Ronald Ray Howard

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Ronald Ray Howard (July 22, 1973 – October 6, 2005) was an African American convicted murderer executed by lethal injection by the U.S. state of Texas. He was convicted of the shooting death of Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Bill Davidson after Howard was stopped driving a stolen car on April 11, 1992.

Davidson had stopped Howard on U.S. Highway 59 about 5 miles (8 km) south of Edna, Texas in a 1986 GMC Jimmy, as his vehicle had a broken headlight. When Davidson approached the driver-side window of the car, he was shot in the neck. Howard drove off but was apprehended later in the night, with a 9 mm pistol. The car was later found to be stolen. Three days later, Davidson died of his injuries. Drug tests showed that Howard had cocaine and cannabis in his system at the time of the murder.

Howard also said that the rap music that he listened to had conditioned him to hate police officers. He had been listening to Tupac Shakur's "Soulja's Story" when pulled over. The song talks of a young black man being pulled over by a police officer and then shooting him.

On June 8, 1993 he was convicted of capital murder and just over a month later sentenced to death. On December 18, 1996, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the sentence (but not the conviction) because a prospective juror had been erroneously dismissed. The appeals court ordered a new punishment trial, which took place on January 26, 1999; the new trial again sentenced Howard to death. This new sentence was confirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals on December 19, 2001. On March 30, 2005 after appealing to the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the District Court for the Southern District of Texas his execution date was set as October 6.

He was married with three daughters and one son. Born in Houston, Texas, he dropped out of school in the 8th grade. He started, but never finished training in electrician, building maintenance, computer data entry, and heavy diesel mechanics. His prior criminal convictions were burglary of a motor vehicle (6-year probated sentence) and 45-day jail sentence for theft. When Davidson was shot Howard was on probation.

According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Howard continued to regret his actions and worked to stop at-risk youth following his lead. During his time on death row he also become a more educated Christian man.

When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, he looked at the family of Davidson and said:

"I hope this helps a little. I don't know how, but I hope it helps"

He also told his family that he loved them all.