Jan. 29, 2026
Overnight: 1st Execution of 2026, and He Had A Lot of Last Words
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RSS Feed Charles Victor Thompson became the first person executed in the United States in 2026. He's been on death row nearly 30 years in Texas for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. When asked if he had any final words, Thompson took the opportunity and said more than most.
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey, that, folks said.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: It is Thursday, January twenty ninth, and the first execution of twenty twenty six was carried out last night in Texas, and the death row inmate had a lot to say before he was put to death. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: I should qualify that a lot to say, relatively speaking, he said, more than we are used to a lot of death row inmates saying right before they're put to death.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: It might be surprising to many, but at least in the executions we've been covering over this past year, most inmates choose to say nothing before at all at all. They just say like nope, no, thanks, hard pass. So when someone speaks, it's usually of note, and it's usually one sentence.
00:01:00
Speaker 4: Was a lot more than.
00:01:00
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, of note.
00:01:02
Speaker 2: Last night's execution, execution Robes, was of note for a number of reasons. First of all, it was the first in the United States that we have had in twenty twenty six, after a year last year in which we saw an increase, a sharp increase in the executions in the country. It's also notable, Robes, we say to folks, first execution of twenty twenty six. I guess you would have the usual suspects of what state it was. This one gets back to I guess the first one that's top of mind, even though last year Florida led the way.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Yes, we're talking about Texas.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: And the first execution of twenty twenty six, Yes, was in Texas, and it was Charles Victor Thompson.
00:01:40
Speaker 4: He was executed last night in Huntsville, Texas.
00:01:43
Speaker 5: It took him twenty two minutes I believe from when they began, but he was pronounced dead at six fifty pm Central time, and as we have alluded to, it was not uneventful.
00:01:56
Speaker 1: It was not.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: These are all ways, and again a few witnesses in there have to do with who are connected to the case, families and whatnot. But also you have some journalists that are usually picked to be in there as well, and we are getting some of that commentary from them. Charles Victor Thompson, fifty five years old, been on death row Robes another one of these cases, about thirty years that this family has been waiting for justice, but convicted up a double murder back in nineteen ninety nine, killed a woman who was his ex girlfriend thirty nine year old Denise Hayslipp and her new boyfriend Darren Kane, who was thirty years old now robes last night. It was this is this was well attended, would you not say? Relatively speaking?
00:02:33
Speaker 3: Again, no, again, from a perspective standpoint, A lot of times, especially because you have twenty thirty, sometimes even forty years between when the murders happened and when the executions actually take place, because that's how we roll apparently here in the United States, a lot of times anyone who would have wanted to attend had passed or had moved on, or it was just too painful to revisit. So, yes, this was a full house, so to speak, because you had in a ten time. For Thompson who was being executed, his father they put him in a separate room, and that's understandable. Also for Denise Hayslip, her son was there who was thirteen at the time of her murder and has been very outspoken throughout this case, her brother and her brother's wife, and then in attendance for Cain, his parents were both there and his ex wife, so that that is a very full house when it comes to execution.
00:03:28
Speaker 2: Fairly, young man Cain was only thirty years old, and what the death row inmate Thompson was twenty five six twenty seven.
00:03:36
Speaker 3: I believe just because I watched an interview he gave over the fall where he was kind of blaming his twenty seven year old like kind of like acting as if he was a teenager, that he had a immature mind and was had anger issues, and so he was kind of saying, I was just twenty seven old enough to know better.
00:03:51
Speaker 2: So the as it were and as it went last night, I also saw and read about this one that's different from others. There was a casualness to him. It seemed like he was interacting with his spiritual advisor other people in the room, and that was a I guess almost a moment of it. Seems weird to say he vid to a lot of events. It was almost like the pre event, like it was almost a i don't know, like a cocktail hour or something. Everybody was lounging around and hanging out before the main event. That's a weird way to put it, but we're not used to also seeing or hearing this much interaction or casualness to a certain degree in the death chamber.
00:04:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, This is a somber event. I've attended one in my life. And we were actually we had to take a vow of silence. There was no speaking once you get on the bus, at least this was in South Carolina and rode out to where the execution took place. You did not speak, just out of reverence to what was happening.
