In October 1983, 35-year-old Lester Bower fatally shot four people with a .22 pistol in an airplane hanger in Sherman, Texas. That conclusion was the outcome of his trial and the foundation of his sentencing. Wednesday night, 67-year-old Lester Bower became the oldest prisoner executed in Texas since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1982.
Texas is like a McDonald’s drive-thru when it comes to executing inmates. Since 1976, 526 death row prisoners in Texas have been executed; that’s over one-in-three executed nationwide.
Given Texas’ propensity for “eye for an eye” justice, and the swiftness in which they enforce it, to think everyone executed is deserving of their fate is fairly naive, especially considering that a dozen inmates have been released off Texas death row since 1987. When it comes to Lester Bower, despite the jury finding him guilty, there are serious allegations that support Bower may have been innocent all along.
It’s Cameron Todd Willingham all over again.
Bower’s pro bono legal defense team of 26 years have claimed the state hid key information that undercut its case against Bower. During the investigation, authorities found Fiocchi ammunition at the crime scene and at Bower’s home. The ammunition would be a contributing factor in making his arrest. Prosecutors told the jury the ammunition was rare, Bower was one of the few who possessed it, and the ammunition had no other purpose than killing people.
Bower’s attorneys discovered, via documents maintained by the FBI that were never turned over to Bower’s defense during trial, state prosecutors knew the ammunition was not nearly as rare as they claimed. The ammo was marked for small-game hunting and is commonly used for target practice. Bower was also hardly alone in having purchased it.
Bower’s legal team had to fill out several Freedom of Information Act requests, and ultimately sue, to procure the information.
In the information obtained from the FBI, Bower’s legal team discovered the murders may have been connected to drug trafficking. In December 1983, two months after the shooting, the FBI were informed that the local drug supply had started drying up after a source was “knocked off in Sherman.” At the time, there were no murders in Sherman except the bodies in the hanger.
To make matter even murkier, one of the victims, Bob Tate, had been involved in cocaine trafficking right up until his death and authorities investigating the crime scene were aware of that. The Tate/drug trafficking lead was never investigated, even by Bower’s trial attorney, Jerry Buckner.
A woman publicly identified as “Pearl” to protect her anonymity told Bower’s lawyers in 1989 that Bower was not one of the men involved in the hanger shooting. According to her testimony, her then-boyfriend, Lynn, and a couple of his friends committed the murders during a botched drug deal. She told Bower’s attorneys that Lynn and a friend of his, Ches, discussed the incident while we was within earshot and Lynn had repeated nightmares pertaining to the shooting. Pearl has testified to this story multiple times and it has been corroborated by others, including the wife of one of the other men involved in the botched drug deal.
Ches admitted to an investigator that he owned a .22 pistol that used Fiocchi ammunition in the 1980s.
Bower’s attorneys have argued that the state violated its legal obligation under?Brady v. Maryland?to turn over to the defense exculpatory and impeachment evidence. They further have argued that Bower’s defense attorney, Buckner, was deficient in the defense of his client, since Buckner failed to investigate the backgrounds of the victims and developed a sub-par defense strategy that prevented Bower from testifying on his own behalf.
Bower’s attorneys would ultimately take their client’s case to the Supreme Court, but the court rejected his appeal, with Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor dissenting.
Congratulations, Gov. Abbott. You may have one more thing in common with Rick Perry — the possibility you allowed an innocent man to be murdered.
