Woman Executed in Texas as Bush Rejects Reprieve

A 62-year-old woman was executed by injection Thursday after Gov. George W. Bush rejected her claim that she killed her fifth husband in self-defense and deserved a reprieve.

Betty Lou Beets became the fourth woman to be executed in the United States since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed the death penalty to resume. She was the second woman executed in Texas since the Civil War.

She gave no final statement as she lay strapped to the death chamber gurney. She made no eye contact with the victim’s family but smiled at relatives.

Death penalty opponents and domestic violence organizations had urged Bush to grant Beets a 30-day stay.

The delay was Bush’s only option, since the state parole board did not recommend that her sentence be commuted to life in prison.

During his 5 1/2 years as governor, 120 convicted killers have been executed in Texas. He has spared one condemned inmate.

“After careful review of the evidence of the case, I concur with the jury that Betty Lou Beets is guilty of this murder,” Bush said in a written statement after returning to Texas from California, where he was campaigning for the Republican nomination.

“I’m confident that the courts, both state and federal, have thoroughly reviewed all the issues raised by the defendant.”

Prosecutors said Beets shot and killed two of her husbands, but she was only tried in the death of her fifth husband, Dallas Fire Capt. Jimmy Don Beets, nearly 17 years ago. Prosecutors said she killed him to collect his life insurance and pension.

On Thursday, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected an appeal that accused the state of not following its own rules in reviewing Beets’ case. Beets’ lawyers then took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected it without comment.