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Khristian
Phillip OLIVER
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: March 17, 1998
Date of birth:
August 26, 1977
Victim profile: Joe
Collins (male, 64)
Method of murder:
Shooting (.380-caliber handgun)
Location: Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA
Status:
Executed
by lethal injection in Texas on November 5, 2009
On
03/17/98, Oliver and three juvenile co-defendants were in the
process of burglarizing the residence of a 64-year old white
male.
Oliver and the co-defendants were in the house and Reed
was in the vehicle. The victim surprised Oliver and Oliver shot
the victim in the face with a 380-caliber handgun.
The victim
was beaten around the head with the butt of a rifle. Oliver and
the co-defendants fled the scene. They were arrested in a motel
in Waco, Texas.
Co-defendants
Reed,
Sonya Fawn - 99 years
Rubalcana, Benardo - 5 years
Rubalcana, Lonnie - 10 years
Race and Gender
of Victim
White
male
Summary:
Oliver drove his girlfriend Sonya Reed and brothers Bennie (16)
and Lonnie (15) Rubalcana, to Joe Collins' house in Nacogdoches
County and knocked on the door. When no one answered, they drove
down the road a short distance and parked.
Oliver and Lonnie then
went back to the house with bolt cutters and a .380-caliber
handgun while Reed and Bennie stayed in the truck. Oliver cut the
padlock on the door, and he and Lonnie went inside.
While they
were gathering items from the house to steal, Collins, 64,
returned home. The burglars tried to escape, but Collins shot
Lonnie in the leg with a rifle. Oliver then shot Collins in the
face with his handgun. While Bennie helped his brother back to the
truck, Oliver took the rifle from Collins and hit him in the face
with the butt of the weapon. Oliver continued shooting Collins
while he was lying on his back on the ground. The group took
Lonnie to the hospital, then went to the sheriff's office and
filed reports claiming that someone drove by and shot Lonnie while
they were all at a farm.
The next day, deputies picked up Bennie
and questioned him. He gave a written statement admitting what had
actually happened. Investigators then questioned Lonnie, who,
after repeating the original story about the farm, gave a written
statement that corroborated his brother's. Oliver and Reed were
then arrested at a motel in Waco.
Citations:
Ex parte Oliver, Not Reported in S.W.3d, 2009 WL 3646682 (Tex.Crim.App.
2009). (PCR) Oliver v. Quarterman, 541 F.3d 329 (5th Cir. 2008)
(Habeas).
Final/Special Meal:
Fried chicken, a pint of chocolate ice cream and coffee.
Final Words:
“I know you are not going to get the closure you are looking for.
I pray for ya’ll every day and every night. I have only the
warmest wishes. I am sorry for what you are having to go through.”
After expressing love to his own family members, Oliver cited
Psalm 23, “The Shepherd’s Prayer,” getting through several verses
before being hushed by effects of the drugs.
ClarkProsecutor.org
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Oliver, Khristian
Date of Birth: 08/26/1977
DR#: 999301
Date Received: 04/23/1999
Education: 12 years
Occupation: Laborer
Date of Offense: 03/17/1998
County of Offense: Nacogdoches
Native County: Harris
Race: White
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 6' 01"
Weight: 150
Summary of incident: On 03/17/98, Oliver and
three juvenile co-defendants were in the process of burglarizing
the residence of a 64-year old white male. Oliver and the co-defendants
were in the house and Reed was in the vehicle. The victim
surprised Oliver and Oliver shot the victim in the face with a
380-caliber handgun. The victim was beaten around the head with
the butt of a rifle. Oliver and the co-defendants fled the scene.
They were arrested in a motel in Waco, Texas.
Media Advisory: Khristian Oliver scheduled for
execution
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
offers the following information about Khristian Oliver, who is
scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on November 5, 2009. In
1999, Oliver was sentenced to death after being convicted of
capital murder for killing Joe Collins during a burglary at the
victim's East Texas home.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
In 1998, Khristian Oliver and three juvenile co-defendants
drove to Joe Collins’ house and knocked on the door. No one
answered. Believing no one was at home, the juveniles drove back
down the road a short distance and parked. Oliver and one of the
other juveniles went back to the house with bolt cutters, Oliver’s
.380 pistol, and a handful of bullets. Oliver cut the padlock on
the door with his bolt cutters. Upon entering, they found a rifle
and unplugged a VCR and television and stacked them in the living
room.
Collins arrived home while Oliver and the
second juvenile were in the house. Oliver shot Collins in the face
with a 380-caliber handgun and hit Collins in the face with the
butt of a rifle. Oliver and the co-defendants fled the scene.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
April 20, 1999 – Oliver was convicted of
capital murder.
April 17, 2002 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
affirmed.
October 30, 2002 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied
habeas corpus relief.
January 21, 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of
certiorari. (direct appeal)
April 28, 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of
certiorari. (state habeas)
January 21, 2004 – Petition for writ of habeas corpus filed in U.S.
district court.
November 10, 2005 – The federal district court denied habeas
corpus relief.
February 2, 2006 – The federal district court granted COA.
November 16, 2007 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit denied COA.
