Garcia Glen White, a 61-year-old man from Houston, is set to be executed today for the killings of 16-year-old twin sisters Annette and Bernette Edwards in 1989. White, who has a history of violent offenses, has found his appeals for clemency diminishing as he awaits lethal injection post-6 p.m. at the Huntsville Unit. In an article published by the Houston Chronicle, it was mentioned that his petition to reassess an intellectual disability claim was rejected, and his latest legal attempts were denied by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The execution, if proceeded with, will mark him as the sixth person to be executed within a ten-day span in the United States and the fifth in Texas this year. According to a USA TODAY report, White had confessed to five murders, beginning with the death of Greta Williams in 1989 and culminating in three brutal attacks that resulted in five lives lost. Statements from White's friends and court records described White as someone who had turned to a life of drugs following a series of personal and professional setbacks.
Regarding White's intellectual capabilities and the impact of substance abuse on his actions, the Houston Chronicle reported affidavits were obtained from friends and family indicating a potential intellectual disability. However, the Fifth Circuit judges suggested that the family's efforts to protect White may have inadvertently thwarted proper evaluation of his intellectual status in earlier legal interventions.
White's defense has argued that his violent behavior can be attributed to prolonged crack cocaine use coupled with repeated head injuries. "Glen was the kindest person I knew," a friend named Ray Manuel described, as noted by USA TODAY. Yet these considerations appear to have limited impact on the court's decisions to ultimately move forward with the execution. Notably, Harris County prosecutors sought to reinstate White's execution warrant this past June after a series of legal processes were exhausted.
As reported by USA TODAY, the tragedy of the Edwards sisters, who were found with numerous stab wounds and evidence of a sexual assault, with Dewanta Washington, a relative of the victims, expressing that "My sister wont be truly free until he's executed, until he pays his debt."
