A Texas death row inmate set for execution on Wednesday has admitted to strangling a jogger with her own shoelaces over 25 years ago, saying he couldn’t help himself. However, he’s fighting the death sentence, arguing his confession should never have been admitted in court.
Arthur Lee Burton, 54, was convicted of murdering 48-year-old Nancy Adleman on the evening of July 29, 1997, in Houston. Authorities discovered the mother of three’s badly beaten body in a 4-foot hole in a heavily wooded area along Brays Bayou the day after she didn’t return home from a run.
Burton confessed to attempting to rape Adleman and strangling her with her own shoelaces, later telling a prison psychologist that the murder was “just something I couldn’t help,” according to court records. A Texas jury found him guilty in June 1998.
If his execution proceeds, Burton will be the third inmate put to death in Texas this year and the 11th in the nation.
As Burton’s execution nears, USA TODAY looks back at the crime, who Burton is, and what led him down a path that ended with Adleman’s murder.
What did Arthur Lee Burton do?
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Nancy Adleman left her northwest Houston home around 7 p.m. on July 29, 1997, for a short jog along Brays Bayou, a routine activity for her. It was the last time her family saw her.
When Harris County deputies found Adleman’s body the next morning, her shorts and underwear had been removed and discarded, according to court records.
Burton, arrested 10 days later, initially denied killing the mother of three. But once a Harris County deputy sheriff confronted him about evidence found at the scene and inconsistencies in his statements, the 27-year-old confessed, court records show.
In Burton’s written statement, he admitted to attacking Adleman, dragging her into the woods, choking her unconscious, and removing her shorts and underwear to rape her, according to a 2004 court filing. When Adleman regained consciousness and began screaming, Burton choked her unconscious again and dragged her into a hole.
As he was about to leave, he saw another person walking nearby, so he returned to the hole and strangled Adleman with her shoelace, the document says.
“For any woman who has ever exercised alone, or walked to their car alone at night, this case is their worst nightmare,” said Josh Reiss, chief of the Post-Conviction Writ Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, to USA TODAY.
Who is Arthur Lee Burton?
During Burton’s murder trial, prosecutors portrayed him as a man who had committed 39 burglaries in a single month when he was 18, court records show.
Prosecutors said Burton and his co-defendants stole guns, radios, fishing equipment, calculators, and other items. Burton’s brother, Michael Burton, testified in 2002 that his brother started using marijuana at 16 and began selling cocaine at 17.
Michael Burton also said their father was not part of their lives and recalled periods when they were on welfare as children, sometimes going without food or electricity, according to a federal appeals document filed by the state in 2010.
Michael testified that his brother was common-law married, had three children and a stepchild, and was a hard-working, “good father.” He said he never knew his brother to be violent or abusive.
Fannie Burton, Burton’s mother, testified that her son “loved to build things,” while his common-law wife of eight years, Felicia Batts, said he was a “very sweet person who treated her son like his own.”
Batts told the jury that nothing unusual happened a week before the killing that would have angered Burton. She also said he came home on the night of the murder with a flat tire on his bicycle and was “laughing and seemed normal.”
Is Arthur Lee Burton a ‘future danger’ to society?
In Burton’s earlier appeals, his attorneys questioned whether the evidence presented during his murder and sentencing trials was sufficient to determine if he was a “future danger” to society. If not, then that may not warrant the death penalty under Texas law, his defense attorneys argued.
Burton’s attorneys also claimed that the trial court violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights when the prosecution admitted statements made during his interview with prison sociologist J.P. Guyton. The defense attorneys called Guyton’s testimony “hearsay” and argued their client’s comments were made without a Miranda warning or counsel.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals continued to deny Burton’s appeals despite his attorney’s concerns regarding his case. Burton was sentenced to death twice, in June 1998 and September 2002. His initial conviction was upheld, but his sentence was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals based on ineffective assistance of counsel.
Burton’s recent appeal, filed on July 19, addresses inconsistencies in the death warrant copies. Judge Ramona Franklin agreed with Burton’s attorneys and recalled the death warrant. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals restored Burton’s execution on July 30 after agreeing that the state “individually signed and certified” each death warrant, thus complying with state statutes.
Burton’s attorneys filed another appeal on July 30, arguing that the state does not have the right to take the life of an “intellectually disabled” offender. This appeal was denied on Aug. 1, ending Burton’s state court proceedings.
Kathryn Johnson, Burton’s attorney, recently told USA TODAY that her client has his family and friends supporting him as he navigates this process.
“It is certainly a very hard experience for him and for his family, dealing with the uncertainty that comes into play,” she said.
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