January 5, 2009 – Oliver filed a petition for writ of certiorari
in the Supreme Court.
April 20, 2009 – The Supreme Court denied Oliver’s petition for
writ of certiorari.
CRIMINAL HISTORY
During the punishment phase of his capital
murder trial, the State presented evidence that Oliver began
committing burglaries about a year and a half before he murdered
Joe Collins. A long-time accomplice and co-hart of Oliver’s,
testified to numerous burglaries he committed with Oliver,
including a residential burglary committed in September 1996 in
which they stole guns, an October 1996 burglary of the Heart of
Texas Coliseum, two burglaries in June 1997 of Filling Station No.
7 (also know as Hilltop Grocery), a July 1997 burglary of a
sporting goods store, a July 1997 burglary of a Little League
concession stand, an August 1997 burglary of a coliseum and
general exhibits building, and an October 1997 burglary of a
community college field house. The accomplice also described
several other burglaries and thefts that he and Oliver committed,
including the theft of a large fishing boat from Donn’s Boat
Sales.
The accomplice said that when he and Oliver
attempted to burglarize Waco High School, they fled after they
were caught by a security guard. After they were in the car,
Oliver fired a gun. The security guard testified that Oliver had
pulled the gun and pointed it at him across the car roof, and also
aimed and fired the gun at an approaching janitor. The accomplice
testified that at a car-jacking in Boskey Park in October 1997,
Oliver pulled a gun on a man in a parking lot and took his wallet
and keys. Testimony was also offered that Oliver broke into a
store near Rusk and left with things from the store.
Man executed for 1998 beating, murder
By Mary Rainwater
- Huntsville Item Online
November 05, 2009
A man convicted for the 1998 beating and murder
of a 64-year-old Nacogdoches man was put to death Thursday,
marking the state’s 20th execution by lethal injection this year.
Khristian Oliver, 32, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., just eight
minutes after the lethal dosage of drugs was introduced into his
bloodstream.
Oliver was condemned for the March 1998 slaying
of Joe Collins who interrupted the break-in at his rural home
outside Nacogdoches, about 140 miles southeast of Dallas.
“I know you are not going to get the closure
you are looking for,” Oliver said to the victim’s family. “I pray
for ya’ll every day and every night. I have only the warmest
wishes. “I am sorry for what you are having to go through.” After
expressing love to his own family members, Oliver cited Psalm 23,
“The Shepherd’s Prayer,” getting through several verses before
being hushed by effects of the drugs. “The good Lord was on our
side this time,” Collins’ son Joe Preston Collins Jr. said in a
press conference following the execution. “There is closure,
despite his sentiment.”
Despite accusations from attorneys that jurors
consulted a Bible to justify his death sentence, the U.S. Supreme
Court rejected Oliver’s last-day appeal and Gov. Rick Perry
refused to stop the punishment.
“I felt that it was more self-healing for him
than for us,” Collins Jr. said. “He wanted us to feel better...but,
you know, its kind of hard... we have been waiting 11 years. “He
has been alive and well all this time and I have been without a
dad,” he continued. “I looked and I didn’t see any remorse in his
eyes. To me, he had a much easier death than my dad.”
State and federal courts, including the Supreme
Court, earlier upheld Oliver’s conviction and death sentence, but
Oliver’s attorney renewed his appeal to the high court and urged
Perry to issue a rare one-time 30-day reprieve.
A witness to the attack on Collins, in which
Oliver beat and shot him with a rifle, compared it to someone
getting bashed with an ax or a golf club. Oliver’s lawyers argued
that jurors who improperly brought Bibles with them into
deliberations without the knowledge of the trial judge in
Nacogdoches County likened the rifle to a biblical iron object.
Oliver’s lawyer, David Dow, said there was
nothing wrong with people bringing their religious values into the
jury room. “But they must take great care to insure that, in
sentencing a murderer, they follow Texas law rather than religious
law, and in this case, the jurors did not do so,” he said.
At an evidentiary hearing, jurors gave various
accounts, ranging from one Bible to several being present in the
jury room. One testified they had them because they went to Bible
study after court proceedings. Another said any reading from the
books came after they reached a decision. A third said the reading
of Scripture was intended to make them feel better about their
decision. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said evidence was
contradictory on whether jurors consulted the Bible before or
after deliberations and that several jurors testified that the
Bible “was not a focus of their discussions.”
Collins was hit so severely and so many times —
and also was shot five times — he was nearly unrecognizable when a
neighbor found him dead in the front yard of home.
Joe Collins Sr. had left home to pick up dinner
on March 17, 1998, and returned to find Oliver, then 20, and 16-year-old
Benny Rubalcaba inside his home. Rubalcaba’s 15-year-old brother,
Lonny, and Oliver’s girlfriend were outside waiting in a pickup
truck. As the two intruders tried to run away, testimony showed
Collins grabbed a rifle and shot Benny Rubalcaba in the leg.
Oliver fired his pistol at Collins, then retrieved the man’s rifle
and beat him with it.
