The Chronicle declined to use its own staff to report on Jackie Barron Wilson, who was executed in Huntsville today. Instead of the sympathetic portrayal of a killer that we’ve come to expect from the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy, the newspaper ran AP coverage.
Perhaps it was just too hard to portray this guy sympathetically:
A former laborer was executed tonight for the 1988 rape and murder of a 5-year-old North Texas girl.
[snip]
[Jackie Barron] Wilson was condemned for the slaying of Lottie Margaret Rhodes, known by the nickname “Maggie.” After breaking into her bedroom, he kidnapped Maggie from her Arlington apartment in the early morning hours of Nov. 30, 1988, then sexually assaulted the little girl before killing her.
Authorities said Wilson, who lived in nearby Irving, strangled Maggie before running over her with a car.
Maggie’s battered body was found about five miles from her home a few hours after she was kidnapped. She was face down in a muddy ditch next to a rural road in Grand Prairie.
Running AP coverage instead of a full-blown Chron Eye was a good call.
