Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
Governor George W. Bush
Austin, TX

Dear Governor and Members of the Board,

Larry Keith Robison is my first-born son, and he is facing an execution date on August 17 of this year. I am begging you to commute his sentence to life.

Larry was a wonderful little boy. He was an eager student and in elementary school he made straight A's. He was a good sport when he played in Little League and on the school swims team. He had a paper route when he was in Junior High School. He was very active in his church youth group, and in Boy Scouts. He would have made Eagle Scout if he hadn't become ill.

Larry's birth was not normal. My labor started and stopped over a period of several weeks and even stopped after my water broke. The doctor had to induce labor with shots. Even though I had planned natural childbirth, the doctor insisted on putting me to sleep because of complication of the birth. I bled profusely and was not4allowed to raise my head off the pillow for hours. I was not allowed to see Larry or to nurse him for 24 hours.

Larry also had several head traumas. When he was a year old he lost his balance and struck his head on the bathtub. He lost consciousness, stopped breathing, and went completely limp for several minutes. Then he started projectile vomiting. We rushed him to the hospital where he was administered oxygen and admitted for about 24 hours and checked by his doctor for a few days.

By the time Larry was in Junior High, he began to have problems. At first, we suspected drugs, because like most people of his generation, Larry had experimented with them. We went for help to the youth minister of our church and to Family and Children Services when Larry was twelve years old.

By the time he was fifteen his problems became more severe. He was acting out at school, running away from home, and exhibiting extreme fear in even slightly stressful situations. He told us later that he was hearing voices. We took him to Kansas University Medical Psychiatric Department where he was in outpatient treatment until we moved to Texas. Unfortunately, at that time we did not know about the family history of mental illness so we did not learn the true nature of his illness.

After we moved to Texas, Larry's problems increased. He had another head injury. Someone hit him over the head with a coke bottle and we had to rush him to the emergency room at Huguley Hospital where he received dozens of stitches. A few weeks later he dropped out of school and left home. We went to our minister, Rev. Ed Schmeltekopf, for help. He counseled with us and with Larry. We also went to the Mental Health - Mental Retardation Center in Fort Worth for help. By this time we knew that Larry had severe problems but we did not receive a diagnosis of the exact nature of the problems.

When Larry was 17, my mother suggested that maybe if Larry went into the service it would help him. He tested for the Air Force and made such high scores on all the tests that the recruiter called us and said that he could go into any field in the Air Force that he chose. When he was in training in Wichita Falls we received a letter of commendation from his superior officer

The Air Force sent Larry to Amsterdam, Holland. There, he began to have more severe symptoms, including hallucinations. After little more than a year of a four-year enlistment, the Air Force sent him home with an Honorable Discharge.

After he arrived home, we were troubled by some of his behavior. He talked about moving things with his mind, and he built a plywood pyramid and slept under it because he thought it would give him special powers. We thought that he had been reading about paranormal things and was experimenting with these ideas. He moved to Fort Worth to work and we saw him occasionally as family get-togethers. He married a girl named Gina who also had mental problems. During their short marriage she ran him down with her car. He was treated at John Peter Smith County Hospital for a severe head injury. After a few weeks she filed for divorce. Larry became extremely depressed and his mental condition deteriorated even further.

He began to call and make statements that sounded strange. He thought his roommates were trying to hurt him. He thought that people could read his mind and that he could read other minds. We became worried about him and were discussing what we could to help him one night when he called us and begged us to help him. He thought he was flying out of his body over the middle of Fort Worth singing the song of his life. He thought the CIA and the Air Force were chasing him. He believed that the power coming out of his head had exploded a car and killed the people who were in it. When we went to pick him up his roommates were very anxious for us to take him away. They told us that someone at a Halloween party had spiked the punch with LSD. They said that it didn't bother anyone else but that Larry had gone berserk.