One of the teenagers testified he saw Oliver
swinging the rifle at Collins. Evidence showed at least two of
five shots to hit Collins came while he was on his back on the
ground outside his house. Oliver was arrested in Houston with his
girlfriend, Sonya Reed. She turned down a 10-year plea deal, went
to trial and received 99 years in prison. Benny Rubalcaba got five
years and his brother 10 years. Both are now out of prison.
Bible played role in Texas execution case
By Michael Graczyk
- Associated Press
The Houston Chronicle
Nov. 5, 2009
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A man convicted of fatally
beating and shooting an East Texas man during a burglary almost 12
years ago was executed Thursday, in a case that gained notoriety
because jurors may have consulted a Bible to justify his death
sentence.
Khristian Oliver, 32, was pronounced dead at
6:18 p.m., eight minutes after lethal drugs began flowing into his
arms. He was praying a Bible verse when he died.
"I know you're not going to get the closure you
are looking for," he told his victim's children, who watched
through a window a few feet from him. "I wish you the best." He
said he prayed for them "every day and every night" and offered
them "only the warmest wishes." Then after telling his parents,
watching through an adjacent window, that he loved them, he began
saying the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd." He got through
several verses before the drugs took effect.
"The good Lord was on our side this time," said
Joe Collins Jr. after watching his father's killer die. Oliver's
lethal injection, the 20th this year in Texas, came after the U.S.
Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal and Gov. Rick Perry
refused to stop the punishment.
Oliver was condemned for the March 1998 slaying
of 64-year-old Joe Collins who interrupted the break-in at his
rural home outside Nacogdoches, about 140 miles southeast of
Dallas. "I felt is was more self-healing for him than for us," Joe
Collins Jr. said. "He didn't admit to much. He wanted us to feel
better ... but, you know, it's kind of hard. For 11 years, I've
been without a dad. "I looked at him. I didn't see no remorse in
his eyes. To me, he had a much easier way of death than what my
dad did. Too easy."
State and federal courts, including the Supreme
Court, earlier upheld Oliver's conviction and death sentence, but
Oliver's attorney renewed his appeal to the high court and urged
Perry to issue a rare one-time 30-day reprieve.
A witness to the attack on Collins, in which
Oliver beat and shot him with a rifle, compared it to someone
getting bashed with an ax or a golf club. Oliver's lawyers argued
that jurors who improperly brought Bibles with them into
deliberations without the knowledge of the trial judge in
Nacogdoches County likened the rifle to a biblical iron object. In
Chapter 35 of Numbers, a murderer who uses an iron object to kill
"shall surely be put to death."
Oliver's lawyer, David Dow, said there was
nothing wrong with people bringing their religious values into the
jury room. "But they must take great care to insure that, in
sentencing a murderer, they follow Texas law rather than religious
law, and in this case, the jurors did not do so," he said.
At an evidentiary hearing, jurors gave various
accounts, ranging from one Bible to several being present in the
jury room. One testified they had them because they went to Bible
study after court proceedings. Another said any reading from the
books came after they reached a decision. A third said the reading
of Scripture was intended to make them feel better about their
decision.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said
evidence was contradictory on whether jurors consulted the Bible
before or after deliberations and that several jurors testified
that the Bible "was not a focus of their discussions." Collins was
hit so severely and so many times — and also was shot five times —
he was nearly unrecognizable when a neighbor found him dead in the
front yard of home.
Collins had left home to pick up dinner on
March 17, 1998, and returned to find Oliver, then 20, and 16-year-old
Benny Rubalcaba inside his home. Rubalcaba's 15-year-old brother,
Lonny, and Oliver's girlfriend were outside waiting in a pickup
truck. As the two intruders tried to run away, testimony showed
Collins grabbed a rifle and shot Benny Rubalcaba in the leg.
Oliver fired his pistol at Collins, then retrieved the man's rifle
and beat him with it.
One of the teenagers testified he saw Oliver
swinging the rifle at Collins. Evidence showed at least two of
five shots to hit Collins came while he was on his back on the
ground outside his house.
Rubalcaba, taken by friends to a hospital, told
police about the attack. Oliver was arrested in Houston with his
girlfriend, Sonya Reed. She turned down a 10-year plea deal, went
to trial and received 99 years in prison. Benny Rubalcaba got five
years and his brother 10 years. Both are now out of prison.
Evidence showed Oliver over the year-and-a-half
period that culminated with Collins' murder was responsible for
numerous burglaries and thefts, many in the Waco area where his
parents live.
Khristian Oliver executed
By Christy Wooten
- Nagadoches Daily Sentinel
Thursday, November 05, 2009
For the first time since 1928, a man sentenced
to death in Nacgodoches County has been executed. Khristian
Oliver, 32, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Thursday in
Huntsville. He was convicted in 1999 of the brutal murder of Joe
Preston Collins Sr. The case gained national attention after it
was reported that jurors may have referenced Bible verses during
deliberation.
In his last statement, Oliver said to the
Collins' family that he knew they would not get the closure they
were looking for, but that he wished them the best. He said, "I
prayed for y'all every day and every night. I have only the
warmest wishes. I am sorry for what you are having to go through."
