Esequel Banda

Murderer

1known / alleged victims

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Case Facts

Gender: male
Country: USA
Location: Hamilton County, Texas, USA
Date of birth: December 19, 1963
Age at first offence: 23
Characteristics: rape, serial rapist, murder-suicide, cannibalism, abuse, domestic violence
Victim profile: Merle Laird (female, 74)
Method of murder: St abbing with knife
Date(s) of murder: August 3, 1986
Years active: 1986
Date of arrest: —
Status: Executed
Executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 11, 1995

Case Summary

Timeline

December 11, 1995 — Esequel Banda was executed by lethal injection in Texas.
December 12, 1995 — The execution was reported as having occurred in Texas earlier that day.
Earlier this month — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Esequel Banda’s final plea for a new trial.

Background

Esequel Banda was executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 11, 1995. He died seven minutes after being injected with lethal chemicals. During the execution, he was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber and gazed at his wife while the chemicals were injected.

Trial

During Esequel Banda’s trial, his sister testified that on the night of the killing he confessed to stabbing Merle Laird 20 or 30 times and then drinking some blood from her mouth. His sister testified that “Banda said that he had sold his soul to the Devil, that the Devil had told him to kill six people,” as prosecutors later testified.

Prosecutors testified that Merle Laird, described as a housewife in Hamilton, Tex., had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Appeals and execution

Esequel Banda pursued appeals against the death sentence. His lawyer in those appeals was Randy Johnston of Dallas. Johnston witnessed the execution after spending the day with Esequel Banda. David Nunnelee, a prison spokesman, said that Banda gazed at his wife while the lethal chemicals were injected.

Randy Johnston said:

“I think it's absurd,” Mr. Johnston said of the death penalty. “I think it is at best extremely arbitrary, at worst extremely discriminatory against the poor.”

Johnston said he was unable to persuade Esequel Banda to pursue additional appeals after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his final plea for a new trial earlier this month.

Other details

Merle Laird was 74 years old. Esaquel Banda was 31 at the time of his execution.

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