00:04:46
Speaker 4: So that is very unusual.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was leading the way I should say, I'm not talking about the people in the room were being loud of what he was talking to the people in the death chamber, according to the witnesses there. Now, there are a couple of things that did come out. We'll get into some of the comments that Hayslip's son made in just a moment, but this was significant. He was asked, they're always asked, do you have any last words? And Thompson had some.
00:05:13
Speaker 4: He had quite a few. Actually, here's what he had to say.
00:05:16
Speaker 3: I hope the victim's family, their extended family, and their loved ones can find forgiveness in their heart and that you can begin to heal and move past this. There are no winners in this situation. It creates more victims and traumatizes more people. Twenty eight years later. I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y'all I love you and that you keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first to my children, get to know the Lord, and I love you all.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: That's a lot more than we're used to hearing that. Some would argue a lot lot late as well. I didn't realize, but the DA is the one that said this was the first time he has ever taken responsibility and certainly the first time he had ever asked for forgiveness in this crime. That's significant. But he did it at the very last moment.
00:06:09
Speaker 3: Look that this might be one of those better late than never. And of course, obviously nothing undoes the trauma that he created and the tragedy that will live forever in the hearts of the family members who are left behind. But an apology does, I would think, have some sort of I hope that it gives them some sort of peace, that it does matter. It does give you a sense of there is an acceptance in an acknowledgment of causing someone else pain. There is some gift that is given in through that act of apology.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: And it seemed like her son, who has been very outspoken and talking about certainly he was going to attend. He's been talking about that for a while, and he was, in fact there. Now two different sets of comments have emerged from him. He did speak to a press out that their robes after. He didn't do a press conference or come out and talk to microp in from of microphones. But he apparently did talk to a local outlet there in Texas. But what's been so widely reported is what he said in the room immediately after robes, and that's emotional and understandable. What is reportedly at least was a comment he made right after the execution.
00:07:18
Speaker 3: Yes A reportedly hayeslip Son said he's in hell when he died, and look, I get it. He had given some interviews beforehand about, yes, the painfulness of having to wait twenty.
00:07:29
Speaker 4: Eight years to see.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: His mom's killer finally put to justice. But he lost his father recently, so he you know, he just had all the times in his life when he needed his mother, when he graduated from high school, when he met his wife, when he had his children. You know, all of those milestones he never got to have his mom along the way for him. So all that anger and all that resentment, you can only imagine him uttering he's in hell.
00:07:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, I get it.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: There was a different tone at least afterwards. Houston Press the outlet reporting, they were able to speak to him, and he said this to them afterwards. I was the first one into the viewing chamber. We locked eyes and I nodded at him. I acknowledged him. I sincerely hope that he's made it right with God and that he's not somewhere burning in hell and something. I mean, that's again, that's what they are reporting. But Robes, that's do you kind of get it? Emotion is something, main't it?
00:08:24
Speaker 4: Maybe he yes?
00:08:25
Speaker 3: And you know what, I can totally see him releasing that in the moment, and that maybe by saying he's in hell after he died, he released some of that anger and then was able to actually make a more thoughtful comment afterwards that actually makes sense.
00:08:40
Speaker 2: And what did he think? I'll always wonder what do the families want to hear anything? Do they want him to say something at the end, do they want an apology, they want explanation? I don't know, but he was able to respond at least Hayslip's son about what he thought about the final comments from the guy who kill his mom.
00:09:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said it didn't matter what he said or didn't say. At the end, I was looking for accountability. All he had to offer was that moment. I did not want him to die with malice in my heart. So I was fighting, staying strong and trying to not emotionally break down in front of everybody. That is such an honest, real answer, And.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: There it is the last words. I know it's always of interest. The last meal will only mention that. Again, a fascination with that, and it makes sense. But he again kind of went against the mold here robes and didn't ask for anything special.
00:09:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, he just asked for breakfast.
00:09:39
Speaker 3: He just wanted scrambled eggs, grape jelly, oatmeal, apple sauce, and biscuits. And for lunch, fried chicken, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, sliced bread, swirl pudding, punch, and water.
00:09:50
Speaker 4: These were just standard prison options.
00:09:52
Speaker 3: He didn't ask for anything special or anything to be delivered.
00:09:54
Speaker 4: Don't know that they would have given him.