We took him to the emergency room at Huguley Hospital near our home, where he was examined and diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. The hospital called in our family doctor, Dr. Albert Randolph, and he was admitted to the hospital. Dr. Randolph called in Dr Arouse, a psychiatrist, to examine Larry. They told us that he was paranoid schizophrenic, one of the worst that they had ever seen, and that he needed long term treatment. Then they asked us whom our insurance was with. When we told them that Larry had just turned 21, our insurance did not cover him, and that he did not have any on his job, they discharged him. We were advised to take him to the county hospital.

We took him to John Peter Smith County Hospital in Fort Worth. We were asked a lot of questions, but were given no answers to our questions about his condition, his medications, and how we should respond when he exhibited bizarre behavior or expressed extreme fear of others. We were told that because of the Privacy Act they were not allowed to give out any information about his case. After 30 days he was discharged because he was "not violent" and they "needed the bed." We were told that we should not take him home under any circumstances. When I said, "He has no job, no money, no car, and no place to stay. You can't just put him out on the street," we were told, "We do it every day. You would be surprised how many schizophrenics are on the streets."

We took him to the Veteran's Hospital in Waco where they kept him for 30 days. Then Dr. Walter Rowe called to tell us that they had discharged him and were sending him to Burleson on the bus. We were told that he was not well and would get worse without treatment, but they couldn't keep him any longer because he was "not violent" and they "needed the bed." If he became violent, we were told, he could get the long-term treatment that everyone agreed that he needed. Before he arrived home on the bus Dr. Rowe called again to tell us that they had forgotten to have Larry sign a release of records before he left. We were told to take him to the Mental Health/Mental Retardation office in Fort Worth and have him sign a release of records there so that they could send for his records and would be able to give him medication and outpatient treatment. All of this paperwork took about six weeks, during which time he remained untreated. Because of the Privacy Act none of the doctors or hospitals informed us that he needed his medication every day in order to cope.

During these weeks his condition deteriorated and he became more and more psychotic and delusional. Before we were able to get him medication and treatment he borrowed his sister's car and wrecked it in Weatherford, He went to a rental company and to rent a truck. The keys were in the truck so he decided to drive it around the block to try it out. An employee chased him down the street and stopped him. He was arrested for felony theft.

When we learned that he was in jail, we did not bail him out because we felt that he was safer in a small town jail than he was on the streets We went to his court-appointed attorney for help and told him of Larry's medical history. He sent us to the District Attorney who sent us to Judge Harry Hopkins, who was trying Larry's case. I told him of all of Larry Medical history and I begged him through my tears to please, please commit Larry to a mental hospital. He asked me if Larry had ever been violent. When I said "No," he told me that he did not have the power to commit Larry and that he would probably go to prison for the offense that he was charged with

We continued to try to get help for Larry from every agency that we could find out about. We called every mental Hospital in Texas to try to have him committed. Because he had never exhibited any violent tendencies we were not successful. We called every agency in Tarrant County that any kind of service that could conceivably help someone with Larry's problems, including MHMR, Texas Rehabilitation, and many others. We had almost reached the end of the book of non-profit helping agencies, when we called the Volunteers of America also talked to Joe Bell. He was the first one to really listen and offer to help. Joe talked to the attorneys and Judge Hopkins and arranged a plea bargain in which Larry pled guilty to stealing a wheel off the truck and he was sentenced to time served (six months). Larry was very upset that they made him tell a lie. He kept saying, "Mom, I didn't steal a wheel, I didn't steal anything." Joe Bell took Larry into the VOA residential program in Fort Worth and worked with him for over a year. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the true nature of Larry's mental illness. He assumed that Larry only had a drug problem and treated him on that basis.

During the time that he lived at the VOA house he worked on construction jobs. He met Tina during this time and they had a daughter, Melissa. They visited in our home for family get-togethers and we thought that he was doing better. We still did not understand the complexities of his illness nor did Tina. We counseled with our minister and he sent us to the TCU Brite Divinity School Family Counseling Center where we went for counseling and continued to seek help for Larry. We were repeatedly told that he was over 21 years old and not our problem anymore. We replied that he was mentally ill and not capable of taking care of himself.

