Killer who sought death awaits execution
LIVINGSTON, Texas (AP) -- Convicted killer James Porter figured he did society a favor by fatally beating a child molester, even though he wound up on death row for the slaying.
Now he believes he is doing himself a favor by declining to seek any appeals, ensuring a trip to the Texas death chamber Tuesday.
"I'm the type of individual to face up to my responsibility and my mistakes," Porter said recently in an interview.
At his request, no appeals were pending in the courts and no clemency petition was filed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Porter, 33, was serving a 45-year sentence for the 1995 fatal shooting of a transient when he killed inmate Rudy Delgado in 2000.
Court records show Porter smuggled a rock into his cell, put it in a pillowcase and used it to beat Delgado, who was serving a 15-year term for sexually assaulting a child.
"Dude was a homosexual," Porter said of Delgado. He "asked me several times if that was something I might dig. One day, frustration started eating on me, like a little old black shroud covering my eyes."
"I guess at that time, I just lost all my cool and didn't care anymore."
By the time prison officers stopped the attack, Delgado's "face could not be recognized as being that of a human," said James Elliott, who prosecuted Porter. "And I'm not exaggerating that one bit."
Before his trial, Porter wrote the prosecutor, saying he should be lauded for killing Delgado.
"I said: Hey man, you should give me a certificate of accomplishment for taking this dude out instead of trying to kill me," he recalled. The district attorney used the note against him, telling jurors Porter was boasting and proud of the slaying.
"In a way, I was," Porter said. "That dude never touched any little boys again."
Porter also wrote he would kill again if he did not get the death penalty. "I think he was pretty well determined to get out of the system by murder and that's what he did," Elliott said.
Porter said he now believes he was "wrong to judge" his victim.
"It wasn't my place to re-punish him for something he was already punished for," Porter said. "I'm sorry it happened. That's all I can say."
Defense lawyer Robin Norris said Porter long suffered depression resulting from an abusive childhood that included being raped by one of his stepfathers. He eventually ran away from home and dropped out of school in the eighth grade.
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