To his own family, he said that he loved them and thanked his
spiritual advisor, Wayne Whiteside. He then began quoting Psalm 23
with his voice trailing off as he said "my cup over runneth," as
the drugs took effect. His family cried softly as they stood in a
small room looking through the glass at their son strapped to a
gurney.
Joe Collins Jr. said in a press conference
after the execution that he thought Oliver's last statement was
more for self-healing than for the Collins family. "He didn't
admit to much'" Joe said. "He wanted us to feel better and have
some closure, but it's kind of hard."
As for the actual execution, Joe said it was
not difficult. "Wasn't nothing difficult," Joe said about the
execution. "I looked at him. I didn't see no real remorse in his
eyes." "Everything was good," Gary Collins said, describing his
father. "A lot of good times (to remember). "For 11 years he's
been alive and doing things. For 11 years, I've been without a
dad."
Gary and Joe Collins stated none of their
family ever approached the district attorney or the Oliver family
to seek a lesser sentence. They said they always wanted the death
penalty. They said they have not had or wanted any contact with
the Olivers. "Justice was served," Gary said. "I feel a lot better.
We can move on." "There is not full closure," Joe said, referring
to the three people with Oliver the night of the murder, "but it's
better than what it was."
Collins was found dead in his yard on March 18,
1998, by his neighbor. According to court testimony, Oliver, then
20, and Lonny Rubalcaba were searching inside Collins' home off
Camp Tonkawa Road the previous night looking for things to steal
when Collins came home and surprised them. Collins shot Lonny,
hitting him in the leg. Lonny testified that Oliver fled the room
and he heard several more gunshots before Oliver returned.
Oliver's girlfriend, Sonya Reed, and Benardo (Benny) Rubalcaba,
Lonny's brother, were waiting in a vehicle parked on the side of
the road. Benny testified that as he ran toward the home, he saw
his brother on the ground and Oliver beating Collins with the butt
of a rifle.
Both Rubalcaba boys took plea agreements with
Lonny serving 10 years and Benny serving 5. Reed went to trial and
is currently serving a 99 year sentence. Dr. James Bruce, a Lufkin
pathologist, said during the trial that any one of the gunshot
wounds or the blunt trama could have caused Collins' death,
according to previous Daily Sentinel articles.
Oliver's execution was witnessed his parents, Kermit and Katie
Oliver, of Waco, as well as his sister and brother-in-law, Kristy
and Tony Pullings, his brother, Khristopher Oliver, and spiritual
advisor, Wayne Whiteside. The victim's children were in attendance,
including sons Joe Preston Collins Jr., Gary Allen Collins, Alton
Ray Collins, and his daughter, Elsie Faye Walker. One son, Alvin
Lee Collins, was not present. Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas
Kerss and District Attorney Nicole LoStracco were present to
support the family but did not witness the execution.
In 1928, Tom Ross, 35, was the 56th person
executed by electrocution in Texas, according to the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice Web site. He was convicted of
murder in Nacogdoches. Edward Hagans was also sentenced to death
but his sentence was commuted to life in prison in November of
1973 after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled the year before that
capital punishment was "cruel and unusual" punishment.
Lethal injection consists of three injections.
The first is sodium thiopental, a sedative. Second is pancuronium
bromide, a muscle relaxant that collapses the diaphragm and lungs.
Finally, potassium chloride is used to stop the heart. The cost of
the drugs used for an execution is $86.08. Oliver's death by
lethal injection was the 20th this year in Texas, according to the
Associated Press.
Texas execution looms after jury consult
Bible
AmnestyUSA.org
9 October 2009
As the international community prepares to mark
the World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October, Amnesty
International has highlighted two cases of people facing execution
- one in the USA, one in Iran. A Texas man who faces execution
after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating
his fate should have his death sentence commuted, Amnesty
International said on Friday.
Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be killed on 5
November after jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death
penalty to help them decide whether he should live or die. Amnesty
International is calling on the Texas authorities to commute
Khristian Oliver's death sentence. The organization considers that
the jurors' use of the Bible during their sentencing deliberations
raises serious questions about their impartiality.
A US federal appeals court acknowledged last
year that the jurors' use of the Bible amounted to an "external
influence" prohibited under the US Constitution, but nonetheless
upheld the death sentence. Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death
in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. According to
accomplice testimony at the trial, 20-year-old Oliver shot the
victim before striking him on the head with a rifle butt.
After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors
had consulted the Bible during their sentencing deliberations. At
a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several
Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed
around. One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of
fellow jurors, including the passage, "And if he smite him with an
instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer
shall surely be put to death". The judge ruled that the jury had
not acted improperly and this was upheld by the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals.
In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a
fifth juror. The latter said that "about 80 per cent" of the
jurors had "brought scripture into the deliberation", and that the
jurors had consulted the Bible "long before we ever reached a
verdict". He told the journalist he believed "the Bible is truth
from page 1 to the last page", and that if civil law and biblical
law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if
he had been told he could not consult the Bible, "I would have
left the courtroom". He described himself as a death penalty
supporter, saying life imprisonment was a "burden" on the taxpayer.
In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit found that the jurors had "crossed an important line" by
consulting specific passages in the Bible that described the very
facts at issue in the case. This amounted to an "external
influence" on the jury prohibited under the US Constitution.
