Tarrant County Inmate Executed For 2001 Slaying
In 2003, Cary Kerr was sentenced to death for raping and killing mother of four, Pamela Horton. Kerr became a suspect in the case after he drew attention himself at the crime scene by asking paramedics to pull the cloth back that covered the body so he could identify her.
The police found the victim's purse in Kerr's car and the victim's torn bra and panties in the defendant's home. A DNA test showed Kerr's semen in his mouth.
The defendant asked for a stay to the United States Supreme Court, but was denied. The defendant claimed that his
habeas corpus counsel (writ) was ineffective because they did not raise the issues of his mother's abandonment of him, his alcoholic father, and neighbors sexually assaulting him. The defendant argued that jurors would have sentenced to him life in prison, not death, had they heard this information. The Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals denied his second writ of habeas corpus.