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JurorsverdictSAN ANTONIO lt;AF) - A Texas housewife convicted in the 1978 slayings of five people has been depicted by character witnesses as a church-going, compassionate woman who tried to convert fellow prison inmates to Christianity.Linda May Burnett, 36, cried softly Tuesday when her daughter took the stand in an effort to persuade jurors not to send Mrs. Burnett back to death row.The Nederland housewife has been convicted of capital murder for the death of one of five people abducted, shot at close range and buried in a mass grave.Jurors must decide whether to sentence Mrs Burnett to death by injection or life imprisonment She spent almost four years on death row before her first conviction was overturned.Final arguments in the trial's punishment phase were set for this morning, with the jury then to begin deliberations.The bulk of the defense's testimony in the punishment phase came from Austin psychiatrist Kichard Coons, who attacked a prediction made by a prosecution psychiatrist Monday that Mrs Burnett almost certainly would commit future violent crimes.Dr. Clay Griffith of Dallas9estimated there was a “99 percentprobability Mrs. Burnett would commit future violent acts, which Coons said just won’t hold water He said he based his conclusion on Mrs. Burnett’s lack of a previous criminal record, non-agressive personality and the absence of a pattern of childhood problems Both doctors acknowledged they had not personally examined Mrs Burnett, but instead relied on a hypothetical personality profile Mrs. Burnett’s 17-year-old daughter, Debra Kay Miller landry, broke into ragged sobs after telling jurors, My mother always took care of me.”She taught me how to color, she taught me my ABCs and she taught me to be kind to people, no matter what they say or what they did, said Ms Landry, who has been adopted by Mrs. Burnett’s sister Mrs. Burnett once shot her second husband. Hubert Miller, in the neck, but only because he had a butcher knife and was threatening me with it, Ms. Ilt;andrv saidMrBurnett's mother, Mallie Wilson, said her daughter was bom nervous, so the doctor said.’ The only trouble I Had With her was when she was married and wanted to go out with Joe Dugas, Mrs. Wilson said. * I had a fit.
Newspaper Details
New Braunfels Herald Zeitung
New Braunfels, Texas, US
Wed, Aug 17, 1983
Page 72
Full Page
Clipped by
Jared T.
NA, NA 29 May 2023
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