Chapter 53 Section Fourteen

In fact, Bill Bandy was also struggling to get some clues from Betty's conversation.After Betty once again denied that Johnny Marr and Hugh Daywood ever asked her about Jimmy's disappearance, Bill asked, "What did you do when Poppy and Ray Bong were fighting?" "Nightclub hostess. Ray Bang came to see me that night, but that was before they got into a fight." Irri Unrus took up the conversation: "I understand what Mr. Bandy means. Betty, please tell the jury that you used to work in a nightclub." "yes." "That nightclub sells beer and cocktails and all."

"yes." "Betty, would you please tell the jury, are you ashamed that you are supporting your family by working in nightclubs?" "No." "You've worked hard to maintain the image of a good woman even in a place like that, haven't you?" "yes." Now it's Bill Bundy's call: "Were you a good woman when you were arrested for 'public lewdness' at Charlie's Angels?" "I didn't work there. It was just a test run that night." "What kind of dance?" "Striptease." "My question is over, Your Honor."

"Public obscenity" and striptease, this is probably the real Betty Pitts.Bill Bundy thought it would be a wonderful way to end the whole courtroom argument. October 11, 1985, the last day of the trial of this case.Judge Jack Holland first explained the charges against Betty Pitts to the jury, pointing out that the result of the verdict can be one of the following three situations, in descending order of the crimes represented: murder for property, premeditated Murder or not guilty. Bill Bandy stood still in front of the jury, and waited until all eyes were on him before he began to make a concluding statement on behalf of the prosecution:

"Every piece of evidence presented to the court by the prosecution has conclusively established that Betty Pitts was the murderer of her husband. "It also proved that the purpose of her murder was to seek property: insurance money, pension, real estate, etc." ………… "According to Robin Branson's statement, on the night of August 5, 1983, his mother told him to go out and find Poppy. You know, Betty is a very strong, authoritarian woman. But now she is biting back , referring to Robin as the murderer. Robin was guilty of theft, and he and a friend stole several ancient swords from a neighbor's house. But the real puzzling thing is the lawyer Yi Rui Unruth, who had successfully represented Robin's theft defense is now reversed and the same Robin profile is used to charge him with murder."

………… "According to Betty's statement, Robin and Jimmy had a confrontation. During the confrontation, she heard a gunshot. Please note that there was only one shot. As we all know, Jimmy had three gunshot wounds, and a total of three gunshot wounds were found under the well flower bed. Three rounds. If someone fired three shots in that RV, you couldn't have heard just one. "According to Betty herself, now Jimmy is lying on the ground bleeding. Did she try to do anything for Jimmy? Like call an ambulance, or at least find someone to see if Jimmy is still alive. No, she didn't do anything , Just put this 'my beloved' into a sleeping bag and throw it into a flower bed.

"Betty was a strong woman, says Lil Smith of Redwood Wharf. No, she's a cold-blooded animal. Check out this photo of the well planter, which was taken on June 8 this year. Check it out Betty took such good care of the flowers and plants in the garden. But she actually said that she didn't know that Jimmy was buried under the flower bed. "It is tragic, horrific, and appalling to see such a horrific tragedy in Cambernor, Texas, among the hundreds of thousands of God-believing residents of Henderson. Now, the culprit is here, and the evidence is here .. I implore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, to acquit Betty Pitts of murder."

While Bill Bundy was speaking, Iree Unrus kept her head down, writing in his notebook.At this moment, he stood up slowly, walked to the jury seat, smiled friendly as if seeing an old acquaintance, crossed his fingers on the railing, and prayed: "Everything Mr. Bill Bundy just said is for you to believe that Robin Branson and Shirley Tigner are innocent and have not a drop of blood on their hands. Mr. Bundy has said he has 95 witnesses, but he actually called less than 20, where are the other 75 witnesses?" ………… "Remember Dr. Joss Paddy? Remember the wound on Jimmy's head behind his skull? I asked him if it could have been a fist and he said it could be, and when Mr. Bandy asked if it could have been a gunshot wound , he said it was impossible. Please don't forget this when you deliberate.

"Robin kept repeating the lie on the witness stand, the lie about how he helped his mother. He pushed everything on his mother, left her indifferent, and walked out of court, smiling at people, at reporters. Beckon. You've all seen that picture of Robin in the newspaper, he's the real cold-blooded animal. "The prosecution didn't actually have any proof that Betty killed Jimmy. She had a chance to run away, but she didn't. Instead, she came to court and told you the truth. You heard Mr. Bandy ask her why she wasn't crying, Why hide the truth at the bail hearing, she said all she did was just a mother protecting her child. And the liar, the real cold blooded animal she was subjected to instead, didn't care that they were going to put She was put in jail, even sent to the execution bench, and a lethal needle was inserted in her arm."