00:09:56
Speaker 3: Different jails or different prisons have different rules. But we've heard some outlandish like very elaborate last meal requests that were granted, weren't they Yeah, which has been controversial. So he just kind of stuck with what the prison had to offer and pick the best of the worst.
00:10:13
Speaker 2: Probably, so, yes, he did die. This is a state that offers lethal injection. Pental barbital is what it's called. He's essentially given an overdose of this drug. It's a drug that's used to treat seizures. It depresses the nervous system. It's considered a barbituate, but it is a fast acting barbituate that is actually used to euthanize animals, wow, and to treat caizuars and low doses. But essentially they are giving this man an overdose of this drug to let you know he did try. We've seen some robes. Some say never mind, I'll skip the appeals.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Most don't.
00:10:45
Speaker 2: They'll least go as far as they can with their legal options.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: But he ran out.
00:10:50
Speaker 2: The Supreme Court denied him, the parole board there denied him as well. We need to mention we we told you double murder, but this was a pretty horrific crime here.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, it happened in a Houston suburb and look basically to boil it down, his girlfriend who broke up with him, and his son, who was there in the chamber, talked about witnessing physical violence. She finally broke up with him after dating him for about a year after her eighteen year marriage to her son's father, and so she breaks up with him. She gets a new boyfriend, and yeah, he's he's pissed about it.
00:11:22
Speaker 4: So he confronts the new.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: Boyfriend at the apartment and then she calls police. Police come to the scene and they find the two with him outside the apartment drinking a beer and apparently, like so, it seemed like everybody was good. They made up, they found some common ground. The new boyfriend believed that Thompson had come to terms with the fact that she had moved on, and they kind of just shared a beer over it, right, But no, he comes back, and so the police take him back to his house and just say, yeah, you should.
00:11:50
Speaker 4: Just go home. Glad you guys all made up. Great.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: But Thompson comes back an hour later and shoots Caine what five times? I believe, chest, Yeah, I believe, and then basically reportedly tells Denise, I can shoot you right now too. She goes off to run, gets her in the leg and then shoots her in the cheek. But his assertation was he didn't mean to kill her, it was and that she didn't die from his bullet, but that malpracticed by the hospital, that there was some sort of infection that took place with her cheek or her face, and that's what killed her.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: That was what he tried to get off the death penalty.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: We can make the argument that the family of Hayslip also at least thought there was something to that theory. They did sue the hospital as well. They lost, but they thought the hospital did something wrong that led to her death. So he tried to get his death sentence overturned, which he did, and then he had another trial, if you will, just on his sentencing, they gave him the death penalty right back. But he said, well the hell with it, y'all not gonna let me out of prison, not go get me off death row. Maybe I'll just walk out of here, and he escaped prison shortly after that second sentencing. Not a complicated plant ropes. We've covered a couple of prison breaks. The one in New Orleans, they just walked out a hole, right yep. The one in Arkansas, just put on a prison uniform that.
00:13:11
Speaker 4: He wrote security or something right right with.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: A sharpion, walk out. This dude did it too.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, he smuggled in his court clothing back with him somehow.
00:13:20
Speaker 4: Don't know how he did that.
00:13:21
Speaker 3: And then in a little room where like a waiting room, he just changed into layperson's clothes and walked right out hopped on a freight train, posed as a Hurricane Katrina victim. But he was picked up four days later drunk outside of a liquor store on the payphone.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, only three days on the run though, but he had made his way. But this story, this chapter, at least for this family, seems to be over. But stay here, folks. This is the first execution of the year. There are plenty more on the books. Could we get anywhere close to possibly seeing the type of year we saw last year?
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Still? Hear all right? Continuing here on Amy and TJ.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: Now we saw the first execution of twenty twenty six in the United States.
00:14:14
Speaker 1: That was in Texas. Texas.
00:14:16
Speaker 2: We're used to them leading the way when it comes to executions, year after year, and by far since the death penalty was brought back in nineteen seventy six. They are by far and away, like, not even close. It's doubled or tripled or quadrupled the next closest state. It's not even close. However, last year Robes it wasn't close either because Florida led the way.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: Florida made some inroad trying to get back up the ladder on that one.
00:14:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, so last.
00:14:42
Speaker 3: Year there were forty seven executions. That is significant. What is that like almost four a month?
