Texas
March 8, 2005
The state of Texas is scheduled to execute George Hopper Jr. March 8 for the 1983 murder of Rozanne Gailiunas. Joy Davis Aylor hired Hopper through a series of middle men to kill Gailiunas who was said to be having an affair with her husband.
Aylor fled to France for several years before French officials agreed to extradite her on the condition that prosecutors promise not to seek the death penalty. Aylor, who was able to hire a high profile defense attorney to represent her, received a prison term rather than the death penalty.
According to court records, at trial Hopper focused on the fact that he was not permitted to have a lawyer present during all of the periods where he was being questioned. He argued this rendered his confession inadmissible.
After the trial, it was revealed that the lead police investigator and key witness against Hopper, Captain Morris McGowan, signed a book deal for $109,000 for helping author Carlton Stowess write a book entitled Open Secrets about the events leading up to the trial. McGowan said he didn’t tell prosecutors about the deal in part because “the district attorney’s office wouldn’t approve of it.” Subsequently, the defense was not aware of McGowan’s monetary gain for his involvement in the case until after the trial. McGowan was never questioned about his motivations at trial. He also acknowledged some inconsistencies between Hopper’s police statement and evidence found at the crime scene.
Please take a moment to write the state of Texas requesting that Hopper’s sentence be commuted to a prison term.
