Texas carried out the execution of John Hummel on Wednesday evening, June 30, 2021, for the brutal murders of his wife, daughter, and father-in-law in 2009. John Hummel, 45, received the death penalty from a Tarrant County jury in 2011 for the slayings that occurred at their Kennedale residence. The victims included his pregnant wife, his 5-year-old daughter, and his father-in-law. Responding to an early morning fire, police discovered the burned and battered bodies of the victims in or near their beds, according to official court documents. Investigations revealed that the family members had succumbed to blunt-force injuries before the house was intentionally set ablaze.
Initially, John Hummel provided a statement to the police claiming he was away at a store during the time of the crime. However, his story unraveled when he was later apprehended near the California-Mexico border. At this point, John Hummel confessed to the horrific acts, admitting to stabbing and beating his wife before inflicting fatal blows upon his daughter and father-in-law. He then set fire to their home in an attempt to conceal his crimes, as detailed in court records. Further investigation revealed weapons recovered from a dumpster, which were linked to John Hummel and the victims through DNA analysis, solidifying his guilt in the eyes of the investigators.
Shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, John Hummel was escorted into the death chamber at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m., just 13 minutes after the lethal injection of pentobarbital was administered, as confirmed by prison authorities. In his final statement, delivered from the gurney, John Hummel expressed a degree of remorse. “I truly regret killing my family,” John Hummel stated. “I am thankful for all the thoughts and prayers for my family over the last few days. I love each and every one of you.”
Prior to his execution, John Hummel had exhausted his appeals. Notably, a petition from the previous year sought to recuse the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office from his case. This appeal stemmed from the fact that his defense attorney during the original trial had subsequently assumed a leadership role within the prosecutor’s office, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest. However, this and other appeals were ultimately unsuccessful.
In the week leading up to the execution of John Hummel, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas made a last-ditch effort to halt the proceedings. Their plea was not based on Hummel’s guilt or innocence, but rather on the grounds that prison officials had recently failed to provide media witnesses access to a previous execution in May. This incident marked the first time in the modern history of Texas’s death penalty that reporters were barred from witnessing an execution. Reporters from the Associated Press and the Huntsville Item, who routinely cover executions, were inexplicably delayed and prevented from observing the execution of Quintin Jones. Fortunately, these same reporters were granted access to witness the execution of John Hummel on Wednesday, confirmed Joseph Brown of The Huntsville Item.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) acknowledged the exclusion of reporters during the May execution as a mistake, assuring that media access would be reinstated for future executions. The agency attributed the failure to new execution staff, a revised execution protocol, and inadequate oversight, according to an official TDCJ statement. “A culmination of factors caused the incident which was preventable and inexcusable,” the department stated, emphasizing that corrective measures had been implemented, including administrative actions involving multiple employees and the establishment of redundancies to prevent recurrence.
Despite these assurances, the ACLU of Texas urged the TDCJ executive director to request a 30-day postponement of John Hummel’s execution to further address the systemic issues highlighted by the media access failure. “These events were of major concern to the media, the public, and the ACLU,” the ACLU’s letter asserted. “TDCJ broke its own protocols and carried out an unconstitutional execution.”
The role of media witnesses in executions is crucial, particularly in the context of nationwide concerns about botched executions in states grappling with shortages of lethal injection drugs. As public support for capital punishment diminishes, media scrutiny serves as a vital watchdog. Texas media reports have often provided crucial details absent from official agency accounts of executions, such as inmates’ descriptions of excruciating burning sensations following the administration of lethal drugs. “Due to TDCJ’s failures, the public will never have a media account of the execution of Mr. Jones last month,” the ACLU of Texas underscored.
Jeremy Desel, a spokesperson for the prison system, confirmed on Tuesday that Bryan Collier, the agency’s director, did not request a delay in John Hummel’s execution from the governor. TDCJ stated that enhanced staff training on execution procedures and the appointment of an agency director to oversee them were among the corrective measures taken. Disciplinary actions against employees involved in the media access failure were also mentioned, though Desel could not provide specific details regarding the nature of the discipline or the number of employees affected.
Following the execution of John Hummel, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson issued a statement emphasizing the gravity of the death penalty. “John Hummel’s actions were unconscionable,” she stated, affirming that capital punishment should be reserved for the most heinous crimes.
John Hummel’s execution was initially scheduled for March of the previous year but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first execution in Texas to be delayed for this reason. Texas has proceeded with executions of two individuals during the pandemic – Billy Wardlow in July 2020 and Quintin Jones the previous month. This number remains exceptionally low for Texas, which leads the nation in the number of executions carried out. Apart from John Hummel, four other men have had their executions stayed due to public health concerns. Currently, four other executions are scheduled in Texas for 2021. Nationally, only one other execution is scheduled for 2021, in Nevada, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center.