00:14:50
Speaker 2: And that's well kept trying to remember the year, but at least a dozen plus years since we've had a number that high.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: Yes, So Florida led the way with nineteen of the forty seven.
00:15:00
Speaker 4: The next this is an interesting one.
00:15:02
Speaker 3: The next The state that had the next highest number of executions was Ohio at six, and then Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina tied for third place with five executions each. So that is a big difference and a big switch in the number account that we're used to seeing.
00:15:19
Speaker 1: So what can we expect this year?
00:15:21
Speaker 2: Well, as of now, eighteen are scheduled, including the one last night.
00:15:25
Speaker 1: Eighteen.
00:15:26
Speaker 2: Now to your point again, Ohio right now has on the books the most planned for this year. Six Texas after that has four planned, and then Florida has two. However, how high could these numbers go? They will change as governors start to sign death warrants.
00:15:43
Speaker 3: Yes, and we saw Governor DeSantis make a pledge basically last year to victims' families who wait.
00:15:49
Speaker 4: And it's true.
00:15:50
Speaker 3: If we have these laws on the books and you are sentenced to death, there is no reason why a family should have to wait three decades, four decades to actually see that sentence carried out. And that was what DeSantis was trying to do last year, and there's no reason why he wouldn't try to do the same this year. Just start to get resolution for these families.
00:16:08
Speaker 2: The next one that is planned is in Florida, mad by the name of Ronald Heath, scheduled to die on February tenth for a nineteen eighty nine murder in Gainesville of a traveling salesman.
00:16:19
Speaker 1: We will keep.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: An eye on all of this. The other note here wrote, we talk about Texas. I can't remember the number now, but since the death penalty came back, we said Texas overwhelmingly leads the way. But the number two state would be a county, Harris County, where the execution happened last night. If it were its own state, it would be number two in the country for the most executions. It's the Houston area. It's that county. That county has executed more people than any state in the country except Texas.
00:16:57
Speaker 4: That is a fascinating number.
00:16:59
Speaker 3: And yes, to get an exact number, more than five hundred and ninety executions have been carried out in the state of Texas since nineteen seventy six.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: What it's number two on your list, I'm trying to find I don't.
00:17:11
Speaker 2: Let's see, I should have it up, but Harris County would be number two. Whatever is number two on the list. Harris County has more than that. So it's they're considered the death penalty capital of the world.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: I believe they have it.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: I did not show that that was Harris County last night. Folks, we will keep an eye on.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: Did you have them?
00:17:32
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:17:32
Speaker 3: Oklahoma was the next one since nineteen seventy six. It is the second state and it just popped up one hundred and twenty seven, so a huge difference. So it's Texas with five ninety eight, Oklahoma with one twenty seven, Virginia with one hundred and thirteen, Florida with one hundred and seven, and Missouri with one hundred and one.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: Number two on the list is.
00:17:53
Speaker 4: What Oklahoma how many one hundred and twenty seven.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: Harris County has one hundred and thirty six. Wow since nineteen seventy si wow. So that is the county we are looking at, folks. The first of the year. Look, it was really Robes enlightening. We didn't plan on doing this last year, but we got into these stories. We got into a lot of stories of like executions being moved or delayed because of questions.
00:18:16
Speaker 4: About kilter innocence, and that was I can't.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Remember it was in Indiana.
00:18:21
Speaker 2: There was one where a guy was it was commuted like a governor who never commutes ended up commuting us. So it's just fascinating to see what's going on with the death penalty in this country. And it's not just execution night. A lot happens. And frankly, Robes, we see a lot of cracks in our system. In how we covered last year, all of the we were I have not done that deep of a dive on executions in this country in my career, and last year we did.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: And you go, Wow, there's a lot of problems.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, and if it's something look, we are the only modern civilized Western nation who still carries out the death penalty, and so yes to just blindly say you supported or you don't, it's important to really understand what goes into it and how we actually sentence people who we sentenced to death, and how we carry out those executions.
00:19:09
Speaker 4: It's important to know.