When Melissa was about six months old, Tina became frightened at some of Larry's behavior and some of the things that he said. She took the baby and went to her parent's home in Kansas City, Missouri. After she left, Larry deteriorated very rapidly. His behavior became very bizarre. He was extremely depressed. He decided to go to Kansas City and stay with family friends so he could be near Tina and his daughter. They decided to get back together. Since Larry had been unable to get a job in Kansas City, they decided to return to Fort Worth. Tina gave notice on her job and made plans to move.

Larry received a letter from Ricky Bryant, a friend in Fort Worth, inviting Larry to stay at his house until he could get a job and find a place for his family. Larry's sister Vickie, who visiting relatives in Kansas at the time brought Larry back to Fort Worth.

On August 9, 1982, Larry came to visit Vickie at her apartment in Crowley. He had been job hunting and was very depressed because he was unable to find work. When he left her house he said that he was coming to our house in Burleson. Vickie called about an hour later to talk to us and learned that he never had arrived at our house. She gave me the phone number that Larry had given her. When I called, Ricky Bryant answered. He called Larry to the phone and when I asked him why he didn't come over, he would only say that he couldn't. I asked him if he was coming over to celebrate his birthday with the family and he said he would. He seemed very depressed and his voice sounded strange. When I asked what he wanted for his birthday, he said that he didn't need anything. I thought that was strange, since about all he had was the clothes on his back.

On August 10th, I went into Fort Worth to shop at the teacher supply stores for things for my classroom and to buy Larry a birthday card and present. That afternoon I was on my way to meet Ken at the Brite Divinity School Family Counseling Center for an appointment to once again ask for help for Larry. Just before I arrived there I heard on the car radio that Larry Keith Robison had been extradited from Wichita, Kansas. I wondered if there could be another person with the same name because I knew that our Larry was in Fort Worth. When Ken and I met and we were walking into the Center, I told him what I had heard on the radio. He stumbled and almost fell and started saying, "oh no, oh no." I asked him what was the matter and he said that he didn't want to tell me. It seems that he had heard a newscast at work about the same case, he but had heard everything except the name of the person who was arrested.

When Ken told me that it was about the five people who were killed in Lake Worth the day before, I was stunned. We were hoping against hope that there was a mistake. When we went into the Center and told our counselor he turned as white as a sheet because he had told us just the week before that I was being a mother hen, and we should stop worrying about Larry. He now told us to call someone to find out if it was really our Larry.

When we called our house, our daughter Vickie answered the phone and said, " Where have you been, we've been trying to reach you for hours." That was the moment when we knew that it was our Larry and our whole world fell apart. We were all totally devastated. We were horrified at the brutality of the act and couldn't believe that our son had done it. I remember saying, "I knew that he was sick, but I had no idea that he was THAT SICK!" We grieved for the victims and their families, and racked our brains to think of something we might have been able to do to prevent this terrible tragedy.

As soon as we arrived home we were surrounded by friends who knew of Larry's problems and besieged by reporters who wanted to interview us. I called my principal to see if the school officials had any objections to our speaking publicly because we wanted people to know that he was mentally ill. She checked with the Superintendent and they gave us their blessing.

We were interviewed by several print media and three television stations the next day. I collapsed before we were able to talk to the fourth station and was given sedation. The next day when we could not get any information from the jail and were not allowed to see Larry, I called Asst. District Attorney Steve Chaney to get information. I told him that Larry had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, and needed to be committed to a mental hospital. I told him that if ANYONE would help us we would see to it that he stayed for the rest of his life. Mr. Chaney told me that he knew that Larry was mentally ill, but that the Insanity Defense in Texas was a joke. He said, "Your attorney will get a psychiatrist who will say that Larry is insane, but we have one who will say that he is not." He was right; the doctor the state uses in all insanity cases is nicknamed "Dr. Death."

Steve Chaney was also quoted by the Fort Worth Star Telegram as saying that Larry should not be charged with Capital Murder because he obviously did not kill five people in that manner in order to steal a car and a couple of watches. All of the assistant DA's were willing to plea bargain for four life sentences in return for a guilty plea. The head DA refused to accept because of an upcoming election and public sentiment.

