Tim Adams is on death row in Texas.
Originally posted Feb. 4, 2011, at Bishop Mike. Republished with permission of the author.
Editor’s note: For more information, read the social statement of the ELCA concerning the death penalty.
Timothy Adams, who goes by Tim, is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on Tuesday, February 22, 2011.
Tim is held in the highest regard by members of his congregation, by supervisors and fellow soldiers in the military and by his work colleagues. He had no criminal record — nor had he ever been arrested — prior to the tragic mistake for which he was sentenced to death.
Tim was born in Houston on August 22, 1968, to Columbus and Wilma Adams. Tim grew up in a religious home and was active in his congregation and Bible study.
Tim’s Sunday school teacher, Verlene Edmond, remembers how “quiet” and “polite” Tim was as a 16- to 18-year-old boy.
For the first two years of Tim’s life, his father served in the Vietnam War with the 23rd Infantry. After his return from the war, Tim’s father worked for the Houston Fire Department, attaining the position of fire marshal over the course of his career, which spanned more than 30 years.
At home, Tim was a role model to his younger siblings, one of whom he inspired to graduate from college and who currently is a teacher in Houston.
After graduating from high school, Tim enlisted in the Army in 1986 and was stationed outside Nuremberg, Germany, at Herzo Base. Roger West, a sergeant in the U.S. Army and Purple Heart recipient, wished he could have “a whole platoon of guys like Tim.”
During his military service in Germany, Tim’s girlfriend, Cynthia, gave birth to his first son, Terell. After three years in the service, Tim was honorably discharged and returned home to his family. Although Cynthia and Tim parted ways, both Cynthia and Terell continue to support Tim.
Tim married Emma Adams in 2000, and his second son, Tim Jr., was born shortly thereafter. To better provide for his family, Tim began working for Advanced Corporate Security Systems as a security guard at Greenway Plaza in Houston.
Because of his reliability and diligence in carrying out his work duties, he quickly became supervisor of all security shifts. Tim’s supervisor, Diane Garcia, received “many, many positive comments and feedback on Tim’s performance.”
Tim has spent his time on the death row in Texas trying to understand what caused his crime; seeking forgiveness from his family, friends and God; and deepening his relationship with Jesus Christ.
He has been a model prisoner, without even a single disciplinary write-up on his record over the eight years he has been in prison.
In 2002, Tim shot and killed his 19-month-old son, Timothy Wayne Adams Jr., during a standoff with Houston police.
After a fight with his wife escalated out-of-hand, he “snapped” and decided to take his own life and the life of his youngest son.
Tim did not take his own life on that horrible day due to the support of his family and friends, who spoke to him over the phone and told him that his life was worth saving.
One of those friends convinced him to speak to a Houston Police Department negotiator, who in turn persuaded Tim to let go of his suicidal thoughts and end the standoff.
Ultimately, Tim left his apartment and surrendered peacefully to police a few hours after the ordeal began.
From the moment that he was taken into police custody, Tim has taken full responsibility for his actions. He realizes that it is nearly impossible for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, as well as any citizen in our society, to comprehend what could lead a father to kill his own son.
In no way would he ever try to justify his actions. What he did was wrong, plain and simple. He would take back his actions that horrible day in an instant if it were possible.
However, Tim will file a clemency petition with the Board of Pardons and Paroles and ask it to vote to spare his life.
Tim requests that he have the opportunity to tell his life story, something that the jury did not hear at his trial.
His attorney did not present crucial mitigating evidence to counter the prosecution’s contention that he was a future danger to society or to show that his life was worth saving.
Consequently, the jury learned almost no information about Tim’s life and upbringing, which would have helped them determine that Tim, a deeply religious, hard-working family man, was not a future danger to society and never will be.
Lacking this mitigating evidence, it is perhaps not surprising that the jury sentenced him to death.
But since learning additional information about Tim’s character and background, jurors Rebecca Hayes and Ngoc Duong have urged the board to commute the death sentence to a life sentence.
They both believe that information relating to the upbringing that Tim received, his deep devotion to religion and his mental state would have caused them both to stick with their initial inclination, which was to spare him and sentence him to life in prison.
With this petition, Tim seeks to show the board that February 20, 2002, was an aberration in his life. Before that day, he had never been arrested or convicted of a crime. Since that day, he has not had a single disciplinary write-up in prison.
Tim wants to share his life story to show the board that, before committing this crime, he was a religious, hard-working individual who suffered from extreme anxiety but who loved and provided for his family just the same.
Since being incarcerated, he has had the opportunity to reflect on his actions, which has brought him closer to God and deepened his devotion to Jesus Christ.
In telling his story, Tim wants to give his family the opportunity to speak on his behalf, something that his defense counsel prevented them from doing at the trial.
In this case, the defendant’s family is unfortunately also the victim’s family — Tim’s parents lost their grandson, his siblings lost their nephew and his oldest son lost his half-brother.
Yet, none of these family members were able to stand before the jury to describe the severe hurt and suffering they had endured as a result of the actions of Tim. Nor were they able to explain that, despite their pain, they still supported and loved him and did not want to lose their son, brother and father to this tragedy as well.
Rick Perry, the Texas governor, will be asked to commute Tim’s death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Nothing good will come from executing Tim and causing his family any more unimaginable pain and anguish. If ever there was a man who deserved clemency, it is Tim Adams.
We’ve talked about the risk in executing a potentially innocent man. Tim is clearly guilty. I do not see what his execution accomplishes, aside from bloodying our hands and perpetuating the cycle of violence.
Find a link to Michael Rinehart’s blog Bishop Mike at Lutheran Blogs.
