Susan Wright | |
|---|---|
| Born | Susan Lucille Wyche April 24, 1976 [1] Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Criminal status | Paroled |
| Spouse | Jeffrey Andrew Wright (deceased) |
| Children | Bradley and Kailey Wright |
| Conviction(s) | Murder |
| Criminal penalty | 20 years |
| Details | |
| Victims | Jeffrey Andrew Wright |
| Date | January 13, 2003 |
| Location(s) | Unincorporated Harris County, Texas |
| Weapon | Knife |
Date apprehended | January 24, 2003 |
| Imprisoned at | Christina Melton Crain Unit |
Susan Lucille Wright (born April 24, 1976) is an American convicted murderer from Houston, Texas, who made headlines in 2003 for stabbing her husband, Jeff Wright, 193 times in an act of mariticide and then burying his body in their backyard. [2] She was convicted of murder in 2004, and was given a 20-year sentence at the Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas. [1] She was denied parole on June 12, 2014, and July 24, 2017. She was granted parole in July 2020 and released from prison on December 30, 2020. [3]
Susan Lucille Wright was born on April 24, 1976, in Houston, Texas, to Sue Wella (née Tschoepe) and Jimmy Lawrence Wyche. At the age of 17, she worked as a topless dancer at Gold Cup for two months. In 1997, while working as a restaurant waitress in Galveston, Texas, she met Jeff Wright and they married in 1998 while she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their first child. In 2002, a daughter was born. Mrs. Wright claims that her husband began to abuse her during the first few years of their marriage. [4]
The crime occurred at the Wright family house in the White Oak Bend subdivision [5] [6] in an unincorporated area of northwest Harris County, Texas. [7]
According to evidence presented by the prosecution, on January 13, 2003, Susan Wright, 26, tied her husband, Jeff Wright, 34, to their bed and stabbed him 193 times with two different knives. She buried his body in their Houston backyard. She attempted to cover up the crime scene by painting the bedroom. The next day, Wright filed a false domestic abuse report in order to get a restraining order against her husband.
On January 18, Wright asked her attorney, Neal Davis, to come to her home and admitted to stabbing her husband. Davis contacted the Harris County's district attorney's office to inform it that a body was buried under Susan Wright's house and that she had confessed to the killing.
Wright turned herself in to authorities at the Harris County Courthouse[ which? ] on January 24 and was arraigned on murder charges the following Monday. [2]
Thirteen months after her arraignment, Wright's murder trial commenced on February 24, 2004. [8] She had already pleaded not guilty to killing her husband by reason of self-defense.
Assistant district attorney Kelly Siegler depicted Wright as a scheming wife who seduced her husband into bed, tied him up, repeatedly stabbed him, and then buried his body in their backyard in hopes of collecting a $200,000 life insurance policy. Wright's defense attorney Neal Davis claimed that his client had suffered years of physical and emotional abuse by her husband and killed him to protect herself and her two young children. [8]
At her trial, Susan Wright testified in her own defense. In her emotional testimony on the stand, Wright claimed: "I couldn't stop stabbing him; I couldn't stop. I knew as soon as I stopped, he was going to get the knife back and he was going to kill me. I didn't want to die." She testified that on the night of the murder, Jeff Wright was on a cocaine binge and was violent, having allegedly beaten her. Wright again insisted that she stabbed her husband in self-defense. Susan Wright's mother testified for the defense, claiming they witnessed Wright's bruises.
Siegler said Wright's tears were faked to try and sway the jury [ citation needed ]. The prosecution presented an unusual demonstration by bringing the Wrights' actual bed into the courtroom. [9]
During closing arguments, Siegler brought up to the jury how Wright had been a topless dancer and said she believed Wright's emotions were insincere. She contended that Susan Wright was a "card-carrying, obvious, no-doubt-about-it, caught-red handed, confirmed, documented liar" whose frequent shows of emotion during the trial were deliberate efforts to influence the jury. [10]
On March 3, 2004, after more than five hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Wright of murder. Wright showed little reaction to the guilty verdict. [11]
Wright was sentenced on the following day. Prosecutors were hoping for at least a 55-year sentence, and Wright's attorneys argued for probation for their client. The jury sentenced Wright to 25 years in prison. [12]
She was imprisoned at the Crain Unit,under SID Number: 04835513. [1] [13]
In 2005, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals of Texas in Houston upheld Susan Wright's conviction. [14]
With a re-appeal in 2008, a new witness, Misty McMichael, the wife of former NFL Super Bowl champion Steve McMichael and ex-fiancée of Jeff Wright, came forward to tell her story of how she endured abuse and violence during her four-year relationship with Jeff Wright. [15]
In 2009, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Wright a new sentencing hearing, after determining that Wright's "counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the punishment phase of trial" in 2004.
On November 20, 2010, Wright had her sentence reduced to 20 years in prison, five years less than her original sentence. [14] Wright was first eligible for parole on February 28, 2014, at the age of 38. [1] She was denied parole on June 12, 2014, and again on July 24, 2017. Wright was approved for parole on July 2, 2020. [3] [16]
On Wednesday, December 30, 2020, Wright was released on parole at the age of 44. [17]
Wright's murder trial had been nationally televised on CourtTV. Wright's case was also profiled on Snapped in 2004, 48 Hours Mystery in 2005, on an E! special entitled Women Who Kill, on the Deadly Women episode "Lethal Love" on ID in 2011, and on an episode of Secret Lives of Stepford Wives in 2014.[ citation needed ]
Wright's case was also the subject of the 2012 Lifetime original movie Blue Eyed Butcher , starring Sara Paxton as Wright and Lisa Edelstein as Kelly Siegler.
In 2014, Canadian director Chloe Bellande released a 17-minute short film titled Will of Fortune, which was inspired by the murder trials of Wright and Guy Turcotte, a man who had stabbed his two children to death in Canada. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2014. [18]
Darlie Lynn Peck Routier is an American woman from Rowlett, Texas, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her five-year-old son Damon in 1996. She has also been charged with capital murder in the death of her six-year-old son, Devon, who was murdered at the same time as Damon. To date, Routier has not been tried for Devon’s murder.
The Texas 7 were a group of prisoners who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, on December 13, 2000. Six of the seven were apprehended over a month later, between January 21–23, 2001, as a direct result of the television show America's Most Wanted. One of the seven committed suicide before he could be arrested. The remaining six men were brought to trial in Dallas, and because of Texas’ law of parties — which holds all individuals responsible for a crime, regardless of their role — were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the murder of Irving, Texas, police officer Aubrey Wright Hawkins. He was shot and killed when responding to the robbery of the sporting goods store in Irving,Texas. Garcia was sentenced to death in February 2003. Four of the six sentenced have since been executed.
Robert Dale Rowell was a murderer executed by lethal injection by the U.S. state of Texas. He was convicted of the May 10, 1993 murder of Raymond Davey Mata in a Houston, Texas crack house.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.
Susan Polk is an American woman convicted in June 2006 of second degree (unpremeditated) murder for the 2002 death of her husband, Dr. Frank "Felix" Polk. Polk's trial, described by one Associated Press correspondent as "circus-like", drew extensive media attention with its sensationalist elements.
Hein and two other youths who were present when the murder took place, as well as the actual killer, and were convicted under the felony murder rule because the murder was committed during the course of a felony – the attempted robbery of marijuana kept for sale by Farris's friend, Michael McLoren. Under the felony murder rule, any participant in a felony is criminally responsible for any death that occurs during its commission. In 2009, Hein's life sentence was commuted to 29 years to life.
Johnny Paul Penry is a Texas prisoner serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without parole for rape and murder. He was on death row between 1980 and 2008, and his case generated discussion about the appropriateness of the death penalty for offenders who are thought to be intellectually disabled.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, and private correctional facilities, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States.
Brittany Marlowe Holberg is a woman currently on death row in the U.S. state of Texas. On Friday, March 27, 1998, Holberg was convicted of the November 13, 1996, robbery and murder of 80-year-old A. B. Towery Sr. (1916–1996) in his southwest Amarillo home, and was sentenced to death by 251st state District Judge Patrick Pirtle. The victim had been stabbed nearly 60 times with such weapons as a paring knife, a butcher knife, a grapefruit knife and a fork. He also suffered blunt trauma to the head from a hammer, and a foot-long lamp pole had been shoved more than five inches (127 mm) down his throat.
Celeste BeardJohnson, more commonly known as Celeste Beard, is an American convicted murderer who is serving a life sentence at the Lane Murray (SHU) in Gatesville, Texas, for the 1999 murder of her millionaire husband, Steven Beard.
David Lynn Harris was an American orthodontist who owned a chain of offices along with his wife, Clara Suarez Harris. The chain was particularly successful, and the couple was able to afford an upscale home and lifestyle in Friendswood, Texas. On July 24, 2002, Clara Harris confronted her husband in a hotel parking lot over an extramarital affair, then struck and ran over him with her Mercedes-Benz sedan, killing him in an act of mariticide. She was convicted of sudden passion and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Anthony Allen Shore was an American serial killer and child molester who was responsible for the murders of one woman and three girls. He was active from 1986 to 2000, and became known as the "Tourniquet Killer" because of his use of a ligature with either a toothbrush or bamboo stick to tighten or loosen the ligature. The instrument was similar to a garotte or a twitch, a tool used by farmers to control horses. Shore was sentenced to death in 2004, and executed by lethal injection on January 18, 2018.
The Christina Melton Crain Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for females in Gatesville, Texas. The prison is along Texas State Highway 36, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of central Gatesville. The unit, with about 1,317 acres (533 ha) of space, is co-located with the Hilltop Unit, the Dr. Lane Murray Unit, and the Linda Woodman Unit. Nearby also is the Mountain View Unit, which houses all Texas female inmates on death row. Crain Unit's regular program houses around 1,500 women, and it is one of Texas's main prisons for women. Female prison offenders of the TDCJ are released from this unit. With a capacity of 2,013 inmates, Crain is the TDCJ's largest female prison.
Faryion Edward Wardrip is an American rapist and serial killer who assaulted and murdered a total of five women. Four of the women were killed in Wichita Falls, Texas, and the surrounding counties. One woman was murdered in Fort Worth, approximately a two-hour drive southeast of Wichita Falls. Wardrip's killing spree began at the end of 1984 and lasted until the middle of 1986. All of his female victims were white, were between the ages of 20 and 25, weighed less than 120 pounds (54 kg), and were under 5+1⁄2 feet (170 cm) tall.
Rick and Suzanna Wamsley were murdered on December 11, 2003 in their home in Mansfield, Texas, as part of a conspiracy involving their son Andrew and two others.
Blue Eyed Butcher is a 2012 American crime drama television film directed by Stephen Kay. It stars Sara Paxton, Justin Bruening and Lisa Edelstein. The film is based on the 2003 stabbing death of Jeff Wright by the hands of his wife, Susan Wright, but focuses on Kelly Siegler, the case's prosecutor. The film made its debut on March 3, 2012, on Lifetime. It later aired in France on the TF1 channel under the title 193 coups de folie.
Michael Madison is an American convicted serial killer and sex offender from East Cleveland, Ohio who is known to have committed the murders of at least three women over a nine-month period in 2012 and 2013. He was arrested and charged with the crimes in 2013 and in 2016, he was sentenced to death. Madison is currently being held on death row.
Suzanne Margaret "Sue" Basso was an American woman who was one of six co-defendants convicted in the August 1998 torture and murder of 58 year-old Louis "Buddy" Musso, a mentally disabled man who was killed for his life insurance money. She was sentenced to death in October 1999. Basso was executed by lethal injection on February 5, 2014. Prior to her execution, Basso had been held at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where all of the state's female death row inmates are incarcerated. At the time of the crime, Basso lived in Jacinto City, Texas, a Houston suburb.
The Tate–LaBianca murders were a series of murders perpetrated by members of the Manson Family during August 8–10, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, United States, under the direction of Tex Watson and Charles Manson. The perpetrators killed five people on the night of August 8–9: pregnant actress Sharon Tate and her companions Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Wojciech Frykowski, along with Steven Parent. The following evening, the Family also murdered supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.
Davontae Marcel Williams was a nine-year-old boy who, in 2004, died of malnutrition at his apartment in Arlington, Texas. He weighed 35 pounds at the time of his death. Davontae's mother, Marcella L. Williams, and his mother's partner, Lisa Ann Coleman, were arrested, accused of depriving Davontae of food, and charged with capital murder. Marcella Williams entered a guilty plea in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment, while Coleman refused a plea deal, was found guilty, and received a death sentence.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)Wright, 26, is charged with murdering Jeffrey Andrew Wright on Jan. 13 in their home in the 10800 block of Berry Tree, in northwest Harris County.