However, it concluded that under the "highly deferential standard"
by which federal courts should review state court decisions,
Oliver had failed to prove that he had been prejudiced by this
unconstitutional juror conduct. In April 2009, the US Supreme
Court refused to take the case, despite being urged to take it by
nearly 50 former US federal and state prosecutors.
'Waco artists' work
influenced by son on death row
By Carl Hoover
- Waco Tribune
Thursday, October 15, 2009
For 25 years, Waco artists Kermit and Katie
Oliver have lived gently in their East Waco home, raising a family
while Kermit worked the night shift at the Waco post office on
State Highway 6, painting in the mornings. In Houston art circles
and beyond, where Kermit’s drawings and paintings were sold, his
deliberate avoidance of the limelight was curious. A man who
designed stunning scarves for Paris’ House of Hermes and whose
works hung in private collections across the Southwest seemed
happiest when left alone to his art.
That quietude began to crack in 1999 when a
Nacogdoches County jury sentenced the couple’s younger son
Khristian, then 20, to death for the murder of a 64-year-old man
during a burglary. An appeal drew international attention but was
ultimately denied this spring.
This weekend, Kermit and Katie will show their
art together with Khristian’s in an Art Center Waco exhibit titled
“Oliver Retrospective.” Hanging over the show is this fact:
Barring a last-minute stay or sentence commutation, Khristian will
be executed Nov. 5.
Sitting in the living room of the two-story
home left to her by Waco grandparents Dr. and Mrs. A.T.
Braithwaite,Katie Oliver expressed a quiet faith that something or
someone will intervene in what she sees as an “aberration.” “For
the first few years we were in shock,” she said. “We just couldn’t
believe what had happened, that he’d been sentenced to death for a
crime he didn’t commit, and thought that he’d be released at any
time.”
Khristian Oliver, a 1998 Waco High School grad,
was convicted and sentenced for the death of Joe Collins, who had
surprised Oliver and two younger companions while they were
breaking into his East Texas home on March 17, 1998, while
Oliver’s girlfriend, Sonya Reed, waited in a car. Collins was shot
in the face and beaten brutally with his own rifle. The two
companions received five- and 10-year sentences, Reed a 99-year
term and Oliver the death penalty.
Lawyers for Oliver argued in their appeals that
the jury had been improperly swayed by Bibles that some jurors had
brought with them into their deliberations. The case became the
subject of a documentary Eye for an Eye and a book by Danish
journalist Egon Clausen.
But the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
in August 2008 that while the Bibles should not have been allowed
into the deliberation room, there was no clear evidence to
indicate they had affected the jurors’ decision. In April, the U.S.
Supreme Court refused to hear Oliver’s appeal, and on June 29,
145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox set a Nov. 5 execution
date.
Katie Oliver feels strongly her son is innocent,
her belief fortified by a vision she said she had several years
ago in which an angel took her to the site of the murder, a visit
during which she witnessed indications that another man had killed
Collins. She captured that vision in a series of woodblock images
that’s framed in their home. As she detailed that visitation,
Kermit Oliver left the room and returned with a photograph of a
young girl, about 11. It’s the daughter that Khristian Oliver
never met, a granddaughter whose guardians have stopped her summer
visits to the Olivers.
For 11 years, the Olivers have visited their
son on death row, bringing him books and permissible art supplies.
The product of the latter will appear in the Art Center Waco
exhibit, taken from the Olivers’ home. A necklace crafted from
bits of pencil circles yellow crosses in a framed work created by
Khristian.A smaller, finely painted watercolor of a waterbird
hangs in a sitting room, an example of Khristian’s control in
painting. “He’s focused now,” Kermit said with a small smile.
Khristian is the only one of the Olivers’ three
children who paints. Eldest daughter Kristy lives in League City
with her two children while Kristopher, the elder son, lives in
Waco and works with the Texas Department of Mental Health and
Mental Retardation, Katie said. Kermit said the ordeal of the last
11 years has been draining but noted many of his friends, backers
and patrons have rallied to help with legal fees and moral support.
“The continuity of friendship . . . for the last 11 years has been
a godsend,” he said.
One longtime friend and supporter is Houston
art dealer Geri Hooks, whose Hooks-Epstein Gallery has represented
Kermit’s works for 20 years. He is, she says, a talent that too
few people know. “I can’t tell you how many galleries and
collectors contact me, clamoring for his work. Kermit is famous in
spite of himself,” she said. “I would put him in the top five of
artists in America today.”
Kermit, a native of Refugio, studied art at
Texas Southern University in the 1960s, where he met Katie, also
studying art. The two married in 1962, and Kermit began teaching
after graduating in 1968. While his painting was winning praise in
the Houston art scene, he found himself increasingly uncomfortable
with the personal promotion demanded of him. “I’m not a public,
outgoing person, but to promote your art, you have to be that way,”
he said.
He left teaching to take a job with the U.S.
Postal Service in 1978, a position that provided a steady salary,
pension and benefits to care for a family in a more secure way
than an artist’s life. “I haven’t regretted it since,” he said.
