Post-Furman US execution #1028
Texas execution #368 since reinstatement
On the evening of Tuesday, the 27th of June, 2006, the State of Texas carried out the execution of 46-year-old Mexican national Ángel Maturino Reséndiz by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Walker County. Reséndiz, known widely in the sensationalist press as “The Railroad Killer”, had spent nearly six years on death row following his conviction for the December 1998 murder of a physician in Houston, Harris County.
His case generated nationwide panic across the United States in the late 1990s due to his illicit use of the freight rail network to travel thousands of miles between murders, and subsequently prompted major international diplomatic friction between the United States and Mexico over consular notification rights and mental competence.
The Murders and the Transnational Manhunt
Ángel Leoncio Reyes Recendis was born on the 1st of August, 1959, in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico. From his early twenties, he entered the United States illegally on dozens of occasions, serving custodial sentences for burglary and firearm violations under an extensive list of aliases, of which Rafael Resendez-Ramirez was the most common.
Over a twelve-year period between 1986 and 1999, Reséndiz embarked on a cross-country murder spree that spanned Texas, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky, and Georgia. He relied entirely on freight trains to navigate across state borders, selecting victims whose homes were situated in close proximity to railway tracks.
His standard modus operandi involved breaking into residences at night, overpowering occupants, and bludgeoning them to death with heavy blunt instruments found on the premises—such as pickaxes, sledgehammers, or heavy statues—before ransacking the rooms for jewellery and cash. He committed at least fifteen murders, including:
- Unidentified woman (1986) – Shot dead in Bexar County, Texas.
- Michael White (33) – Beaten to death with a brick in Bexar County in July 1991.
- Jesse Howell (19) & Wendy Von Huben (16) – Teenage hitchhikers attacked in Marion County, Florida, in March 1997; Howell was bludgeoned with an air hose coupler and Miss Von Huben was raped and suffocated.
- Christopher Maier (21) – A university student bludgeoned to death with a rock near railway tracks in Lexington, Kentucky, in August 1997; his female companion was raped and severely beaten, but miraculously survived.
- Leafie Mason (81) – Battered to death with an antique flatiron in Gorham, Illinois, in October 1998.
- Claudia Benton (39) – A paediatric neurologist murdered in West University Place, Houston, in December 1998.
- Norman J. Sirnic (46) & Karen Sirnic (47) – A pastor and his wife bludgeoned with a sledgehammer inside their parsonage in Weimar, Colorado County, Texas, in May 1999.
- George Morphett (73) – Shot to death in Fayette County, Texas, in June 1999.
- Noemi Dominguez (26) – A schoolteacher bludgeoned with a pickaxe in Houston in June 1999.
- Josephine Sanchez (73) – Battered to death in Louisville, Kentucky, in June 1999.
In June 1999, the Federal Bureau of Investigation placed Reséndiz on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. A nationwide manhunt was complicated by a catastrophic bureaucratic blunder: on the 1st of June, 1999, the US Border Patrol apprehended Reséndiz crossing into New Mexico, but because his warrants were not properly integrated into the immigration database, agents fingerprinted him and simply deported him across the Mexican border, allowing him to re-enter days later to commit four further homicides.
His capture was ultimately negotiated through the Texas Rangers. Ranger Drew Carter contacted Reséndiz’s sister in Albuquerque, New Mexico, promising that Reséndiz would receive humane treatment, access to psychiatric care, and a fair trial if he surrendered peacefully. On Tuesday, the 13th of July, 1999, Reséndiz walked across the international bridge from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, Texas, and surrendered into Ranger Carter’s custody.
Trial and Sentence
Because multiple jurisdictions sought his prosecution, prosecutors in Harris County, Texas, took precedence, indicting him for the capital murder of Dr Claudia Benton, committed during the perpetration of burglary and sexual assault.
The trial opened in Houston in May 2000 before District Judge William Harmon. The forensic evidence against Reséndiz was overwhelming, including fingerprint and palm print matches inside the Benton home, DNA evidence confirming he had raped the victim, and his possession of Dr Benton’s stolen jewellery and motor car.