While I possibly believe that Mr. Adams is genuinely sorry for this murder if a 19 month old baby, he still must face the punishment a jury has legally returned. He does not deny murdering this child. The facts are also horrific. From KPRC TV Houston "Evidence showed Adams held his child at arm's length and shot him once with a pistol, then shot him again as the boy lay on the floor." The fifth commandment says "You shall not murder". As a church body (Lutheran) and a member of the Body of Christ (Believers) we are to uphold the word of God and not dismiss it. If truely sorry of his crime, Mr. Adams should live as his faith and the Holy Spirit move him right up until the point of his execution, just as his professed Lord and Savior Jesus did.
I'm slightly surprised that we're talking about this case as a matter of deserving. The issue seems to be: does this man deserve a second chance. OP says yes, based on the rest of his life. pabloerick says no, in part because it was horrific, but mostly because the Law is pretty clear on this matter- murderers deserve justice, which in Texas for a case like this is the death penalty.
Doesn't Christ reject both of these options? This Sunday was "you're not getting into the Kingdom of Heaven unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees", and next week is "be perfect, therefore, as your Father in Heaven is perfect", which makes it pretty clear that Tim Adams is not deserving. So, I agree with pabloerick in that the Law rules out the stance that the rest of his life "makes up for it".
But that's only half of the story. Christ fulfills all of the Law on our behalf on the cross. We are not given the death we have earned, but God's mercy and pardon instead, even though we have most explicitly not earned it. Even more boldly, as Christians we proclaim that it is this very act of mercy that brings new life to the dead, and repentence to the hard of heart and healing to the injured. As people of faith, should we not be asking that his sentence be commuted out of mercy for Christ's sake? Asking not whether he deserves it, or what the Law says, or because he's a "good Christian", but as an inbreaking of the Kingdom of God, because in our trust of God's promise of mercy for sinners we can echo that mercy?
I don't know the whole story (I doubt any of us do), but I oppose the death penalty for several reasons.
1. It's a justice issue. It is seldom carried out in an equitable fashion. If you are wealthy and have a high-powered lawyer, you are not likely to get the death penalty. In fact, if there are any wealthy people on death row, I'd be very surprised. It is a punishment reserved for the poor and under-represented.
2. It's an economic issue. Because a death sentence inevitably results in re-trials and appeals, the court costs end up costing more than life in prison.
3. There have been several recent cases where people on death row have been exonerated, some before their execution, some, sadly after their execution. Again, these tend to be poor people who cannot afford good counsel and are stuck in a system that, despite what our ideals state, presumes them guilty. (Google Anthony Graves for a recent high-profile case here in Texas. The Texas Monthly had done an excellent job of pulling together the whole story.)
4. The Old Testament law of "an eye for an eye" was a way to limit punishment (only and eye for an eye, no more), and even though this can be carried forward to an approval of capitol punishment, I also believe I live under the New Testament that tells me all have sinned and fallen short. I've had my days when I've snapped and while I pray I never snap to the point of homicide, I've also called a brother or a sister "fool" and am therefore just as fit for hell. (Matthew 5:22)
5. We have words from Jesus telling the one who is without sin to cast the first stone (or, in our modern context, give the lethal injection). That's not me, that's not even the state.
I won't go on. But these are (among) my reasons for opposing the death penalty.
I just want to remind everyone that no one is making the case that Tim should go free. It's life without parole or the death penalty. I find his actions both horrific and sad.
As today, 26 February is after Mr. Adams' scheduled execution date, I fear my comments may be too late and mute.
However, as the white pastor of a black congregation, I am fairly certain the absolute attitudes expressed here that Mr. Adams should suffer the "legal" consequences of his crime would be less absolute if he were white. Both incarceration and execution are more likely to be meted out in this country, and especial in Texas and Oklahoma where I live, if the defendant is black than if he is white. And, in a case like this one, if Mr. Adams were white, he may not have even received a life sentence with or without the chance of parole.
Considering his particular case, why would his lawyer not let his family, the secondary victims of his crime, speak on his behalf at his trial? Why would his lawyer not let his life history be presented since it would serve to present his character before and after the crime?
As the jurors referenced by Bp. Rinehart stated, if these things had been presented at the trial, their original inclinations would have prevailed and Mr. Adams would not have faced death row.
And no one has asked what were the mitigating circumstances that caused Mr. Adams to "snap" that tragic day. Was it his military service? Was it a history of mental illness? Was it the immense social pressure under which only black men live in our society? It appears that none of these or similar questions were ever asked, let alone answered.
It appears to me that this is another example of how our justice system is not concerned with justice but with revenge, a thing which scripture teaches us does not belong to us but to God. Revenge is never just. It is always revenge. Likewise, the legality of a thing says nothing about it being just, only that it is legal. In Hitler's Germany is actions were legal. But I would never suggest they were just.
Regarding the television coverage of this case, does anyone believe our news media ever presents all the details? While what they did present may be facts in the case, they do not necessarily convey the truth of what happened. Yes, Mr. Adams may have shot his son twice in the way presented. But nothing is said about what may or may not have been happening in him that day or that terrible moment. While his actions remain inexcusable, and unjustifiable, they did happen in a context. What was that context? Were his actions seated in terrible hate? Or did they arise from a deep and terrible pain that took away his reasoning and that we have not been allowed to know or understand? Really. People do not intend suicide because they like it or think it would be fun. Something of tragic desperation was happening that day. While that is no excuse, it may be a reason, one which we are not permitted to see, therefore it becomes less right for us to judge.
There is a reason why Texas leads the nation in capital executions and Oklahoma is not far behind. I doubt it has to do with the egregious nature of their criminals.
OOOPS. I meant "moot" in the first paragraph, not "mute". Sorry