Gary Green, a Texas inmate, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday evening for the murders of his estranged wife, Lovetta Armstead, and her six-year-old daughter, Jazzmen Montgomery, whom he drowned in a bathtub almost 14 years ago.
Ray Montgomery, Jazzmen’s father, sees Green’s execution as justice for his daughter and Lovetta’s murder, but not as something to celebrate.
Green’s attorneys have not filed any appeals to stop his execution, despite previously claiming that Green had intellectual disabilities and a lifelong history of psychiatric disorders that rendered him unable to form the requisite intent to commit capital murder.
Authorities stated that Green killed Armstead and her daughter after she sought to annul their marriage.
Armstead had written two letters to Green on the day of the killings, telling him that she loved him but had to do what was best for her.
In his response, Green expressed the belief that Armstead and her children were involved in a plot against him.
Armstead was stabbed more than two dozen times, while Green drowned Jazzmen in the home’s bathtub. Green also intended to kill Armstead’s other two children, aged nine and 12 at the time.
Green stabbed the younger boy, but both survived after convincing him they were too little to die and that they wouldn’t tell anyone about it.
Green’s execution is the first of two scheduled in Texas this week. The second is Arthur Brown Jr., set to be executed on Thursday.
Green is part of a lawsuit with five other Texas death row inmates seeking to stop the state’s prison system from using expired and unsafe execution drugs.
Despite a judge preliminarily agreeing with their claims, three of the inmates have been executed this year.
Ray Montgomery, Jazzmen’s father, still has a close relationship with Armstead’s two sons, who lead productive lives.
One of the sons has a daughter who looks like Jazzmen. Montgomery said he still throws Jazzmen a birthday party every year and had a high school graduation party for her, including a parade at her gravesite and a backyard barbecue with family. He continues to live his life as if his daughter is still with him.
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