Mikel Derrick

Name and identity

Mikel Derrick was identified as Mikel James Derrick and as offender number #701.

Timeline

• Oct. 11, 1980 — Mikel Derrick was picked up by Edward Sonnier, 32, while walking down a Montrose-area street; Derrick robbed and stabbed Sonnier to death at the victim's apartment.
• Oct. 10, 1980 — Derrick was executed for killing Edward Sonnier, 32, of Houston on this date.
• 1982 — Derrick’s case was tried; Derrick stated the killing was provoked by a homosexual advance.
• July 18, 1990 — Derrick was executed by lethal injection at the Walls Unit of the state prison in Texas.
• July 19, 1990 — The New York Times published coverage titled “Killer Is Put to Death In Texas After Court Turns Down Appeal.”

Background

Mikel Derrick was 33 years old.

His education level was listed as 8th grade.

Derrick’s criminal record was described as beginning at age 12 when he served time in a juvenile detention center for petty theft.

He was later convicted of auto theft in Beaumont, Tex., and placed on four years' probation.

He also had a prostitution conviction in New York.

While serving four 10-year terms on an unrelated robbery conviction, Derrick wrote to the Harris County District Attorney's office saying he had killed Mr. Sonnier, stolen his car and stripped it for parts. Derrick said he wrote the letter because he was worried that his brother was about to be charged with a crime related to the killing.

People involved

• Mikel James Derrick (#701) — offender.
• Edward Sonnier (32) — victim; of Houston.

The offence

Mikel Derrick was executed for killing Edward Sonnier, 32, of Houston.

Edward Sonnier was stabbed 19 times.

Prosecutors claimed Derrick was a prostitute who intended to rob Sonnier, while Derrick claimed he killed to ward off a homosexual advance.

Investigation and legal proceedings

A request for a stay was made to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, and was rejected.

Derrick argued he had not received adequate defense assistance at his trial.

The court noted that Derrick had confessed to the slaying orally and in writing.

The Supreme Court refused, 5 to 4, to halt the execution.

Voting to grant the stay were Justices William J. Brennan Jr., Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens and Harry A. Blackmun; opposed were Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Byron R. White.

Trial

Derrick stated at his trial in 1982 that the killing had been provoked by a homosexual advance.

Kay Burkhalter, an assistant district attorney for Harris County who prosecuted Derrick, said:

“was a prostitute and would lure men to his apartment, kill them and take their property.”

Sentencing and execution

Derrick was executed by injection early on July 18, 1990, at the Walls Unit of the state prison in Texas.

He was pronounced dead at 12:17 A.M., six minutes after the injection.

Last statement

Derrick’s last statement was:

I just ask everybody I ever hurt or done anything wrong to, to just forgive me for whatever wrongs I done to them.

Outcome

Derrick’s execution proceeded after the Fifth Circuit rejected a request for a stay and the Supreme Court refused to halt the execution.

Other details

The execution was described as the 37th in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, and as the 134th in the nation since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions in 1976.

Derrick wrote that he had stolen Edward Sonnier's car and stripped it for parts.