HOUSTON — A Texas man with a long history of mental illness who has repeatedly sought to waive his right to appeal his death sentence was executed Tuesday evening for killing his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago.
Travis Mullis, 38, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT. He was condemned for stomping to death his son Alijah in January 2008.
The following was Mullis' final statement:
“Yes Warden, I would like to thank everyone, all my friends. Pat, all my pen pals, and all the people in my corner inside and outside even on Death Row, that accepted me for the man I became during my best and worst moments. I want to thank the field ministers, the Warden, and the correctional staff for all the changes being made across the system, Even the men on Death Row, to show it is possible to be rehabilitated, and not deemed a threat and not the men we were when we came into the system, we have changed we are not the same. I took the legal steps to expedite to include assisted suicide. I don't regret this decision, to legally expedite this process. I do regret the decision to take the life of my son, I apologize to the mother of my son, the victim's family. I have no ill will towards the court, the judicial system. the prosecution or the execution protocol. The morality of execution is between you and God. It was my decision that put me here. I'm ready Warden.”
WARNING: This case contains graphic details
Mullis was the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Another execution was carried out Tuesday evening in Missouri, and on Thursday, executions were scheduled to take place in Oklahoma and Alabama. South Carolina conducted an execution Friday.
Authorities said Mullis, then 21 and living in Brazoria County, drove to nearby Galveston with his son after fighting with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and sexually assaulted his son. After the infant began to cry uncontrollably, Mullis began strangling the child before taking him out of the car and stomping on his head, according to authorities.
The infant’s body was later found on the roadside. Mullis fled the state but was later arrested after surrendering to police in Philadelphia.
Mullis’ execution proceeded after one of his attorneys, Shawn Nolan, said he planned no late appeals in a bid to spare the inmate's life. Nolan also said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that Texas would be executing a “redeemed man” who has always accepted responsibility for committing “an awful crime.”
“He never had a chance at life being abandoned by his parents and then severely abused by his adoptive father starting at age three. During his decade and a half on death row he spent countless hours working on his redemption. And he achieved it. The Travis that Texas wanted to kill is long gone. Rest in Peace TJ," Nolan said.
Mullis declined an offer earlier in the day to phone his attorney from a holding cell outside the death chamber, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Hannah Haney. His lawyers also did not file a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
In a letter submitted in February to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston, Mullis wrote that he had no desire to challenge his case any further. Mullis has previously taken responsibility for his son’s death and has said “his punishment fit the crime.”
In a statement, Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady said this following Mullis' execution:
"Today brings the long-awaited fulfillment of a verdict rendered by a jury who heard all of the evidence. We remain grateful for their service. We are also grateful for the diligent investigation of the Galveston police officers who confronted the most disturbing facts and images possible in solving this case. My deepest thanks go to Kayla Allen, Donna Cameron, and the late Lyn McClellan –the prosecutors who faithfully carried this tragic case to trial and ensured that justice was done for Alijah Mullis.”
In a statement, Mullis' trial prosecutor and Galveston County First Assistant District Attorney Kayla Allen said:
“Some acts are such egregious violations of not only the law, but of civilized standards, that society’s only appropriate response is to impose the ultimate penalty on the wrongdoer. It is important to remember why we are here. Mullis sexually assaulted his three-month old son before murdering him in a brutal and unspeakable manner. A jury of twelve citizens heard the facts, and concluded that the evidence and the law required Travis Mullis to receive the ultimate penalty. Their verdict has been affirmed by 13 years of post-conviction review by higher courts. Today, the judgment of those citizens who heard all of the evidence has finally been carried out. Mullis’ son, Alijah Mullis, would have celebrated his 17th birthday next month.”
At Mullis’ trial, prosecutors said Mullis was a “monster” who manipulated people, was deceitful and refused the medical and psychiatric help he had been offered.
Since his conviction in 2011, Mullis has long been at odds with his various attorneys over whether to appeal his case. At times, Mullis had asked that his appeals be waived, only to later change his mind.
Nolan had previously told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during a June 2023 hearing that state courts in Texas had erred in ruling that Mullis had been mentally competent when he had waived his right to appeal his case about a decade earlier.
Nolan told the appeals court that Mullis has been treated for “profound mental illness” since he was 3 years old, was sexually abused as a child and is “severely bipolar,” leading him to change his mind about appealing.
Natalie Thompson, who at the time was with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, told the appeals court that Mullis understood what he was doing and could go against his lawyers’ advice “even if he’s suffering from mental illness.”
The appeals court upheld Hank’s ruling from 2021 that found Mullis “repeatedly competently chose to waive review” of his death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the application of the death penalty for the intellectually disabled, but not for people with serious mental illness.
If the remaining executions in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma are carried out as planned, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.
The first took place Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death. Also Tuesday, Marcellus Williams was executed in Missouri. On Thursday, executions are scheduled for Alan Miller in Alabama and Emmanuel Littlejohn in Oklahoma.