00:19:10
Speaker 2: All right, folks, will keep an eye on all things news related today. It's gonna be a very very busy news day. Please bay all meet stop right corners your Apple podcast app where you see our show page. A little button there says follow click that and you get the updates. But there's a lot to keep an eye on in Minneapolis and a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia as well with the affair trial. All those updates will be coming to you today in addition to our morning run. So folks, we will be talking to you all real soon. But on behalf of Amy Robot. I am TJ.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: Holmes. Talk to you all real
Speaker 1: Hey, that, folks said.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: It is Thursday, January twenty ninth, and the first execution of twenty twenty six was carried out last night in Texas, and the death row inmate had a lot to say before he was put to death. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: I should qualify that a lot to say, relatively speaking, he said, more than we are used to a lot of death row inmates saying right before they're put to death.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: It might be surprising to many, but at least in the executions we've been covering over this past year, most inmates choose to say nothing before at all at all. They just say like nope, no, thanks, hard pass. So when someone speaks, it's usually of note, and it's usually one sentence.
00:01:00
Speaker 4: Was a lot more than.
00:01:00
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, of note.
00:01:02
Speaker 2: Last night's execution, execution Robes, was of note for a number of reasons. First of all, it was the first in the United States that we have had in twenty twenty six, after a year last year in which we saw an increase, a sharp increase in the executions in the country. It's also notable, Robes, we say to folks, first execution of twenty twenty six. I guess you would have the usual suspects of what state it was. This one gets back to I guess the first one that's top of mind, even though last year Florida led the way.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Yes, we're talking about Texas.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: And the first execution of twenty twenty six, Yes, was in Texas, and it was Charles Victor Thompson.
00:01:40
Speaker 4: He was executed last night in Huntsville, Texas.
00:01:43
Speaker 5: It took him twenty two minutes I believe from when they began, but he was pronounced dead at six fifty pm Central time, and as we have alluded to, it was not uneventful.
00:01:56
Speaker 1: It was not.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: These are all ways, and again a few witnesses in there have to do with who are connected to the case, families and whatnot. But also you have some journalists that are usually picked to be in there as well, and we are getting some of that commentary from them. Charles Victor Thompson, fifty five years old, been on death row Robes another one of these cases, about thirty years that this family has been waiting for justice, but convicted up a double murder back in nineteen ninety nine, killed a woman who was his ex girlfriend thirty nine year old Denise Hayslipp and her new boyfriend Darren Kane, who was thirty years old now robes last night. It was this is this was well attended, would you not say? Relatively speaking?
00:02:33
Speaker 3: Again, no, again, from a perspective standpoint, A lot of times, especially because you have twenty thirty, sometimes even forty years between when the murders happened and when the executions actually take place, because that's how we roll apparently here in the United States, a lot of times anyone who would have wanted to attend had passed or had moved on, or it was just too painful to revisit. So, yes, this was a full house, so to speak, because you had in a ten time. For Thompson who was being executed, his father they put him in a separate room, and that's understandable. Also for Denise Hayslip, her son was there who was thirteen at the time of her murder and has been very outspoken throughout this case, her brother and her brother's wife, and then in attendance for Cain, his parents were both there and his ex wife, so that that is a very full house when it comes to execution.
00:03:28
Speaker 2: Fairly, young man Cain was only thirty years old, and what the death row inmate Thompson was twenty five six twenty seven.
00:03:36
Speaker 3: I believe just because I watched an interview he gave over the fall where he was kind of blaming his twenty seven year old like kind of like acting as if he was a teenager, that he had a immature mind and was had anger issues, and so he was kind of saying, I was just twenty seven old enough to know better.
00:03:51
Speaker 2: So the as it were and as it went last night, I also saw and read about this one that's different from others. There was a casualness to him. It seemed like he was interacting with his spiritual advisor other people in the room, and that was a I guess almost a moment of it. Seems weird to say he vid to a lot of events. It was almost like the pre event, like it was almost a i don't know, like a cocktail hour or something. Everybody was lounging around and hanging out before the main event. That's a weird way to put it, but we're not used to also seeing or hearing this much interaction or casualness to a certain degree in the death chamber.
00:04:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, This is a somber event. I've attended one in my life. And we were actually we had to take a vow of silence. There was no speaking once you get on the bus, at least this was in South Carolina and rode out to where the execution took place. You did not speak, just out of reverence to what was happening.
00:04:46
Speaker 4: So that is very unusual.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was leading the way I should say, I'm not talking about the people in the room were being loud of what he was talking to the people in the death chamber, according to the witnesses there. Now, there are a couple of things that did come out. We'll get into some of the comments that Hayslip's son made in just a moment, but this was significant. He was asked, they're always asked, do you have any last words? And Thompson had some.
