Texas man set to be executed for killing his infant son
HOUSTON — A Texan man with a long history of mental illness who has repeatedly tried to waive his right to appeal his death sentence, was set to be executed Tuesday night for killing his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago.
Travis Mullis, 38, was convicted of stomping his son Alijah to death in January 2008. He was to be executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville.
According to authorities, Mullis, then 21 and a resident of Brazoria County, drove his son to nearby Galveston after an argument with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and assaulted his son. After the baby began crying uncontrollably, Mullis began choking his son before pulling him out of the car and stomping on his head, authorities said.
The baby’s body was later found on the side of the road. Mullis fled Texas, but was later arrested after turning himself in to Philadelphia police.
Mullis’ execution was expected to proceed, as his attorneys did not plan to file a final appeal to try to stop his lethal injection. His attorneys also did not file a petition for clemency with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Mullis wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston in February that he had no desire to fight his case further. Mullis has previously taken responsibility for the death of his son and said that “his punishment is in keeping with the crime.”
Mullis wrote in the letter: “He seeks the same finality and justice as the state.”
Jack Roady, Galveston County District Attorney whose office prosecuted Mullis, declined to comment ahead of Tuesday’s execution.
During Mullis’ trial, prosecutors said Mullis was a “monster” who manipulated people, was deceitful, and refused medical and psychiatric help offered to him.
Since his conviction in 2011, Mullis has been in conflict with his various attorneys over whether to appeal his case. Mullis has at times asked to have his appeals dropped, but later changed his mind.
Shawn Nolan, one of Mullis’ attorneys, told the U.S. 5th Court of Appeals at a hearing in June 2023 that Texas state courts had wrongly found Mullis mentally competent when he had waived his right to appeal his case about a decade earlier.
Nolan told the appeal court that Mullis has been treated for a “serious mental illness” since he was three, that he was sexually abused as a child and that he is “severely bipolar”, which led him to change his mind about appealing his case.
“The only hope Mr. Mullis had to avoid execution, to survive, was to have a competent attorney who could assist the court in determining whether he knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily gave up his rights, and that did not happen,” Nolan said.
Natalie Thompson, who worked at the Texas attorney general’s office at the time, told the appeals court that Mullis understood what he was doing and could go against his lawyers’ advice, “even if he suffers from a mental illness.”
The appeals court upheld Hank’s 2021 ruling, which found that Mullis had “repeatedly and competently decided to waive review” of his death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court has banned the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities, but not for people with serious mental illness.
Mullis would be the fourth inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, the state with the most death sentences in the country, and the 15th in the U.S.
Mullis’ execution is one of five scheduled to take place in the U.S. within a week. The first took place Friday when South Carolina Puts Inmate Freddie Owens to Death. Also Tuesday, Marcellus Williams scheduled to be executed in Missouri. Alan Miller is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on Thursday. Alabama and Emmanuel Littlejohn in Oklahoma.
___
Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70