Background
Charlie Brooks Jr. was born on January 9th, 1942, to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brooks Sr.
His father held a well-paying job at the Swift Meatpacking company in Fort Worth and gave his son a good upbringing with plenty of affection and attention—until his untimely death at the age of 55, when Charlie Jr. was 13.
As a boy, Charlie was considered bright and personable.
He became a football player and was a popular pupil at I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas.
Sadly, by his late teens, Charlie was into drugs and petty crime.
He was convicted of “simple burglary” in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, in September 1962 and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
He was paroled in 1963, but this was revoked in 1965.
He also served time in the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth for three counts of illegal possession of firearms in 1968, being discharged in 1975.
He married his high school sweetheart, Joyce, and fathered two sons by her, Derrick and Adrian, aged 21 and 20 respectively at the time of their father’s execution.
The Crime: The Abduction and Murder of David Gregory
Charlie and his friend Woody Loudres met up with Loudres’ live-in girlfriend, Marlene Smith, on the morning of December 14, 1976.
She took them to the New Lincoln Motel in Tarrant County, where she and Loudres were staying in Room 15.
Here, they used heroin before embarking on a shoplifting spree in Fort Worth.
However, their car broke down, so Charlie set off for assistance and came upon a used car lot.
He expressed interest in a vehicle and asked to take it on a test drive.
The dealership required a staff member to accompany potential customers.
Their mechanic, 26-year-old David Gregory, was asked to accompany Charlie.
Charlie drove back with David to the broken-down car and picked up Loudres.
They then drove back to Loudres’ motel, having bound and gagged David and placed him into the trunk of the car.
The used car was seen arriving at the New Lincoln Motel a little later.
David was removed from the trunk and forced at gunpoint into Room 17.
Loudres told the motel manager’s wife, Emma Speers, that they had a man tied up and:
“we are going to have to kill him.”
Brooks pointed a revolver at her, warning:
“You’re ignorant. If you say anything, I’ll blow you and your daughter’s brains out.”
A few minutes later, Emma heard a shot or shots.
David Gregory was killed by a single shot fired directly into his face.
A motel staff member obtained the licence plate details of the vehicle that Charlie and Loudres had arrived in, and both she and Emma contacted the police, who arrived on the scene at 6:24 p.m.
Officers quickly discovered David Gregory’s body on the floor of Room 17.
Around 11:00 p.m. that evening, Charlie and Loudres met up with Phil Watson at the Flamingo Club in south Fort Worth.
Loudres asked Watson to drive them back to the New Lincoln Motel, but the manager refused them entry, so they went to Watson’s residence where they were subsequently arrested by responding officers.
The Trial, Conviction, and Disparate Sentencing
On December 3, 1977, Charlie Brooks Jr., then 34 years old, was convicted of the capital murder of David Gregory.
He was represented by two court-appointed defence counsel, William E. Burdoch and Glen E. Eakman.
Under the capital sentencing statutes established in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s reinstatement of the death penalty, the jury answered the statutory special issues in the affirmative, finding that the murder was committed:
“deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased would result, and that there was a probability that Brooks, who had previously been convicted of felonies four times, would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society.”
Accordingly, as required by Texas statutory law, the court formally pronounced the sentence of death.
Woody Loudres was similarly convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death at a separate trial.
However, Loudres’ conviction was reversed on appeal by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
This legal reversal allowed Loudres to negotiate a plea bargain with the State of Texas, pleading guilty to non-capital murder in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence.
Loudres served only 11 years of that sentence before being granted parole and released in 1989.
Appeals, Conversion to Islam, and Death Row Legal Battles
In 1979, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas affirmed Charlie Brooks Jr.’s conviction and death sentence.
While confined on death row at the Ellis I Unit, Charlie converted to Islam, becoming a devout Muslim.
During this period, he also formed a romantic relationship with a 27-year-old Fort Worth nurse, Vanessa Sapp, who had begun corresponding with him in prison.
Initially, an execution date of December 7th, 1981, was scheduled by the trial court.
However, due to Charlie’s appellate attorneys filing federal habeas corpus motions, this date was pushed back by exactly one year when those motions were dismissed on October 28th, 1982, by Federal District Judge David Belew Jr., sitting in Fort Worth.
Charlie then filed for an emergency stay of execution on November 15th, 1982, which was denied.
This denial was formally challenged on December 2nd and was again denied.
Frantic legal activity ensued to secure a reprieve, but neither the Supreme Court of the United States nor Texas Governor William Clements was willing to intervene.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 to reject his petition for a stay of execution.
In New Orleans, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit similarly refused to issue a stay.
On Monday afternoon, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended, by a vote of 2 to 1, that the execution proceed as scheduled.
Charlie was visited on Monday by his niece, Berry Mitchell, and his Islamic spiritual advisors, Akbar Shabaaz and Larry Amin Sherrief.
Charlie’s final legal appeal was rejected by the courts at 11:55 p.m. on Monday night, just 14 minutes before the execution process commenced.
Outside the Huntsville Unit, demonstrations developed, with crowds predominantly assembled in favour of the execution.
A large contingent of students from Sam Houston State University waved placards bearing slogans such as:
“Lethal injection too easy. Let’s bring back the hangman’s noose”
and:
“Kill ’em in plain view.”
A smaller group of anti-death penalty abolitionists conducted a silent candlelight vigil opposite the prison walls.
