, earned a death sentence for the murder of a fellow prisoner, Rudy Delgado, whom Porter believed was gay.

According to the Associated Press, Delgado was serving 15 years for sexual abuse of a child at the time. Porter claimed that Delgado was gay. "Dude was a homosexual," said Porter, who added that Delgado "asked me several times if that was something I might dig." According to the Texas death row Web site and wire reports, Porter was serving 45 years -- for shooting a homeless man and dumping his body in a well -- in the Telford Unit in Northeast Texas, where he encountered Delgado. At some point, Porter said he snapped.

"One day, frustration started eating on me, like a little old black shroud covering my eyes," he said in a recent interview. "I guess at that time, I just lost all my cool and didn't care anymore." On May 28, 2000, Porter walked into the day room with a rock inside a pillowcase and beat Delgado to death.

Prosecutor James Elliot told the press that after the attack, Delgado's face "could not be recognized as that of a human." Porter reportedly then helped seal his own fate by writing a note to Elliot during his murder trial, pointing out that the world was better off with Delgado dead.

Porter said later that he was sort of proud of himself. "That dude never touched any little boys again." According to the Associated Press, Porter eventually expressed regret. "It wasn't my place to repunish him for something he was already punished for," he said. "I'm sorry it happened. That's all I can say."

In 2004, Texas led the nation in executions, putting 23 men to death, over half of them African-American.