Curtis Moore’s first run-in with the criminal justice system came at age 12 as a runaway and he kept getting into worse trouble as he got older.
His rap sheet showed convictions for theft, robbery and weapon and drug possession that earned him prison terms. In an era of overcrowded Texas prisons that abbreviated sentences, he repeatedly was released, then returned to prison with parole violations.
He finally ended up on death row, convicted of the slayings of three people during a pair of drug-ripoff robberies more than 13 years ago in Fort Worth. Moore, 40, was set to die this evening.
He’d be the first condemned inmate executed this year in the US and among six to die in Huntsville over 15 days in the nation’s most active death penalty state. Two are set for injection next week.
Moore’s appeals were exhausted and lawyers cited his possible mental retardation as reason the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles should commute his sentence to life in prison.
Moore already made one trip to the Huntsville death house. In 2002, less than three hours before he was to receive lethal injection, the US Supreme Court stopped his scheduled execution so claims from his attorneys that he was mentally retarded and ineligible for execution could be reviewed. In October, the high court refused his appeal, clearing the way for today’s execution date to be set.
Moore was arrested for a pair of shootings on Nov. 30, 1995.
Roderick Moore, 24, who was not related to him, and LaTanya Boone, 21, were found shot to death in a roadside ditch across from a Texas elementary school.
The same night, Darrel Hoyle, 21, and Henry Truevillain, 20, were found shot and burned by firefighters summoned to put out a car fire. Truevillian was dead but Hoyle survived and helped lead police to the arrest of Moore and his nephew, Anthony Moore, then 17.
Testimony at Curtis Moore’s trial showed the shootings culminated a drug ripoff, that he doused Hoyle and Truevillain with gasoline and ignited them as they were bound and in the trunk of a car parked in a deserted lot. Hoyle regained consciousness six days later and gave information that led authorities to Anthony Moore.
Curtis Moore was arrested about two weeks later, his hands and arms still showing burns suffered when authorities said he tried to keep Hoyle from fleeing the flames.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are