The World’s First Lethal Injection (07/12/1982)
Charlie Brooks Jr.’s execution marked the first time in world history that judicial lethal injection was utilized as an execution method.
The State of Texas had enacted legislation in 1977 adopting intravenous lethal injection to replace the electric chair (“Old Sparky”), which had been used for 361 executions between 1924 and 1964.
The lethal injection protocol, conceived by Oklahoma chief medical examiner Dr. Jay Chapman, consisted of a three-drug sequence:
- Sodium Thiopental: An ultra-short-acting barbiturate intended to induce rapid surgical anaesthesia and unconsciousness;
- Pancuronium Bromide (Pavulon): A non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agent that paralyses the diaphragm and respiratory muscles;
- Potassium Chloride: A toxic cardiac electrolyte that causes immediate cardiac arrhythmia and ventricular arrest.
On Monday afternoon, Dr. Ralph Gray, the medical director of the Texas Department of Corrections, visited Charlie in his cell to inspect his arms and verify that his peripheral veins were suitable for cannulation.
For his requested last meal, served on Monday evening, Charlie received a T-bone steak, French fries, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, biscuits, peach cobbler, and iced tea.
Around 11:30 p.m., Charlie mounted the white-sheeted gurney and was secured with leather restraint straps.
His right arm was extended on an armboard, and a venous catheter was inserted to establish an intravenous line flowing with normal saline solution.
Approximately 20 official witnesses gathered inside the viewing room adjacent to the death chamber.
Three personal witnesses had been permitted at Charlie’s request: his death row fiancée Vanessa Sapp, and his spiritual advisors Akbar Shabaaz and Larry Amin Sherrief.
Sherrief informed reporters that Charlie had come to recognize that his death:
“is the Lord’s will, and he will abide by it.”
Joyce Brooks, Charlie’s two adult sons, and his brother were present inside the Huntsville administrative building, but were not permitted to witness the execution under Texas Department of Corrections policy.
Just after midnight, the mobile gurney was wheeled into the execution chamber inside the Huntsville “Walls” Unit.
The intravenous catheter in his right arm was connected to delivery tubing passing through an aperture in the wall into the executioner’s room behind the chamber.
Charlie was dressed in gold prison trousers, black shoes, and a light brown shirt opened to the waist.
Warden Jack Pursley stepped forward and asked Charlie if he wished to make a final statement, to which he replied:
“Yes, I do. I love you.” (directed to Vanessa Sapp)
“Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah, Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah, Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasul Allah, Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasul Allah. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. Verily unto Allah do we belong, Verily unto him do we return. Be strong.” (again spoken to Vanessa Sapp, upon whom Charlie focused throughout his final moments).
Medical Observations and Aftermath
The infusion of lethal chemicals commenced through the IV line at 12:09 a.m.
Charlie Brooks Jr. was pronounced dead jointly by Dr. Bascom Bentley (the Huntsville prison physician) and Dr. Ralph Gray at 12:16 a.m., seven minutes after the injection began.
Eyewitness accounts varied regarding the physical sensations and ease of death.
Dick Reavis, an attending journalist reporting for Texas Monthly, recorded:
“He turned his head upward and yawned, then wheezed, and that was all.”
Another media witness reported that Brooks gasped audibly and that his abdominal muscles contracted.
Conversely, his spiritual advisor Larry Amin Sherrief told waiting reporters:
“I’ve never seen a person die so peacefully.”
Following the mandatory post-mortem autopsy, Charlie’s remains were released to his family and interred at Cedar Hill Memorial Park in Kennedale, Texas.
Reaction from the victim’s family was unequivocal.
David Gregory’s mother, Norma Morrison, stated to the press:
“I would like for the message to be strong and clear that if you kill someone you pay. He executed my son. I feel that if you can execute someone you should graciously accept your own execution.”
David’s widow, Shirley Gregory, commented:
“I think he got the same thing that he dished out. I think it will be a lot better and a little easier now.”
The execution of Charlie Brooks Jr. marked the beginning of modern lethal injection in the United States, an execution method that rapidly superseded the electric chair, lethal gas, and hanging across nearly all retentionist American states, contrasting with the legal developments traced in the end of capital punishment in Europe and capital punishment in the British Commonwealth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Charlie Brooks Jr.?
Charlie Brooks Jr. was a 40-year-old Texas death row inmate convicted of the December 1976 capital murder of 26-year-old car mechanic David Gregory during an armed carjacking and abduction in Fort Worth.
Why is Charlie Brooks Jr. historically significant in penal history?
On December 7, 1982, Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first person in the world to be executed by lethal injection, inaugurating the modern three-drug protocol at the Huntsville “Walls” Unit in Texas.
What three drugs were used in the first lethal injection?
The execution utilized the three-drug protocol designed by Dr. Jay Chapman: sodium thiopental (a rapid-acting barbiturate anaesthetic), pancuronium bromide / Pavulon (a neuromuscular paralytic agent), and potassium chloride (a cardiac arrest agent).
Why was co-defendant Woody Loudres not executed?
Although Woody Loudres was initially convicted and sentenced to death, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction on appeal. Loudres subsequently accepted a plea bargain for non-capital murder, received a 40-year sentence, and was paroled in 1989 after serving 11 years.
Where did the execution take place?
The execution took place inside the death chamber of the Huntsville Unit (the “Walls” Unit) of the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, Texas.
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