HOUSTON – Nearly three decades after a Houston mother of three was murdered, her killer was executed on Wednesday in Huntsville.
Arthur Burton was convicted of the 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman while she was jogging near her home. His execution was carried out at 6:47 p.m. Wednesday.
“She went jogging along the (White Oak) bayou. Normally she would jog with her husband, this time she went jogging alone,” said Josh Reiss, a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. “She went jogging alone so she could rehearse the lines of her one-woman play that she was going to perform at her local church.”
On July 29, 1997, Burton saw Adleman jogging along the bayou, ran up behind her and dragged her into a wooded area. Burton tried to sexually assault Adleman, but said he got too “nervous.” Burton then strangled her with a shoelace. Burton was arrested after residents in the area recognized a sketch of the attacker circulated by police. Burton lived near the location Adleman was murdered.
Burton originally denied murdering Adleman but then confessed.
“She was asking me did I knew about God. She said I forgive you. She told me to just leave. She asked me why was I doing it and that I didn’t have to do it,” Burton said in his confession.
Court documents read Burton told a prison sociologist the murder was “something I just couldn’t help.”
“This case really is about every woman’s worst nightmare. Any woman who has ever exercised alone, any woman who has ever walked out to their car alone at night, this is your worst nightmare,” said Reiss.
Burton was convicted of capital murder in 1998 and sentenced to death. In 2001, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Burton’s punishment based on “ineffective assistance of counsel.” A second punishment trial was held in 2002 and Burton was again sentenced to die.
“The death penalty exists for cases like this and for people like Arthur Burton,” said Reiss. “I think what made this ultimately a death (penalty) case was to be looking your killer in the eye and saying, ‘I forgive you, I forgive you.’ That makes this case different.”
During his punishment trials, prosecutors told jurors Burton had committed several other crimes.
A small memorial was built along the bayou where Adleman was murdered. One of the memorial bricks reads, “In memory of Nancy, loving wife, devoted mother. Choose joy.”