Gregory Edward Wright (1965 - 2008)

Born 1 Nov 1965 in Knox, Tennessee, United States

Died 30 Oct 2008 at age 42 in Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Huntsville, Walker County, Texas, USA

Biography

• Summary:

Donna Duncan Vick was a charitable and religious 52-year-old widow, who first saw the homeless Wright on a street corner with a sign "Will work for food." Known for ministering to and aiding the homeless, Ms. Vick had invited Gregory Wright, a homeless person and panhandler, to reside in her house in exchange for doing yard work. She also gave Wright and a homeless friend, John Adams, food and a place to sleep. Wright was a crack cocaine addict.

One week later, Adams directed police to her bedroom, where she was found beaten and stabbed to death. On the night of the murder, Wright, Adams and Ms. Vick drove to a local VFW lodge, where they stayed until 2:00 a.m. When they returned to Ms. Vick's home, she cooked some food for the men then went to bed.

At some point thereafter, the two men, armed with Adams' pocket knife and a butcher knife from Ms. Vick's kitchen, went back to her bedroom where they proceeded to stab Ms. Vick repeatedly to her death. Wright and Adams then gathered up items in the house belonging to Ms. Vick, including her microwave, portable CD player, TV, VCR, computer equipment, and newly purchased weed-eater and placed them in her car where they transported them to the crack house to trade for drugs.

The next day, Adams asked an employee at a video store to call the police because he wanted to turn himself in. Adams directed the police to Donna Vick’s body. Adams also led the police to a shack that Wright sometimes stayed in, where they arrested Wright and seized a bloody and gold-paint splattered pair of blue jeans. Outside the shack, the police found a bloody knife. DNA evidence established that the blood on the knife and jeans was Donna’s. Adams later recanted his testimony and claimed responsibility for the killing. But at a hearing recently, he renounced that statement. Adams was also convicted of capital murder and remains on death row.

Citations:

Wright v. State, 28 S.W.3d 526 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000.) (Direct Appeal). Wright v. Quarterman, 470 F.3d 581 (5th Cir. 2006) (Habeas).

Final/Special Meal:

Two double cheese burgers with everything, 2 baked potatoes with butter, large salad with ranch dressing, 1 pitcher of milk, any dessert, and 4 dinner rolls.

Final Words:

"There's been a lot of confusion who done this. I never sold anything to anyone. My only act or involvement was not telling on him. John Adams was the one that killed Donna Vick. The evidence proves that. ... I was in the bathroom when he attacked. I ran into the bedroom. By the time I came in, when I tried to help her with first aid it was too late." He said an innocent man was being put to death and said he loved his family. "I'll be waiting on y'all. I am finished talking."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Chronology of the Trial and Appeal process

March 23, 1997 - Arrested March 26, 1997 - Indictment ordered Aug 25 - Nov, 1997 - Jury Selection Dec 1-7, 1997 - Trial - Guilt/Innocence phase December 8, 1997 - Guilty Verdict December 9, 1997 - Trial - Punishment phase December 10, 1997 - Judgement and sentence of death by leathal injection December 10, 1997 - Automatic appeal - Direct Appellate process (State) July 22, 1999 - State Application for Habeas Corpus - appeal filed June 28, 2000 - Texas Court of Criminal Appeal denies Direct Appeal July 17, 2000 - State's Response to Application for Habeas Corpus Sepember 13, 2000 - Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denies Habeas appeal January 22, 2001 - Certiorari to U.S. Supreme Court denied

End of State Appellate Process Law requires only one year to file Federal Application for Habeas Corpus

January 18, 2002 - Federal Application for Habeas Corpus - filed brief February 26, 2002 - Motion to Disclose information September 18, 2002 - State files their response to Habeas appeal September 30, 2002 - Denial of Motion to information November 18, 2002 - Amended Motion to Disclose information September 12, 2003 - Denial of Amended Motion to Disclose information March 10, 2004 - Magistrate Judge files a Recommendation April 2004 - Greg's Response to the Recommendation filed March 28, 2005 - Order from Federal District Judge denying application April 8, 2005 - Greg's Motion to alter or amend judgement filed June 24, 2005 - Order denying motion to alter or amend judgement July 25, 2005 - Appeal for Certificate of Appealability filed August 2005 ? - Denial of Certificate of Appealability March 15, 2006 - Appellant's Brief in support of application for Certificate of Appealability May 2006 - Response in Opposition to application for COA Nov 17, 2006 - Denial of COA by 5th Circuit Dec 7, 2006 - Motion for Panel Rehearing - 5th Circuit Dec 18, 2006 - Denial of Panel Rehearing - 5th Circuit March 16, 2007 - Petition for Writ of Certiorari June 18, 2007 - Denial of Petition August 21, 2008 - First Subsequent Application for a Post-Conviction Writ of Habeas Corpus Sept. 5, 2008 - Stay of Execution (to Oct.30, 2008) Sept. 9, 2008 - TCCA Remand with written Order to the Trial Court Oct 8, 2008 - Recommendation for commutation filed by attorneys

Greg's own account of his background

I was brought up in a productive family environment. Farming, school, church and sports took up all of my adolescent years. I was an athletic star and in total have approximately 20 plaques and trophy awards that depict my performances in football (U.S. style), baseball and basketball. I had to keep up my grades in order to participate in these extra curricular activities. I took advanced pre-college classes in high school, which include Typing 1, Introductory Computers, Chemistry, and all available math classes, Sociology, Psychology, Reading Composition, Biology and Art. The rest of my hours were spent on sports or farm work.

I married young, at age 19. My wife could not have children due to a medical problem, so I have no children. We divorced after seven years of marriage, and I filed the legal paperwork myself on the grounds of "irreconcilable differences". My profession in life was cross-country tractor/trailer operator in the U.S. I have logged over (1,000,000) one million miles behind the wheel of this big tractor rig, travelling coast to coast, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

Due to marriage and family difficulties, I developed a drinking condition. This caused tension between my family members and I and finally cost me my driving license for six months. I was never judgemental about who my friends were. This non-judgemental stance finally cost me my freedom and now, possibly my life.

Sitting in the United States, on Texas' notorious "Death Row", I await judgement from the Federal Courts concerning my appeal to the conviction of Capital Murder. To date, I have never given a written or an oral statement as to events leading to the murder of my friend, Donna D. Vick, a middle-aged street minister. I did not testify at my trial. Why, you may ask? It was evident the judge and prosecutor were setting me up for a fall when I found out about the missing 911 - tapes. I don't think the jury would have given my testimony any credit. The first day of trial was when I found out that there existed voice tapes of Emergency 911 calls, conducted by John Wade Adams. The prosecutor claimed, "They had lost them".

Also see John Wade Adams Adams-19014

Sources

• http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w1/wright-gregory-edward.htm
• "Texas, Marriages, 1966-2010," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VTTQ-2L3 : accessed 11 February 2015), Gregory E Wright and Conna L Gregory, 07 Jul 2006; citing Polk, Texas, United States, certificate number 080314, Vital Statistics Unit, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin.
• "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VQ98-KZ3 : accessed 12 February 2015), GREGORY EDWARD WRIGHT, 30 Oct 2008; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• Wikipedia contributors. "List of people executed in Texas, 2000–09." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 29 Nov. 2014. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_in_Texas,_2000%E2%80%9309>
• Wells, Art. "Gregory Edward Wright (1965 - 2008) - Find A Grave Memorial." Gregory Edward Wright (1965 - 2008) - Find A Grave Memorial. Find A Grave, Inc., 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 09 Oct. 2015. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=60612788>. Find A Grave Memorial# 60612788