Bush allows execution of woman

Texas governor rejects claim of self-defense

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A 62-year-old woman was executed by injection yesterday 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 watching through a window at her side. She continued smiling as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Death penalty opponents and domestic violence organizations had urged Bush to grant Beets a 30-day delay, arguing it would be consistent with his description of himself as a "compassionate conservative" in his presidential campaign. 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."

Beets and her lawyers insisted the former bartender-waitress, convicted of fatally shooting fifth husband Jimmy Don Beets nearly 17 years ago and burying his body under a flower garden, was the victim of years of domestic abuse and should be allowed to live.

Yesterday the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected an appeal that accused the state of not following its own rules in reviewing Beets' case. The arguments were dismissed Wednesday by a federal judge in Austin as a delay tactic.

Beets' lawyers also took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected it without comment.

According to the governor's office, Bush had received 2,108 phone calls and letters opposing Beets' execution by yesterday afternoon, and 57 calls and letters favoring it.

"A decision to stay the execution of Ms. Beets would demonstrate your compassionate conservatism and that you are willing to do what is right even in the face of potential criticism from your constituents," the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote Bush yesterday.

Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, implored to Bush grant a reprieve "so evidence of her being battered ... may be fully evaluated.

"Far from receiving careful consideration, the role of domestic abuse in Betty's crime has been continually swept under the rug by the Texas court system," Hawkins said.

Before Beets, the last woman executed in Texas was Karla Faye Tucker, on Feb. 3, 1998. Tucker hacked two people to death with a pickax but said she had a religious conversion in prison and appealed for mercy. Bush was criticized for mocking Tucker in a magazine interview last year.