The Olivers moved to Waco in 1984, where Kermit
continued his postal service work at night and artwork by day,
painting in a sideroom with a northern exposure and stacks of
National Geographic magazines and books. Kermit’s work during his
Houston years built his reputation. He was the first black artist
represented by a major gallery, the DuBose Gallery, in Houston,
and his relationship with the House of Hermes started in 1982. The
paintings and scarf designs he’s made during his time in Waco have
cemented it.
The last 11 years have shown occasional flashes
of the pain and anguish Kermit felt for his son, as one might
expect, Hooks said. “Every artist who’s worth anything at all is
affected by what’s going on around them in their lives,” she said.
The most emotion was captured in the self-portraits
that Kermit did for every biennial gallery show, she said. “One
year, it was so angry, I didn’t recognize it,” she said. “I cannot
imagine what they’re going through.” Kermit’s pain may have shaped
one of his most brilliant works, his 2003 “Resurrection,”
commissioned by Houston’s Trinity Episcopal Church for its Morrow
Chapel.
The 9-foot altarpiece shows a young, vibrant
Christ stepping out of a tomb, his head wreathed in lilies. Below
his feet are symbols of life, death and resurrection. Behind him,
a mushroom cloud and bold orange hue suggest a power to conquer
death. “Resurrection” demands attention, Trinity assistant rector
Murray Powell said. “There are two basic, raw emotions that people
express: ‘What the hell is it?’ and ‘Oh, my!’ Nobody gets away
clean,” he said.
Viewers’ reaction, in fact, was intense enough
that church officials began locking the chapel after hours for
fear someone might damage the work. One fact chapel visitors may
not know that Kermit knows well: The face of Christ is Khristian’s
face.
Khristian Oliver
ProDeathPenalty.com
On April 20, 1999, a Nacogdoches County, Texas
jury convicted Khristian Oliver of capital murder based on his
killing of Joe Collins during the commission of a burglary. It was
alleged at trial that on March 17, 1998, Oliver, his then-girlfriend
Sonya Reed, and cohorts Bennie and Lonny Rubalcaba, were driving
around Nacogdoches County, Texas, when they stopped at the empty
home of Mr. Joe Collins to burglarize his house. Oliver and Lonny
Rubalcaba broke into the house using bolt cutters, while Reed and
Bennie Rubalcaba remained in their vehicle. Joe Collins came home
during the break-in. Oliver and Rubalcaba tried to escape out a
back door, but the door was bolted from the outside and the
windows were barred. Joe then fired a shot from his gun, hitting
Rubalcaba in the leg. Oliver and Rubalcaba were also armed with a
pistol, and with a rifle they had found in Joe’s home. After Joe
shot Rubalcaba, Khristian Oliver shot back. Oliver fired some
shots inside the house and some outside in the front yard, where
Joe ended up on his back. According to the trial testimony of
Bennie Rubalcaba, Oliver then struck Joe several times in the head
with the butt of the rifle. A forensic expert at trial testified
that the gunshots probably were fatal, but that the blows from the
rifle could have been fatal on their own. The group departed the
scene, bringing the wounded Lonny Rubalcaba to a hospital, where
they reported he had been the victim of a drive-by shooting. The
next day, however, police officers interrogated the Rubalcabas,
who provided information – and later testimony – that led to
Khristian Oliver’s arrest and subsequent conviction.
Khristian Oliver
Texas Execution Information Center by David
Carson - Txexecutions.org
Khristian Phillip Oliver, 32, was executed by
lethal injection on 5 November 2009 in Huntsville, Texas for
murdering a man while burglarizing his home.
On 17 March 1998, Oliver, then 20, his
girlfriend Sonya Reed, 25, and brothers Bennie and Lonnie
Rubalcana, 16 and 15, drove to Joe Collins' house in Nacogdoches
County and knocked on the door. No one answered. Believing no one
was at home, they drove down the road a short distance and parked.
Oliver and Lonnie then went back to the house with bolt cutters
and a .380-caliber handgun while Reed and Bennie stayed in the
truck. Oliver cut the padlock on the door, and he Lonnie went
inside. While they were gathering items from the house to steal,
Collins, 64, returned home. The burglars tried to escape, but
Collins shot Lonnie in the leg with a rifle. Oliver then shot
Collins in the face with his handgun. While Bennie helped his
brother back to the truck, Oliver took the rifle from Collins and
hit him in the face with the butt of the weapon. Oliver continued
shooting Collins while he was lying on his back on the ground.
The group took Lonnie to the hospital, then
went to the sheriff's office and filed reports claiming that
someone drove by and shot Lonnie while they were all at a farm.
The next day, deputies picked up Bennie and questioned him. He
gave a written statement admitting what had actually happened.
Investigators then questioned Lonnie, who, after repeating the
original story about the farm, gave a written statement that
corroborated his brother's. Oliver and Reed were then arrested at
a motel in Waco.
Oliver had no previous felony convictions, but
at his punishment hearing, the state presented testimony from a
long-time accomplice of Oliver's showing that he had committed
over a dozen burglaries over the previous year and a half. When he
was attempting to burglarize Waco High School, Oliver fired a gun
at a security guard and a janitor. The accomplice also testified
that Oliver car-jacked a man at gunpoint in October 1997.
