SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Henry Lee Lucas, who confessed he had killed 360 people by every means except poison, Friday was sentenced to die by injection for the strangulation of an unidentified woman hitchhiker.
Lucas, whose attorneys argued his confession amounted to 'legal suicide,' grinned broadly as he was led from the courthouse.
Asked if the sentence was suicide, Lucas said, 'Yes, it is suicide.'
Lucas Thursday was found guilty of killing a hitchhiker, whose body was found in a ditch along Interstate 35 in central Texas near Georgetown on Oct. 31, 1979. The woman was never identified.
It was the fourth time Lucas had been found guilty of killing a woman, although he confessed to 360 deaths. He served 15 years for stabbing his mother to death in Michigan and is currently serving a life term for the death of a his 15-year-old common-law wife. He was also convicted of killing a Texas woman and was sentenced to 75 years in prison for that murder.
The eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated more than nine hours before returning the guilty verdict. At that time, defense attorneys said they believed the jury would return the death penalty. The jury conferred 40 minutes Friday before making the prediction come true.
District Judge John Carter deferred formal sentencing until he and attorneys returned to Williamson County. The trial had been moved to San Angelo in west Texas on a change of venue.
The sentence also forces the case into a mandatory appeal process.
Jurors were asked if Lucas' conduct was deliberate and if they thought he knew it would result in a death. They were also asked if Lucas constituted a 'continuing threat to society.' They answered 'yes' to both questions.
Defense attorneys termed Lucas' desire for the death penalty 'legal suicide,' saying he felt remorse over killing Frieda 'Becky' Powell, his 15-year-old common-law wife from Jacksonville, Fla.
'The man's had ample opportunity to kill himself, he hasn't yet,' Prosecutor Ed Walsh said, adding that if Lucas really wanted to die, he would have pleaded guilty in the death of the hitchhiker.
'In some small way, this can vindicate some of his victims,' Walsh said. 'I feel like this is what he deserves. 'You're not safe anywhere from Henry Lee Lucas.'
Defense attorney Don Higginbotham said, 'I feel we put up a competent defense. It's extremely difficult to defend someone who is known across the country as a mass murderer.'
The taped confessions were apparently the telling evidence in the trial.
'If you believe the essence of his statement beyond a reasonable doubt, then he is guilty,' prosecutor Ken Anderson said in closing statements.
'Henry wanted to confess,' said defense attorney Max Parker. 'They had nothing on Henry. There was nothing for Henry to confess except that Henry wanted to confess. Henry wanted to die.' Parker said.
On the taped confession, the 47-year-old drifter described how he and traveling companion Ottis Toole killed their way across the South.
'We killed them every way there is except one. We haven't poisoned any that I know of,' Lucas said.
'Some were Ottis', some were mine,' Lucas said
'We strangled them by hand. We strangled them by rope. We strangled them by telephone cord. We even stabbed them when we strangled them. We even tied them so they would strangle themselves.'
