Published: August 19, 2006 10:49 am      

Mother faces son’s execution

CHICKASHA — Reta Luther won’t watch her son die.

She will be in McAlester on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - the date the State of Oklahoma has chosen to put her son, James Patrick Malicoat to death. But she won’t walk down the long, gray halls to the execution chamber.

Malicoat asked her not to be there. It would be too hard on her - and him.

Some will be anticipating the announcement of the execution of a monster who beat, bit and tortured a 13-month child to death.

Luther will feel the horror of knowing that only moments remain in her adopted son’s life.

When Malicoat killed his daughter, he took away Luther’s granddaughter. She felt that pain again recently when her step-grandchildren were killed in a fire on Sixth Street in Chickasha.

Luther said she knows what her son did and she agrees he should be punished. But no mother can easily bear the knowledge that her son will soon die.

“It is very hard,” Luther said. “I only go to work and go home. I sleep about two to three hours a night. It is hard to function with that date hanging out there.”

Malicoat has never denied responsibility for the death of Tessa Leadford.

“He says he knows what he did was wrong and he will stand up and take the punishment for it,” Luther said. “He accepts that responsibility.”

In fact, Malicoat didn’t even plead for is life in front of the Pardon and Parole Board.

“I’m not here to ask for my life today. I don’t know if it would do any good,” Malicoat told the board. But he did apologize for the grief he caused family members.

Luther said she believes Malicoat’s childhood contributed to his horrible act which led to his execution. He was adopted when he was 18-months old.

She said his father, who was later convicted of child abuse, was very abusive toward the young Malicoat.

She recalled a time where he was five years old and he was stripped down and forced to break ice in a horse trough. She also recalls when he was beaten with a two-by-four for putting a screw into the wall incorrectly.

She said the father never treated his two natural children the same way he did his adopted son. But Malicoat has never said that is why he believes he committed the murder.

“I have no idea why I did it. I have no idea why it happened. I’ve tried to find an answer for it for nine and a half years,” he said recently.

Since his conviction in 1997, Malicoat has never been outside. The closest he has come to being outside is in an exercise room at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary which has a glass ceiling.

He has requested a short trip outdoors before his life is taken, but his mother doesn’t expect that request to be granted.

Luther said the boy she helped raise - now the man the state will execute - is basically a good person who committed one horrible crime.

She said he is a good poet who has a happy attitude and always kept his friends laughing.

“Anyone who knows him will tell you that this is a one time thing,” Luther said. “Since he has been on medication, he is doing better. I don’t think he should die for this.”

But District Attorney Bret Burns, who prosecuted the case in 1997 disagrees.

“I have never seen a case this bad,” Burns said. “He tortured a 13-month old baby to death. Of all the executions I have been a part of, he deserves it more than any of them.”

For now a mother counts the hours, hoping for a last-second decision to spare her son’s life.

Barring an unexpected pardon, Malicoat will be executed at 6 p.m., Tuesday in McAlester.