The year was 2011 when a tragic crime changed several lives forever. Two men, both African Americans, entered a peaceful church in Texas, only this time, was not for worship. Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37 and awaiting execution, had an unusual life.  The man had a tale of misfortune and curiosity of killing a church pastor.  Nelson was not a murderer by nature. Nelson had a past life of hanging with the wrong crew and sticking up for them. Nelson claims that he only played watchman during the heist and only entered the church after the crimes had already taken place.  The jury did not believe him, and he was sentenced to death in October 2012.  The church's elderly secretary, Judy Elliot, was also attacked and left injured but survived.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice approved the execution of Nelson.  It was a cold February evening when Nelson was led to his death after twelve days shy of his 38th birthday. Nelson was calm and cool when he said his final words.  He expressed his gratitude, and love for his family.  He said he was ready to go home. He had been sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Nelson was the first of this to be sentenced to death in 2024.  Nelson was the first to be sentenced to death since the Texas Supreme Court stopped the execution of Robert Roberson in 2023.  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice told the press that three other executions had been planned from February to April 2024, with the sentence of Richard Tabler to be executed on February 13th.  Nelson's crime of capital murder was not the only crime that he was on trial for.  He was also on trial for the murder of Pastor Clinton Dobson who was a victim of  his friends, Antony Springs and Claude Jefferson.  Both men were never charged, though Jefferson was indicted.

The Texas Attorney General had a lot to say about the punishment of Steven Nelson.  He said that the sentence was justice for his crimes.  He felt that the justice system was correct on this particular case.  He also said that his heart went out to the family and friends of Pastor Clint Dobson, as well as the loved ones of every victim who suffered at the hands of this monster.  The church's elderly secretary, Judy Elliot, was also beaten and injured.  However, she survived the attack.

Nelson's plea to go free had a lot to do with claiming that he had been wrongly convicted by the Texas court system.

He claimed that the trial lawyer did not do their job by not investigating the evidence.  He said that there was overwhelming evidence  that he was not the primary assailant and that the lawyer elicit testimony from an expert that he was a psychopath, in part, because he was Black.

However, during this time, the political climate was in turmoil regarding the death penalty.  President Joe Biden, with weeks remaining at the country's helm, commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row.  On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty when applicable, including when an undocumented immigrant commits a capital crime. The last time the federal government carried out a death sentence was during Trump's first administration in 2020 when Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death in Indiana -- the first federal execution in 17 years.

Texas Man Dies for 2011 Pastors Slay

Actions