………… "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are good and upright people, and you will acquit Betty. "I have no doubts about this." At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 12 jurors entered the deliberation room.It was a Friday, and few people left downtown Essex, where the courthouse is, amid the long wait.The jury delivered its verdict at 8:30 p.m.: The jury found the defendant, Betty Lou Pitts, guilty of the murder charges against her. Betty was reportedly poker-faced as the jury chief read out the verdict.She should have expected this result long ago.Betty's four children, Faye, Connie, Fali, and Bobby, who were in court that day, all seemed to be numb, and none of them shed tears.

Under Texas law, sentencing should be on the first Monday after the jury's verdict.In order to protect the jurors from any outside interference or the influence of other people's opinions, Judge Jack Holland let them all live in the Holiday Inn.They were not allowed to read TV, newspapers or talk on the phone with family and friends throughout the weekend, but authorities arranged a variety of other entertainment activities for jurors. On Monday, October 14, 1985, Jack Holland once again put on his black robe and sat on the bench.He instructed jurors to consider and answer two questions when sentencing.First, whether the defendant's crime of murder for money is only within the reasonable range?Second, is it possible for the defendant to commit similar crimes in the future, thus posing a potential threat to the safety of society or others?

Here some explanation is needed on the first question.Judging a person for a crime is like conducting a scientific experiment.All experimental results cannot be 100% accurate, but as long as the error does not exceed a certain range considered reasonable by scientists, the result will be recognized.There will also be errors in the process of conviction and sentencing, that is, doubts.In other words, if the prosecution has evidence, the defendant may also produce counter-evidence.However, as long as these doubts do not exceed the reasonable range recognized or allowed by common sense, the crime ruled is established.However, there are differences between scientific experiments and conviction and sentencing.The former can provide a specific scale to judge the error, such as "the error is not more than how much" is usually said, while the latter is a completely artificial standard. As usual, Prosecutor Bill Bundy spoke first: "You have all seen the evidence provided by Jimmy Petz's remains: three gunshot wounds. Betty has clearly told her two children, Robin And Shirley, who was going to kill Jimmy. Deliberately, carefully planned, and then calmly and ruthlessly executed." Bill counted every detail and step in Betty's murder process, from building flower beds to abandoning the motorboat. Regarding the second question, Bill Bandy said: "In just 11 years, Betty shot at her three husbands successively, resulting in two deaths and one injury. If you use 'murderous' to describe this Women, I am afraid that is not too much. It is conceivable that Betty will repeat the same trick given the opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is your duty to prevent the next opportunity for Betty Pitts to commit crimes. Please answer both questions Give an affirmative answer." The defense attorney for the defense, Yi Rui Unruth, said in his statement: "Friday afternoon, you stayed in the deliberation room for six and a half hours. Why? You hesitated, hesitated, and hesitated because you still had doubts in your mind There is no clarification, no doubts in your mind. But you have to make a decision, even though you yourself are not quite happy with that decision. On Sunday, I overheard one of you say: 'Let's go to church.' 'Yes, you should go to church, that might make you feel a little lighter. Today, you have a chance to do that too. When you sentence Betty, you can make up for last Friday's mistakes, and at the same time lighten your inner burden. Who I don't want to spend the rest of my life with a heavy cross in my spirit. No one wants to look back at the past after the journey of life and say, I once killed a person, an innocent person. Give Betty a new life give yourselves a chance. So I am asking you here, to answer 'no' to both questions." It took the jury just 45 minutes to send back their answer, but not the one Irie Unrus had hoped for.After the judge Jack Holland finished reading the two "yes" answered by the jury, he calmly said to Betty: "The jury once again ruled you guilty of murder for money during sentencing, so you will be sentenced to death." Betty finally couldn't hold her breath anymore, she yelled sharply: "No, I didn't kill anyone!" Then she burst into tears. The Wayne Barker murder trial was legally dismissed as Betty Pietz was sentenced to death for the Jimmy Pitts murder. Betty Pitts didn't spend the rest of her life passively on death row.In the following ten years, she used various opportunities to appeal many times, and submitted the case to courts at all levels for re-examination, and the execution date of the death penalty was repeatedly postponed.Betty no longer denies the killings of Wayne Barker and Jimmy Pitts, only repeating that all five of her husbands, including Robert Branson and Jimmy Petz, were abusive to her , she was forced to go to extremes.Betty frequently appeared in the newspapers.Thanks to the hard work and hard work of her eldest daughter, Faye, a photo taken by a doctor after she was beaten by her second husband Billy Long in 1971 was sent to the national television network.Betty's tears and complaints have won a lot of sympathy and support. Many human rights organizations against the death penalty and battered women's groups have become her strong backing, and even funded her to hire another lawyer.The following text is excerpted from an internal communication by the anti-death penalty group Amnesty International: