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Steven Nelson was executed on Wednesday for an Arlington church pastor’s murder.
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Nelson killed Arlington Rev. Clint Dobson in his church in 2011.
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This is Texas’ first execution of 2025.
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Steven Nelson was executed on Wednesday for an Arlington church pastor’s murder.
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Nelson killed Arlington Rev. Clint Dobson in his church in 2011.
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This is Texas’ first execution of 2025.
Texas’ ArlingtonOn Wednesday night, a guy who was on death row for the murder of a pastor in North Texas was in Huntsville.
Despite their best efforts, activists failed to get Governor Greg Abbott to stop the execution.
Steven Nelson’s Final Words
We know:
At 6:50 p.m., Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37, was declared dead at the state penitentiary in Huntsville after receiving a fatal injection.
In front of his wife, who was watching from a window nearby, Nelson repeatedly expressed his love and gratitude for her before the fatal injection was given.
He remarked, “It is what it is,” “I’m not afraid. I’m calm. Warden, let’s go riding.”
Steven Nelson convicted of murdering Pastor Clint Dobson
The backstory
Nelson was found guilty in 2012 and given the death penalty for killing Clint Dobson at Arlington’s NorthPointe Baptist Church in 2011.
The young pastor was seated in his office writing a sermon when Nelson, according to the prosecution, smothered him by placing a plastic bag over his head.
Dobson was choked by Nelson and died on the ground.
Clint Dobson, a pastor
Before escaping in her vehicle, Nelson also badly assaulted the church secretary.
He was apprehended after using the victims’ credit cards to go shopping.
Studs from Nelson’s belt were discovered at the church, and blood from both victims was discovered on one of his shoes.
Jurors unanimously decided during Nelson’s trial that he was a danger to society and ought to be executed.
Phillip Rozeman, Dobson’s father-in-law, said in a statement following the sentencing, “It is difficult for me to understand that you did what you did for a car and a laptop and a phone.” “A leader will be missed by the world. Knowing how many people won’t receive assistance because Clint isn’t here makes me sad.
As part of an agreement with Dallas County prosecutors following his arrest for aggravated assault on his fiancée, Nelson had been released from a court-ordered anger-management program three days prior to the murder. He had previously been imprisoned for two years for theft and had spent a large portion of his teenage years in juvenile detention centers for a variety of offenses.
He was accused of violently shattering a sprinkler head in his holding cell following the sentencing, which caused the courtroom to flood.
Nelson was charged with the murder of another prisoner while he was awaiting trial. After being found guilty and given the death penalty, he was never tried on that accusation.
Nelson’s execution had already been postponed.
Prosecutors submitted a motion to postpone the now 37-year-old’s October lethal injection until February.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Nelson’s attorneys requested further time to formulate their case regarding the sentence.
Attempt to stop Steven Nelson’s execution
Nelson’s lawyers filed an appeal citing poor legal representation during his trial and sentencing, claiming that the attorneys failed to provide mitigating evidence of a traumatic upbringing in Oklahoma and Texas or to contest the other men’s alibis. State and federal courts have rejected his appeals, and on January 28, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a stay of execution. In order to have additional time to contest Nelson’s conviction, his lawyers requested last week that the U.S. Supreme Court step in and stop his execution.
In the hopes that Governor Greg Abbott will halt the execution, two activists, Pastor Jeff Hood and Rev. Katheryn Barlow-Williams, delivered a petition with 11,000 signatures to the Governor’s Reception Room on Tuesday.
What they’re saying:
“I think that probably what is appropriate is that he should spend, and he should get a life sentence, and spend most of the rest of his life behind bars,” Pastor Hood stated.
“Do not avenge the death of the victim of Steven Nelson on the behalf of all pastors, because by far, I think the vast majority of us do not support the death penalty,” Rev. Barlow-Williams remarked.
Texas Executions in 2025
(Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice) Richard Tabler
Next steps:
In 2025, Nelson will be the state’s first execution.
Three other executions are planned for this year.
Richard Tabler, a convicted killer, is set to be put to death on February 13.
On March 13, serial killer David Woodis will be put to death.
Moises Mendoza is scheduled to be put to death on April 23 after being found guilty of killing a 20-year-old in Collin County, disposing of the body in a dirt pit, and then setting it on fire.
Based on the figures:
In 2024, five men were put to death in Texas.
First execution since Robert Roberson
The Texas Supreme Court temporarily stopped Robert Roberson’s execution by issuing a stay in a late-night decision. Roberson was subpoenaed by Texas House members to testify the following week. Roberson’s murder conviction linked to the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis would make him the first person executed in the United States.
Nelson’s execution would be the first since the last-minute postponement of the execution of fellow death row convict Robert Roberson.
Following a subpoena from a Texas House committee, the Texas Supreme Court postponed Roberson’s execution, which was originally set for October 2024.
Since then, Roberson’s execution has been approved by the Supreme Court.
There is currently no set date for a new execution.
In 2002, Roberson, then 58, was found guilty of the murder of his 2-year-old daughter in Palestine, Texas.
He brought her to the ER because she had a high fever, and the doctors there concluded that she had shaken infant syndrome.
That diagnosis has been contested by Roberson’s lawyers, who have referred to it as “junk science.”
The Source: The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Associated Press, and earlier FOX reporting provided the information used in this article.
