Daniel Lee Corwin
Daniel Lee Corwin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | September 13, 1958 |
| Died | December 7, 1998 (aged 40) Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, Texas, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction(s) | Capital murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 3 |
Span of crimes | 1975 – October 1988 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Texas |
Daniel Lee Corwin (September 13, 1958 – December 7, 1998) was an American serial killer who was sentenced to death and executed for murdering three women.
Early life
[edit]Corwin was born in Orange County, California.[1]
Crimes
[edit]1975 Incident
[edit]In 1975, Corwin abducted a classmate at knifepoint in their high school parking lot while she was getting into her car. He drove her to a remote location in her own car and raped her. He then dragged her out of the car, knocked her down, slit her throat, and stabbed her in the stomach and heart. As she lay in a dirt pit bleeding, he covered her head with a board and covered it with dirt and leaves. She survived and managed to reach the road where she was eventually seen and saved. Corwin was sentenced to forty years in prison for kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder. Corwin was released early after serving nine years.[2]
1987-1988 Sprees
[edit]In February 1987, he abducted 72-year-old Alice Martin, who was walking to her home in Normangee, Texas. He drove her to a field in Robertson County where he raped, gagged and stabbed her.
In July 1987, he kidnapped 26-year-old Debra Lynn Ewing from her Huntsville workplace and drove her to Montgomery County, where he raped and stabbed her.[3]
On October 31, 1987, he attempted to kidnap 36-year-old Mary Carrell Risinger at a car wash in Huntsville. When she resisted, Corwin stabbed her in the throat.[3]
In October 1988, he abducted college student Wendy Gant in a parking lot of Kyle Field at Texas A&M University, using her car to drive them to an isolated rural area, where he bound, raped, beat, and stabbed Gant several times. Corwin then tied her upright to a tree and slit her throat. Gant managed to free herself and hid until Corwin left, later being found in a parking lot by a county employee and taken to hospital.[4][unreliable source?]
Gant requested a forensic artist,[5] but due to her throat being cut so deeply, she could not speak aloud to describe the assailant. Instead, she communicated through writing to renowned artist Karen T. Taylor,[5] and nodded yes or no to Taylor's questions about the attacker's features. A corrections officer who knew Corwin from prison immediately recognized the sketch and reported Corwin's name to the police. Police subsequently found a fingerprint from Corwin on the driver's side door of Gant's vehicle.
During his trial, Corwin confessed to another rape, that of a 13-year-old girl that took place in 1972 when he was only 13 or 14. The police were notified at the time, but the victim could not identify her attacker.
Trial and Execution
[edit]In 1990, Corwin was convicted of capital murder.[6] The capital conviction was obtained under a recently implemented state law which permits capital convictions for murders committed "during different criminal transactions but committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct.”[7] He was sentenced to death by a Montgomery Court.
Corwin was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit on December 7, 1998. In his final statement, Corwin apologized to the families of the victims, saying "I guess the first thing I want to do is thank some very special people, Sara and Sabrina, and for affording me the opportunity that y’all did. It made a real big difference in my life. I thank you. Thank you again from the deepest part of my heart. I’m sorry. The biggest thing I wanted to say was to you and family, and I know I haven’t had a chance to talk with y’all in any form or fashion or way or manner, and I regret what happened and I want you to know that I’m sorry. I just ask and hope that sometime down the line that you can forgive me. I think in a lot of ways that without that it becomes very empty and hollow and the only thing we have is hatred and anger. I guess the only thing I have to say about the death penalty is that a lot of times people think of it as one-sided, but it’s not. It’s two-sided. There's pain on both sides and it’s not an issue that people just sit there and voice off and say, well, this is a good thing, or this is a bad thing. But it’s something that’s, you know, needs to be looked at and desired in each heart. I just hope that all of you can understand that and someday forgive me. I want to thank y’all for affording me the opportunity to talk and meet with y'all. It meant so much. Thank you so much for being with me and my family. Thank you. I love you."[8]
In media
[edit]His case was shown on Forensic Files II. The episode, titled "Portrait of a Serial Killer," originally aired on HLN on March 15, 2020.
See also
[edit]- Capital punishment in Texas
- Capital punishment in the United States
- List of people executed in Texas, 1990–1999
- List of serial killers in the United States
References
[edit]- ^ "Death Row Information".
- ^ "Texas executes serial killer Daniel Corwin for 1987 Southeast Texas slayings". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. December 8, 1998. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015.
- ^ a b "Corwin v. State". Justia Law. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ^ "Danny Corwin, the serial killer no one talks about". Kaidan. 14 June 2021.
- ^ a b "Portrait of a Serial Killer". MusixMatch (Podcast). 2022-04-21. Event occurs at 9:47. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
- ^ "CORWIN v. STATE | 870 S.W.2d 23 | Tex. Crim. App. | Judgment | Law | CaseMine". www.casemine.com. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ^ "Texas Penal Code - PENAL § 19.03". Findlaw. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ^ "Death Row Information". Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Archived from the original on 2016-01-27.
- 1958 births
- 1998 deaths
- 20th-century executions by Texas
- 20th-century executions of American people
- American people convicted of rape
- American people convicted of kidnapping
- Executed American serial killers
- People convicted of murder by Texas
- People executed by Texas by lethal injection
- Serial killers from Texas
- Violence against women in the United States