Death sentence for Whitaker

After about a day and a half of deliberation, the jury in the Bart Whitaker trial sentenced Whitaker to death for planning the 2003 murders of his mother, Patricia, and brother, Kevin. There was no comment from Whitaker, who reportedly didn't change expression when the sentence was handed down; his father, who had said he opposed the death sentence for his son, called it God's will: "This was not the verdict that I would have wanted. I believe that the Lord is soverign so I am trusting that what happened today is his will," Kent Whitaker, who was also targeted in the murder plot, told reporters.

The jurors' decision wasn't an easy one, the Chronicle reports today: They had to determine whether Whitaker knew people would die as the result of his actions, whether there were any mitigating circumstances that should be considered in his punishment and whether he poses a future threat to society. The first two answers apparently came easily — Whitaker clearly planned the murders of his family so he could inherit their $1.5 million estate, and as for mitigating circumstances, testimony painted him as a kid who was very well provided for by his parents. But deciding whether Whitaker posed a future threat was tough: One juror, who asked not to be named, said the panel was "almost evenly split" on the question, but they were eventually swayed by certain elements of the case. One thing that worked against Whitaker was his testimony earlier this week in which he told jurors that he readily admitted to his guilt, but that he was driven to kill his family because he didn't understand that they loved him. The sympathy play might have worked better if not for earlier testimony that showed Whitaker had lied to his family for years — telling them, for example, that he was a good student who was about to graduate from Sam Houston State University when, in fact, he wasn't enrolled in school at all. And despite his contention that he was totally guilty and deserved whatever punishment he got, Whitaker couldn't explain why he didn't plead guilty at the beginning of the trial. "I was praying he would show repentance [in his testimony] and give me a reason not to pass that judgment on him," presiding juror Steve Watkins said.

Whitaker was taken to the Fort Bend County Jail, from where he'll be transferred to the Byrd Diagnostic Unit near Huntsville and then to death row near Livingston. As for Whitaker's father and uncle, both of whom testified that they wanted a life sentence, prosecutor Jeff Strange said he feels for them: "My heart breaks for them. They are truly decent people that deserve better than this, but Bart Whitaker put them in this position," he said.