Texas man who waived his right to appeal death sentence is executed for killing infant son

HOUSTON, Texas -- A Texas man who waived his right to appeal his death sentence was put to death Tuesday evening for killing his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago, one of five executions scheduled within a week in the U.S.

Travis Mullis, 38, received a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT. The state condemned him for stomping to death his son Alijah in January 2008.

Mullis was the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Another execution was carried out Tuesday evening in Missouri, and on Thursday, Oklahoma and Alabama scheduled their executions. South Carolina conducted an execution Friday.

Authorities said Mullis, then 21 and living in Brazoria County, drove to nearby Galveston with his son after fighting with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and sexually assaulted his son. After the infant began to cry uncontrollably, Mullis started to strangle the child before taking him out of the car and stomping on his head, according to authorities.

The infant's body was later found on the roadside. Mullis fled the state but was later arrested after surrendering to police in Philadelphia.

Mullis' execution proceeded after one of his attorneys, Shawn Nolan, said he planned no late appeals in a bid to spare the inmate's life. Nolan also said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that Texas would be executing a "redeemed man" who has always accepted responsibility for committing "an awful crime."

"He never had a chance at life, being abandoned by his parents and then severely abused by his adoptive father starting at age 3. During his decade and a half on death row, he spent countless hours working on his redemption. And he achieved it. The Travis that Texas wanted to kill is long gone. Rest in Peace, TJ," Nolan said.

Mullis declined an offer earlier in the day to phone his attorney from a holding cell outside the death chamber, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Hannah Haney. His lawyers also did not file a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

In a letter submitted in February to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston, Mullis wrote that he had no desire to challenge his case any further. Mullis has previously taken responsibility for his son's death and has said "his punishment fit the crime."

At Mullis' trial, prosecutors said Mullis was a "monster" who manipulated people, was deceitful, and refused the medical and psychiatric help he had been offered.

Since his 2011 conviction, Mullis has long been at odds with his various attorneys over whether to appeal his case. At times, he asked that his appeals be waived, only to later change his mind.

Nolan had previously told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during a June 2023 hearing that state courts in Texas had erred in ruling that Mullis had been mentally competent when he had waived his right to appeal his case about a decade earlier.

Nolan told the appeals court that Mullis has been treated for "profound mental illness" since he was 3 years old, was sexually abused as a child, and is "severely bipolar," leading him to change his mind about appealing.

Natalie Thompson, who at the time was with the Texas Attorney General's Office, told the appeals court that Mullis understood what he was doing and could go against his lawyers' advice "even if he's suffering from mental illness."

The appeals court upheld Hank's ruling from 2021 that found Mullis "repeatedly competently chose to waive review" of his death sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the application of the death penalty for the intellectually disabled but not for people with serious mental illness.

If the remaining executions in Alabama and Oklahoma are carried out as planned, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years - since July 2003 - that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

The first took place Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death. Also, on Tuesday, Marcellus Williams was executed in Missouri. On Thursday, executions are scheduled for Alan Miller in Alabama and Emmanuel Littlejohn in Oklahoma.

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