Texas jury sentences child killer to life in prison instead of death in sign times are changing

Gabriel Armandariz with his boys, Gatlin, 2, and Luke, eight months, before their deaths. Source: Facebook

WARNING: Graphic content

IN AMERICA’S death penalty capital, this one seemed like an open and shut case.

In an act of apparent spite, Gabriel Armandariz murdered his defenceless young sons, hid them underneath his Texas home and sent pictures of their bodies, including one hanging in a wardrobe, to the childrens’ mother Lauren Smith.

In one text to Smith, Armandariz, who complained of her partying ways, wrote: “I commend the spirits of these two boys to the Lord. I would much rather be with them than be out partying with friends.”

Alongside a picture of himself with the two boys on a bed, Armandariz also texted: “We love u, goodbye”.

Police found the bodies of Luke, eight months, and Gatlin, 2, within hours of the disturbing texts. Armandariz, 32, later confessed.

The 2011 murders sent chills down the spines of the hardest Texans. Armandariz, it seemed, was destined for the death chamber.

But when the case came to trial earlier this year, something happened in the courtroom that would have never happened 10 years ago. A jury returned a life in prison verdict. Armandariz, described as a “lying, manipulative baby killer”, would be spared the execution chamber.

Texas newspaper the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported jurors came to their decision after eight hours.

“The lawyers were crying. The jury was crying. Trial observers were crying,” journalist Tim Cole wrote.

Gabriel Armandariz in Fort Worth, Texas. Picture: Ron T. Ennis / Fort Worth Star-Telegram Source: Getty Images

So what happened? Did the men and women of the jury go soft? If they did, they’re not alone.

Not one Texas jury has sentenced a single guilty party to death this year.

That’s in stark contrast to the 48 people executed in Texas in 1999, or 39 executed in 2000, or 24 executed in 2009.

Experts say it’s a trend that will soon see the death penalty abolished in even the most conservative US states.

Peter Norden, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and adjunct professor at RMIT University, said there’s been a “big shift” in the way Americans view capital punishment.

“It’s happening,” he told news.com.au.

“Abolition of the death penalty is happening throughout the world quite rapidly. The states are the toughest nut to crack but it’ll definitely happen. There are signs of it already.”

Those signs include a jury in Texas deliberating for just 10 minutes before returning with a non-death-penalty verdict this year and Nebraska becoming the first conservative state since 1973 to reject death by lethal injection.

So what’s behind the shift?

On the surface, it has everything to do with jurors being offered life without parole as a means of punishment. That sentencing option was only adopted in Texas in 2005.

Prof Norden said botched executions also played an important role.

“The breakdown in the system of executing was a dramatic scandal,” he said.

He was referring to the execution of Clayton Lockett, described as “cruel and unusual”.

Clayton Lockett’s execution lasted 43 minutes but has changed the way juries think about the death penalty. Source:Supplied

Lockett, on death row in Oklahoma for the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder of a teenager in 1999, suffered through a torturous 43-minute execution after an untested combination of drugs were incorrectly administered.

Nine months after Lockett’s botched execution, Oklahoma put to death another prisoner in similarly distressing scenes.

Charles Warner, a child rapist and murderer, cried out from the death chamber “My body is on fire” as his lethal injection was administered.

The incidents sparked a US Supreme Court hearing into whether death by lethal injection is unconstitutional.

Prof Norden said world trends were also impacting juries.

“For a long time, criminal justice in the states has been black and white. In the last five years or so there’s been a rethink.

“There was for so long a sense that the threat to Americans was from within. Now it’s external.”

He said wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the threat from Islamic State have changed the way Americans view their own citizens.

There are still 31 US states where the death penalty applies. They include Alabama, California, Missouri, Washington, Indiana and Texas. States that recently abolished the practice include Nebraska (2015), Maryland (2013), Illinois (2011), New Mexico (2009) and New York (2007).

“The abolition family is growing in numbers,” Prof Norden said. “It’s only a matter of time.”

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