00:05:13
Speaker 4: He had quite a few. Actually, here's what he had to say.
00:05:16
Speaker 3: I hope the victim's family, their extended family, and their loved ones can find forgiveness in their heart and that you can begin to heal and move past this. There are no winners in this situation. It creates more victims and traumatizes more people. Twenty eight years later. I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y'all I love you and that you keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first to my children, get to know the Lord, and I love you all.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: That's a lot more than we're used to hearing that. Some would argue a lot lot late as well. I didn't realize, but the DA is the one that said this was the first time he has ever taken responsibility and certainly the first time he had ever asked for forgiveness in this crime. That's significant. But he did it at the very last moment.
00:06:09
Speaker 3: Look that this might be one of those better late than never. And of course, obviously nothing undoes the trauma that he created and the tragedy that will live forever in the hearts of the family members who are left behind. But an apology does, I would think, have some sort of I hope that it gives them some sort of peace, that it does matter. It does give you a sense of there is an acceptance in an acknowledgment of causing someone else pain. There is some gift that is given in through that act of apology.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: And it seemed like her son, who has been very outspoken and talking about certainly he was going to attend. He's been talking about that for a while, and he was, in fact there. Now two different sets of comments have emerged from him. He did speak to a press out that their robes after. He didn't do a press conference or come out and talk to microp in from of microphones. But he apparently did talk to a local outlet there in Texas. But what's been so widely reported is what he said in the room immediately after robes, and that's emotional and understandable. What is reportedly at least was a comment he made right after the execution.
00:07:18
Speaker 3: Yes A reportedly hayeslip Son said he's in hell when he died, and look, I get it. He had given some interviews beforehand about, yes, the painfulness of having to wait twenty.
00:07:29
Speaker 4: Eight years to see.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: His mom's killer finally put to justice. But he lost his father recently, so he you know, he just had all the times in his life when he needed his mother, when he graduated from high school, when he met his wife, when he had his children. You know, all of those milestones he never got to have his mom along the way for him. So all that anger and all that resentment, you can only imagine him uttering he's in hell.
00:07:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, I get it.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: There was a different tone at least afterwards. Houston Press the outlet reporting, they were able to speak to him, and he said this to them afterwards. I was the first one into the viewing chamber. We locked eyes and I nodded at him. I acknowledged him. I sincerely hope that he's made it right with God and that he's not somewhere burning in hell and something. I mean, that's again, that's what they are reporting. But Robes, that's do you kind of get it? Emotion is something, main't it?
00:08:24
Speaker 4: Maybe he yes?
00:08:25
Speaker 3: And you know what, I can totally see him releasing that in the moment, and that maybe by saying he's in hell after he died, he released some of that anger and then was able to actually make a more thoughtful comment afterwards that actually makes sense.
00:08:40
Speaker 2: And what did he think? I'll always wonder what do the families want to hear anything? Do they want him to say something at the end, do they want an apology, they want explanation? I don't know, but he was able to respond at least Hayslip's son about what he thought about the final comments from the guy who kill his mom.
00:09:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said it didn't matter what he said or didn't say. At the end, I was looking for accountability. All he had to offer was that moment. I did not want him to die with malice in my heart. So I was fighting, staying strong and trying to not emotionally break down in front of everybody. That is such an honest, real answer, And.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: There it is the last words. I know it's always of interest. The last meal will only mention that. Again, a fascination with that, and it makes sense. But he again kind of went against the mold here robes and didn't ask for anything special.
00:09:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, he just asked for breakfast.
00:09:39
Speaker 3: He just wanted scrambled eggs, grape jelly, oatmeal, apple sauce, and biscuits. And for lunch, fried chicken, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, sliced bread, swirl pudding, punch, and water.
00:09:50
Speaker 4: These were just standard prison options.
00:09:52
Speaker 3: He didn't ask for anything special or anything to be delivered.
00:09:54
Speaker 4: Don't know that they would have given him.
00:09:56
Speaker 3: Different jails or different prisons have different rules. But we've heard some outlandish like very elaborate last meal requests that were granted, weren't they Yeah, which has been controversial. So he just kind of stuck with what the prison had to offer and pick the best of the worst.
