Texas man executed for triple murder of twin girls and mother in 1989

Garcia Glenn White, a death row inmate, was executed Tuesday night for the brutal stabbing of 16-year-old twin sisters Annette and Bernette Edwards and their mother, Bonita Edwards.

White, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m. CDT after receiving a lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville.

Before White was executed, he sang verses from the hymn “I Trust in God.”

White also apologized for the Edwards killings, saying, “I regret, I apologize, and I pray that you find peace, comfort, and closure in your hearts for the wrongs I have done and for the pain I have caused you.” and caused everyone else.” I caused pain. I just want to apologize; I take responsibility for it,” Newsweek reported.

The triple murders occurred on a cold night in December 1989 when White entered the Edwards home under the false pretense of being in contact with Bonita. Jail records show that when the Edwards' twin sisters emerged from their bedroom after hearing a loud noise, White violently attacked them and sexually assaulted one of the sisters, Bernette, after breaking down a locked door. None of the women survived White's violent attack.

The case of the Edwards family murders remained unsolved for years until White confessed in 1995 after being arrested for the murder of grocer Hai Van Pham. The chilling details of his confession revealed a long pattern of violence in White's history, as he was later implicated in several other murders in Texas.

White's execution is the sixth in the United States in just over a week after the U.S. Supreme Court decided without comment to reject intervention in his case. White's appeals focused on claims of mental disability and procedural errors during his trial. According to a report from Fox 4, defense attorneys argued that the Texas appeals court had consistently rejected evidence that could have reduced his sentence, including DNA findings that suggested another person may have been present at the crime scene.

White's legal team claimed that he experienced a cocaine-induced psychotic episode during the rampage. Despite these claims, the courts found insufficient grounds to stop or postpone the man's execution and rejected arguments that White should be classified as mentally incapacitated, a designation that follows the Supreme Court's 2002 precedent would exclude execution.

In a statement from the Texas Attorney General's Office, officials reiterated that White had failed to provide convincing evidence to support his claim of mental disability and that previous courts had sufficient jurisdiction over the use of his evidence in relation to another potential suspect involved in the murders. would have decided.

White's execution is the fifth by the state of Texas this year.

Travis James Mullis, a 38-year-old man convicted of murdering his three-month-old son, was also executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville on the evening of September 24. He was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, three more executions are currently scheduled in Texas. The next is scheduled for Oct. 17, when Robert Roberson III will be executed for his role in the January 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter.

Roberson III has repeatedly maintained his innocence, relying primarily on the lack of validity of the shaken baby syndrome evidence presented against him in court.

His case has drawn attention from organizations such as the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to “restore freedom” to innocent inmates who were wrongly convicted for their crimes.

“Texas has scheduled the execution of Robert Roberson for October 17, despite new evidence that he is an innocent man who was wrongly convicted based on the now-debunked shaken baby syndrome (SBS) hypothesis. was convicted. “Mr. Roberson would be the first person in the United States to be executed based on the discredited SBS hypothesis unless the courts or Governor Abbott intervene,” The Innocence Project claimed in a recent report championing the Roberson case III pronounced.