Man on Texas death row 'prepared to die'

LIVINGSTON, Texas — Behind coils of razor wire and guard towers surrounding Texas death row, inmate Les Bower uses a wristwatch to keep track of time.

"What we're trying to do right now is just get someone to stay the execution," he said.

Bower, 66, is scheduled to die in five months.

When asked whether he was prepared to be executed, Bower said: "Oh sure. I don't want to die, but I'm quite prepared to die."

In 1984, a jury convicted him of capital murder for killing four men in an airplane hangar outside Sherman in Grayson County.

Bower admits that he lied about being there and buying an ultralight aircraft, but he has always insisted he never killed the men.

Bower was married, lived in Arlington, Texas, and had two young daughters at the time. He worked as a chemical salesman and had no criminal record when a jury convicted him of him in a circumstantial case.

But Bower has also lost each appeal along the way.

"We've been all the way through the (appeal) system one time," Bower said. "So we're going back to the Supreme Court for the fourth time."

In two weeks, he's throwing a legal Hail Mary when he asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider what a state court has already rejected — actual innocence. Bower and his attorneys said drug-dealing gang members killed the four men that Bower was convicted of murdering after he left the hangar that day.

Bower said he will also likely argue that his trial jury didn't have enough flexibility considering punishment.

"My jury did not have an opportunity to act on and give weight to my good character with the two questions (the jury had to answer)," he said.

On average, inmates spend about a decade on Death Row. But Les Bower got here 30 years ago. He turns 67 in November, and unless something changes legally, he might be the oldest man Texas has ever executed.

Families of the victims have said that they don't want the state to execute an innocent man, but they added the courts have consistently ruled against Bower.

Prosecutors have said this has to end.

Bower denied he was stringing out his legal appeals.

"I don't think so," he said. "I'm availing myself of my appeal process. I don't think we're in any way stalling. We're not asking for any additional time. This is what the law says."

Bower said his case is stuck in legal limbo. A Grayson County judge said evidence of gang members might have swayed a jury, but it doesn't meet criteria for a new trial.

To date, Bower has been scheduled to die five times, but but each execution was stayed.

But the sixth date is now set and moving closer as Les Bower waits for news.