Names on a List

Currently, of 20 executions planned nationwide, 13 Texas inmates are scheduled to die through Nov. 19. In addition to José Medellín, Heliberto Chi, and Jeff Wood, here are notes on some of the others.

Aug. 12: Leon Dorsey

Dorsey was 18 years old and had no prior prison record on April 4, 1994, when he robbed a Dallas video store and killed two employees. He stole a total of $392.

Aug. 14: Michael Rodriguez

Rodriguez was one of the "Texas 7," who escaped from prison on Dec. 13, 2000. The men robbed a sporting-goods store at gunpoint and ultimately killed Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins.

Aug. 20: Denard Manns

Manns had two previous convictions in New York for armed robbery and had just been paroled when, on Nov. 18, 1998, he broke into the Killeen home of 26-year-old Army Spc. Michelle Robson. He stole her credit cards, cash, and car, sexually assaulted her, and shot her five times with a .22.

Sept. 9: Gregory Wright

Wright was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1997 robbery and stabbing murder of Donna Vick, a Dallas woman who reportedly provided assistance to homeless people in her neighborhood. The state says that after smoking crack cocaine, Wright murdered Vick while another man, John Wade Adams, was present. Prosecutors submitted as evidence a bloody pair of blue jeans they alleged Wright had been wearing. Wright has maintained his innocence. Indeed, Adams repeatedly confessed to committing the crime alone. DNA testing performed last year excluded Wright as a contributor to DNA found on the murder knife and found his profile was "inconsistent" with biological material found on the bloody jeans.

Sept. 17: William Murray

Murray was 30 years old in February 1998, when he beat, strangled, and raped 93-year-old Rena Ratcliff in her home in Kaufman, Texas, where she lived alone. He stole change from a glass jar and a small knife, he later told police. Reportedly, Murray later told his mother that he had killed Ratcliff while in a "drug-induced frenzy."

Oct. 16: Kevin Watts

Watts says he had been on a binge and was suffering from a "drug-induced psychosis" when he walked into the Sam Won Garden restaurant in San Antonio and shot three employees in the back of the head.

Oct. 28: Eric Nenno

Nenno was tried and convicted for the March 1995 rape and murder in Houston of 7-year-old Nicole Benton. Police found Benton's body in Nenno's attic, after neighbors told investigators that Nenno had previously been accused of fondling a neighborhood child.

Nov. 6: Elkie Taylor

Taylor was convicted of the robbery-murder of 64-year-old Otis Flake in Tarrant Co. Taylor and an accomplice reportedly stole dishes, pots, and pans, which they later sold for $16. Taylor has been mentally impaired his entire life, his family and supporters say. He dropped out of school at 15, when he was unable to complete the sixth grade, and reads and writes at a first-grade level. It is unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded, and Taylor's supporters say that his mental impairment is such that he should be rendered ineligible for death.