A jury convicted Oliver of capital murder in
April 1999 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in April 2002. All of
his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.
The biggest controversy in Oliver's case was
the fact that some of the jurors at his punishment hearing
consulted the Bible while deciding on his sentence. The courts
ruled that, although the Bible was improperly used as an external
influence in Oliver's sentencing hearing, Oliver and his attorneys
failed to show that it affected the outcome of the jury's
deliberations.
Sonya Fawn Reed was convicted of capital murder
and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Because of their age and in
exchange for their testimonies, the Rubalcana brothers received
lighter sentences. Lonnie Rubalcana was sentenced to ten years,
and Bennie Rubalcana was sentenced to five.
Oliver's execution was attended by members of
both his and his victim's families. "In know you're not going to
get the closure you are looking for," he said to the Collins
family. Still, he said "I wish you the best" and said he prayed
for them "every day and every night". Next, he told his parents
that he loved them. He then began reciting Psalm 23, which begins,
"The Lord is my Shepherd..." He got most of the way through it, to
"my cup runneth over", before the drugs began to take effect. He
was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.
Supreme Court Declines Bible-Consulting Jury Case
October 7, 2008
The Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear
the appeal of a death row inmate who argued that the jury
foreman's reading of the Bible during sentencing deliberations was
inappropriate.
At issue in the appeal was whether reading
the Bible aloud during jury deliberations violated the
defendant's right to a fair trial. The precise question was
whether the Bible introduced unauthorized materials and
extraneous considerations into the trial process.
Courts in both the First Circuit Court of
Appeals in Boston, the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, and the
11th Circuit in Atlanta have ruled that the introduction of a
Bible into jury deliberations violates the right to an impartial
jury, the right to confrontation, and the right to a fair trial.
But courts in the Fourth Circuit in Richmond and the Ninth
Circuit in San Francisco have ruled that the presentation of
specific Bible verses during jury deliberations does not violate
the Sixth Amendment because the Bible's teachings are a matter
of common knowledge in American culture.
Attorneys applying to the Court argued this
case offered the opportunity to settle that conflict.
No Reprieve for Khristian Condemned by Bible Passages
JonathanTurley.org
August 17, 2008
Convicted murder Kristian Oliver was a bit put
out when he learned that jurors relied not simply on the evidence
but biblical passages during their deliberations to convict him.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled
that the use of a biblical passage in jury deliberations is not
enough to warrant reversal of his death sentence.
The United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Texas found that, while jurors cited the
passage, it did not influence the jury’s decision — a rather
difficult finding to prove or disprove.
The passage in question is from Numbers:
And if he smite him with an instrument of
iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall
surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a
stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the
murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with
an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is
a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The
revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he
meeteth him, he shall slay him. Numbers 35:16-19 (King James).
That seems pretty inimical to a fair
deliberation based solely on the evidence in the case. Indeed, the
opinion itself shows that the reading triggered a more
comprehensive discussion of the biblical requirements in dealing
with murderers.
One juror, Kenneth Grace, read the Bible
aloud to a small group of jurors in the corner of the jury room.
McHaney also testified that fellow juror Donna Matheny mentioned
to him that the Bible contained a passage discussing who is a
murderer and who should be put to death, and that he asked
Matheny if he could read her Bible, which Matheny had
highlighted. McHaney recalled reading verses pertaining to the
importance of obeying the law of the land, the commandment that
“thou shalt not kill,” and the passage Matheny pointed out that
discussed who is a murderer and who deserves a death sentence.
In particular,here called reading a passage that says that if a
man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, then he
is a murderer and should be put to death.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that
outside sources used in the jury room are presumptively
prejudicial to the proceedings. Parker v. Gladden, 385 U.S. 363,
364-65 (1966) (“the evidence developed against a defendant shall
come from the witness stand in a public courtroom where there is
full judicial protection of the defendant’s right of confrontation,
of cross-examination, and of counsel”). Yet, the Ninth Circuit
refused to reverse in a similar case.
This case seems to involve a much more serious
use of an external religious text than the mere case of a juror
taking a Bible into the proceedings as a personal item of support.
Here, there was direct consultation that linked passages to the
case at hand and the moral basis for the ultimate punishment.
Fifth Circuit rules on jurors using
Bible during sentencing deliberations
August 15,
2008
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
on Thursday refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus to convicted
murder Khristian Oliver, who had argued that his Sixth and Eighth
Amendment rights were violated when the jury took Bible passages
into account when deliberating on his eventual death sentence. The
US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas had made a
factual finding that the Bible did not influence the jury’s
decision, and the Fifth Circuit held that Oliver did not present
clear and convincing evidence rebutting that finding.
'Ten Commandments Judge' defends Texas
jury's use of Bible
By Allie Martin - OneNewsNow.vom
March 27, 2008
Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is
arguing in a legal brief that a Texas jury's use of the Bible did
not taint deliberations in a death penalty case.