Reséndiz pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His defence counsel presented evidence of profound psychiatric disturbances, demonstrating that Reséndiz suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and severe delusional disorder; he believed himself to be an archangel of God sent to execute divine judgment on sinners, asserting that he could not be killed because he would instantly resurrect in three days.
The state’s psychiatric witnesses conceded that Reséndiz held bizarre religious beliefs, but argued that he was legally sane under Texas law: he took calculated steps to conceal his crimes, wore gloves, wiped away fingerprints, fled the crime scenes, and possessed sufficient cognitive clarity to appreciate that his acts were unlawful.
On the 18th of May, 2000, the jury rejected the insanity defence, finding Reséndiz guilty of capital murder. During the sentencing phase, the jury heard evidence of his nationwide series of homicides. On the 22nd of May, 2000, the jury answered the statutory special issues in favour of the State, and Judge Harmon formally passed sentence of death.
Appeals and the Competence Dispute
Reséndiz was transferred to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston. His mandatory appeals were routinely rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and federal courts.
In 2006, following the issuance of his death warrant, his appellate attorneys lodged emergency petitions arguing that Reséndiz was legally incompetent to be executed under the precedent established in Ford v. Wainwright, which holds that an inmate must understand that he is to be executed and comprehend the reason why. His lawyers presented testimony from prison psychiatrists detailing his persistent delusions—including his conviction that he was half-man, half-angel and that the state of Texas could not destroy his physical form.
However, during a competence hearing in Houston in June 2006, Judge Harmon determined that while Reséndiz was mentally ill, he understood that he was sentenced to die for the murder of Claudia Benton, thereby satisfying the constitutional standard.
The Mexican government, which steadfastly opposes capital punishment, formally intervened on Reséndiz’s behalf. Mexican diplomats and legal representatives asserted that the state of Texas had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to inform Reséndiz of his right to contact the Mexican consulate following his arrest. The Mexican government appealed directly to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry for executive clemency.
On Friday, the 23rd of June, 2006, the Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously (7–0) against recommending a commutation of sentence to life imprisonment or a reprieve. Governor Perry declined to intervene, and on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 27th of June, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected his final petition for a stay of execution without dissent.
The Execution
Reséndiz was transferred to the death house at the Huntsville Unit on the morning of Tuesday, the 27th of June, 2006. He declined to request a special final meal and accepted the standard prison meal of fried fish, potatoes, and bread.
Shortly before 7:30 p.m., Reséndiz was escorted into the execution chamber. He was secured to the padded gurney with leather straps, and intravenous catheters were inserted into both arms.
Behind the viewing windows sat official witnesses, four media representatives, and relatives of several of his victims, including Dr Benton’s husband, George Benton, and surviving victim Christopher Maier’s mother.
The viewing curtains were drawn open at 7:58 p.m. When Warden Charles O’Reilly asked if he had any final words, Reséndiz turned his head toward the victims’ families and spoke into the overhead microphone in English, expressing repentance:
“I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me. You don’t have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me. I thank God for having patience with me. I don’t deserve to cause you pain. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting.”
Reséndiz then turned to his spiritual adviser standing in the corner of the chamber and whispered quietly in Spanish.
The lethal three-drug chemical sequence—consisting of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride—began flowing at 8:00 p.m.
Reséndiz took two heavy breaths, blinked several times, and closed his eyes. His chest ceased moving within sixty seconds, and he exhibited no visible muscular spasms or distress.
At 8:05 p.m. Central Daylight Time, an examining physician stepped into the chamber, checked his pupils and heartbeat, and formally pronounced life extinct. Ángel Maturino Reséndiz was 46 years of age.
His execution was the thirteenth carried out in Texas in 2006 and the 368th since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Following the procedure, George Benton addressed the media, stating that Reséndiz was not an instrument of God, but simply a cowardly predator who had finally received just punishment under the law.
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