Larry attempted suicide twice in the Tarrant County Jail. Once he slit his wrist and the inside of his elbow. He was rushed to the county hospital where he received blood transfusions and plastic surgery. A psychiatrist prescribed a tranquilizer for him which he pretended to take and saved until he had enough for an overdose. He was found in his cell in a coma and taken to the hospital where again they were able to save his life. All of this trauma took a terrible emotional toll on the whole family. We were devastated, but we were sustained by the support of our church friends and colleagues at work, who had known for years about Larry's problems.

After a year in jail, Larry came to trial in the summer of 1983. Ken's mother had a stroke and died during the trial. I was not allowed to hear any of the testimony during the trial because I testified. I tried to tell the history of Larry's illness but almost everything that I said was objected to by the prosecutors and the objections were upheld by the judge. My mother overheard a TV reporter saying, "She is telling it today exactly the way she told us a year ago." However, the prosecutor told the jury, "His mother is just lying, she never tried to help Larry, she just always got him out of trouble, and she is here today to get him out him out of trouble again. Don't let her get away with it."

After that speech I collapsed outside the courtroom and was carried to the hospital in an ambulance, screaming all the way, "They're going to kill my son, they're going to kill my son." I was hospitalized for four days. My husband had to tell me of the guilty verdict and death sentence. I was under sedation for several days after I came home from the hospital. When I aroused from my stupor, I vowed that I would not rest until I had told Larry's story to everyone in the country, because I knew that most people were not aware of how impossible it is to get mental health care if you are not wealthy. Most people in our country also do not know that we execute people who are clearly mentally ill.

Larry's first trial was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeals because of the insanity issue. By the time of the second trial in 1987 our family had learned that there was a family history of paranoid schizophrenia going back at least three generations in the family of Larry's natural father, who died when he was two years old. His family conspired to keep it a secret because they were ashamed. Larry's aunt came to testify that her husband had the same illness as Larry and the same symptoms. He even tried to kill her, but he did not succeed. He was hospitalized and given long-term treatment and medication and with proper supervision has managed to live a fairly normal life. The District Attorney objected to her testimony as hearsay, so the jury was removed from the courtroom and only the judge heard it. The jury was not allowed to know about it. When I attempted to testify to the same facts, the DA objected again and was sustains 1. It was extremely frustrating and upsetting to our family to not be able to tell the truth to the jury. Larry was again found sane and guilty and given the death sentence. Again our family was devastated, and even Larry's attorneys cried.

After the second trial was over my cousin Barbara, in Colorado, saw me on a national television show and called to tell me that three of her six children were mentally ill. I also learned that my mother's brother had been in a mental institution. Then, in 1989, our youngest daughter, Carol was diagnosed as manic-depressive and schizophrenic. We were completely overwhelmed to face this kind of trauma again, and I broke down again when she was admitted to Oak Bend Hospital in Fort Worth. However, we thought that this information would help get a new trial for Larry. The attorney told us that we could not get a new trial on new evidence since it had been more than 30 days since the last trial We could only get a new trial if there was a technical problem in the original trial. The appeal courts and the Supreme Court refused to grant a new trial so Larry's date was set for August 17, 1999.

Our whole family, including my husband and me, our other seven children, fifteen grandchildren, one great-grandchild, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews are suffering terrible grief. One of our daughters is verging on a nervous breakdown, one of our granddaughters is expecting a baby 3 days before Larry's execution date and is experiencing complications with her pregnancy. We are concerned that our youngest daughter, Carol, who is in a residential mental health facility in Alto, Texas, may have another breakdown because she identifies so much with Larry.

Reading the death warrant sent chills down our spines. It seems so incredible to us that our own state of Texas, after refusing Larry treatment for years, plans to strap him down to that gurney and pump poison into his body until he is dead. We don't know how we will survive this final trauma.

Please, please, in the name of decency, have compassion on Larry, and on our family, and allow him to live out his natural life in prison instead of killing him. We beg you to imagine what you would feel if it was a member of your family. Please stop the deliberate killing of our mentally ill son.