Khristian Oliver was found guilty and sentenced
to death for killing an East Texas farmer during a home invasion
nearly a decade ago. However, Oliver's attorney claims the death
sentence should be overturned because several jury members brought
Bibles and consulted scripture in the deliberation room. But
attorneys with the Foundation for Moral Law -- headed by Judge
Moore -- have argued in a brief that the jury's consultation of
Bible passages did not taint the jury in violation of the Sixth
Amendment. Furthermore, Moore states the murderer's argument
reflects a trend in society.
"It's all about one single, solitary thing ...
eliminating the knowledge of God from society," argues Moore. "It's
not about the Bible, the Ten Commandments, or prayer in a school
classroom .... They're simply saying that if a person considers a
belief toward God in his jury deliberations, the case must be
reversed."
Moore continues his argument by stating that
the evidence in the case proves that Oliver beat the farmer to
death, and that the farmer was beaten so badly his face was
unrecognizable. He also cites a 1952 Supreme Court ruling that
recognized Americans are a religious people whose institutions
presuppose a supreme being -- one of those institutions being the
jury system.
The brief asks the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals to reject Oliver's claims as constitutionally,
historically, and logically baseless.
Condemned killer says Bible helped jury decide
his death sentence
International Herald Tribune
December 30, 2007
The death sentence of a Texas man is under
scrutiny because jurors at his trial had Bibles with them when
they decided he should be executed
Jurors sentenced Khristian Oliver to the death
penalty in 1999 after he was convicted of brutally killing a 64-year-old
man during a home break-in. His lawyers contend jurors improperly
relied on religious beliefs that called for death as punishment
for murder.
"This is headed toward a showdown on a very
fundamental question on the use of the Bible," Winston Cochran,
Oliver's lawyer, said.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last
month upheld the conviction and denied his request for a hearing
on the Bible-related claims, but agreed to consider written
arguments and then hold oral arguments.
In their ruling Nov. 16, the judges asked
lawyers to explain whether the jurors' consultation of the Bible
amounted to "an external influence that raises a presumption of
prejudice."
At issue is a verse in Chapter 35 of Numbers
which, in the New American Standard Bible, reads: "But if he
struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a
murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death." Other
versions of the Bible have similar passages, some of them
referring to an "iron rod" as the weapon.
Special Prosecutor Sue Korioth said there never
was an implication jurors voted based on Scripture or had any kind
of religious discussion.
"Several of them carried Bibles in and out like
my daughter carries her "Seventeen" magazine," she said. "It was
just their reading material."
At a state district court hearing two months
after the trial, four jurors testified about the presence of
Bibles in the jury room and gave varying accounts, ranging from
one Bible to several being present. One juror testified he and
fellow jurors carried the books with them because they would go to
Bible study in the evenings following the day's court proceedings,
Another juror testified any reading from the
books came after they had reached a decision. A third said the
reading of Scripture was intended to make people feel better about
their decision.
Oliver is at a Texas Department of Criminal
Justice prison where inmates undergo treatment for psychiatric
conditions and could not be interviewed.
Cochran had until the end of December to
present written briefs to the court. Prosecutors will then have an
opportunity to respond. Oral arguments before the New Orleans-based
court are not likely until later in 2008.
Ex parte Oliver, Not Reported in S.W.3d,
2009 WL 3646682 (Tex.Crim.App. 2009). (PCR)
ORDER - PER CURIAM.
This is a subsequent application for writ of
habeas corpus filed pursuant to the provisions of Texas Code of
Criminal Procedure Article 11.071, § 5, and a motion to stay his
execution.
In April 1999, a jury found applicant guilty of
the offense of capital murder. The jury answered the special
issues submitted pursuant to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure
Article 37.071, and the trial court, accordingly, set applicant's
punishment at death. This Court affirmed applicant's conviction
and sentence on direct appeal. Oliver v. State, No. AP-73,837 (Tex.Crim.App.
Apr. 17, 2002)(not designated for publication). Applicant filed
his initial post-conviction application for writ of habeas corpus
in the trial court on January 9, 2002. This Court denied relief.
Ex parte Oliver, No. WR-53,682-01 (Tex.Crim.App. Oct. 30, 2002)(not
designated for publication). After the time to file the initial
application had passed, applicant also filed in the trial court a
document entitled, “Applicant's Objections to Disposition Without
Evidentiary Hearing and Motion for Extension of Time to File
Habeas Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.” Because applicant
attempted to raise two additional claims in this document, the
Court concluded that it was a subsequent application. The Court
reviewed the claims raised under Article 11.071, § 5, determined
that they did not meet the dictates of the statute, and dismissed
them. Ex parte Oliver, No. WR-53,682-02 (Tex.Crim.App. Oct. 30,
2002)(not designated for publication). Applicant's second
subsequent application was filed in the trial court on October 26,
2009.
Applicant presents two allegations in his
application. We have reviewed the application and find that
applicant's allegations fail to satisfy the requirements of
Article 11.071, § 5. Accordingly, the application is dismissed,
and applicant's motion to stay his execution is denied. Applicant
has also filed a motion to recuse the Presiding Judge. That motion
is denied.
IT IS SO ORDERED. KELLER, P.J., not
participating. PRICE and JOHNSON, JJ., would dismiss the motion to
recuse as moot.