00:10:13
Speaker 2: Probably, so, yes, he did die. This is a state that offers lethal injection. Pental barbital is what it's called. He's essentially given an overdose of this drug. It's a drug that's used to treat seizures. It depresses the nervous system. It's considered a barbituate, but it is a fast acting barbituate that is actually used to euthanize animals, wow, and to treat caizuars and low doses. But essentially they are giving this man an overdose of this drug to let you know he did try. We've seen some robes. Some say never mind, I'll skip the appeals.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: Most don't.
00:10:45
Speaker 2: They'll least go as far as they can with their legal options.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: But he ran out.
00:10:50
Speaker 2: The Supreme Court denied him, the parole board there denied him as well. We need to mention we we told you double murder, but this was a pretty horrific crime here.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, it happened in a Houston suburb and look basically to boil it down, his girlfriend who broke up with him, and his son, who was there in the chamber, talked about witnessing physical violence. She finally broke up with him after dating him for about a year after her eighteen year marriage to her son's father, and so she breaks up with him. She gets a new boyfriend, and yeah, he's he's pissed about it.
00:11:22
Speaker 4: So he confronts the new.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: Boyfriend at the apartment and then she calls police. Police come to the scene and they find the two with him outside the apartment drinking a beer and apparently, like so, it seemed like everybody was good. They made up, they found some common ground. The new boyfriend believed that Thompson had come to terms with the fact that she had moved on, and they kind of just shared a beer over it, right, But no, he comes back, and so the police take him back to his house and just say, yeah, you should.
00:11:50
Speaker 4: Just go home. Glad you guys all made up. Great.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: But Thompson comes back an hour later and shoots Caine what five times? I believe, chest, Yeah, I believe, and then basically reportedly tells Denise, I can shoot you right now too. She goes off to run, gets her in the leg and then shoots her in the cheek. But his assertation was he didn't mean to kill her, it was and that she didn't die from his bullet, but that malpracticed by the hospital, that there was some sort of infection that took place with her cheek or her face, and that's what killed her.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: That was what he tried to get off the death penalty.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: We can make the argument that the family of Hayslip also at least thought there was something to that theory. They did sue the hospital as well. They lost, but they thought the hospital did something wrong that led to her death. So he tried to get his death sentence overturned, which he did, and then he had another trial, if you will, just on his sentencing, they gave him the death penalty right back. But he said, well the hell with it, y'all not gonna let me out of prison, not go get me off death row. Maybe I'll just walk out of here, and he escaped prison shortly after that second sentencing. Not a complicated plant ropes. We've covered a couple of prison breaks. The one in New Orleans, they just walked out a hole, right yep. The one in Arkansas, just put on a prison uniform that.
00:13:11
Speaker 4: He wrote security or something right right with.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: A sharpion, walk out. This dude did it too.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, he smuggled in his court clothing back with him somehow.
00:13:20
Speaker 4: Don't know how he did that.
00:13:21
Speaker 3: And then in a little room where like a waiting room, he just changed into layperson's clothes and walked right out hopped on a freight train, posed as a Hurricane Katrina victim. But he was picked up four days later drunk outside of a liquor store on the payphone.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, only three days on the run though, but he had made his way. But this story, this chapter, at least for this family, seems to be over. But stay here, folks. This is the first execution of the year. There are plenty more on the books. Could we get anywhere close to possibly seeing the type of year we saw last year?
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Still? Hear all right? Continuing here on Amy and TJ.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: Now we saw the first execution of twenty twenty six in the United States.
00:14:14
Speaker 1: That was in Texas. Texas.
00:14:16
Speaker 2: We're used to them leading the way when it comes to executions, year after year, and by far since the death penalty was brought back in nineteen seventy six. They are by far and away, like, not even close. It's doubled or tripled or quadrupled the next closest state. It's not even close. However, last year Robes it wasn't close either because Florida led the way.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: Florida made some inroad trying to get back up the ladder on that one.
00:14:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, so last.
00:14:42
Speaker 3: Year there were forty seven executions. That is significant. What is that like almost four a month?
00:14:50
Speaker 2: And that's well kept trying to remember the year, but at least a dozen plus years since we've had a number that high.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: Yes, So Florida led the way with nineteen of the forty seven.
00:15:00
Speaker 4: The next this is an interesting one.
00:15:02
Speaker 3: The next The state that had the next highest number of executions was Ohio at six, and then Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina tied for third place with five executions each. So that is a big difference and a big switch in the number account that we're used to seeing.
00:15:19
Speaker 1: So what can we expect this year?
00:15:21
Speaker 2: Well, as of now, eighteen are scheduled, including the one last night.
00:15:25
Speaker 1: Eighteen.
00:15:26
Speaker 2: Now to your point again, Ohio right now has on the books the most planned for this year. Six Texas after that has four planned, and then Florida has two. However, how high could these numbers go? They will change as governors start to sign death warrants.
00:15:43
Speaker 3: Yes, and we saw Governor DeSantis make a pledge basically last year to victims' families who wait.
00:15:49
Speaker 4: And it's true.
00:15:50
Speaker 3: If we have these laws on the books and you are sentenced to death, there is no reason why a family should have to wait three decades, four decades to actually see that sentence carried out. And that was what DeSantis was trying to do last year, and there's no reason why he wouldn't try to do the same this year. Just start to get resolution for these families.
00:16:08
Speaker 2: The next one that is planned is in Florida, mad by the name of Ronald Heath, scheduled to die on February tenth for a nineteen eighty nine murder in Gainesville of a traveling salesman.
00:16:19
Speaker 1: We will keep.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: An eye on all of this. The other note here wrote, we talk about Texas. I can't remember the number now, but since the death penalty came back, we said Texas overwhelmingly leads the way. But the number two state would be a county, Harris County, where the execution happened last night. If it were its own state, it would be number two in the country for the most executions. It's the Houston area. It's that county. That county has executed more people than any state in the country except Texas.
00:16:57
Speaker 4: That is a fascinating number.
00:16:59
Speaker 3: And yes, to get an exact number, more than five hundred and ninety executions have been carried out in the state of Texas since nineteen seventy six.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: What it's number two on your list, I'm trying to find I don't.
00:17:11
Speaker 2: Let's see, I should have it up, but Harris County would be number two. Whatever is number two on the list. Harris County has more than that. So it's they're considered the death penalty capital of the world.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: I believe they have it.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: I did not show that that was Harris County last night. Folks, we will keep an eye on.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: Did you have them?
00:17:32
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:17:32
Speaker 3: Oklahoma was the next one since nineteen seventy six. It is the second state and it just popped up one hundred and twenty seven, so a huge difference. So it's Texas with five ninety eight, Oklahoma with one twenty seven, Virginia with one hundred and thirteen, Florida with one hundred and seven, and Missouri with one hundred and one.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: Number two on the list is.
00:17:53
Speaker 4: What Oklahoma how many one hundred and twenty seven.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: Harris County has one hundred and thirty six. Wow since nineteen seventy si wow. So that is the county we are looking at, folks. The first of the year. Look, it was really Robes enlightening. We didn't plan on doing this last year, but we got into these stories. We got into a lot of stories of like executions being moved or delayed because of questions.
00:18:16
Speaker 4: About kilter innocence, and that was I can't.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Remember it was in Indiana.
00:18:21
Speaker 2: There was one where a guy was it was commuted like a governor who never commutes ended up commuting us. So it's just fascinating to see what's going on with the death penalty in this country. And it's not just execution night. A lot happens. And frankly, Robes, we see a lot of cracks in our system. In how we covered last year, all of the we were I have not done that deep of a dive on executions in this country in my career, and last year we did.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: And you go, Wow, there's a lot of problems.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, and if it's something look, we are the only modern civilized Western nation who still carries out the death penalty, and so yes to just blindly say you supported or you don't, it's important to really understand what goes into it and how we actually sentence people who we sentenced to death, and how we carry out those executions.
00:19:09
Speaker 4: It's important to know.
00:19:10
Speaker 2: All right, folks, will keep an eye on all things news related today. It's gonna be a very very busy news day. Please bay all meet stop right corners your Apple podcast app where you see our show page. A little button there says follow click that and you get the updates. But there's a lot to keep an eye on in Minneapolis and a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia as well with the affair trial. All those updates will be coming to you today in addition to our morning run. So folks, we will be talking to you all real soon. But on behalf of Amy Robot. I am TJ.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: Holmes. Talk to you all real