Ex-deputy executed for killing Houston woman

Houston Chronicle

Houston & Texas News

Mike Griffith served more than a decade as a sheriff's deputy before losing his job because of violence to women. Texas Department of Criminal Justice

June 7, 2007, 9:14AM

Ex-deputy executed for Houston flower-shop killing

He was likely the first ex-law officer ever to be put to death in the state

By ALLAN TURNER

As members of his victim's family watched dry-eyed, former Harris County sheriff's deputy Mike Griffith was executed Wednesday, breathing a barely audible final plea: "Please take my spirit to the Lord."

Griffith, condemned for the 1994 rape-robbery-murder of Houston flower-shop owner Deborah McCormick, issued no formal final statement.

As he waited for the deadly drugs to flow, he twice turned his head to the room occupied by his selected witnesses, his daughter, ex-wife and spiritual adviser, and smiled faintly. The drugs were administered at 6:09 p.m. Griffith, 56, was declared dead nine minutes later.

As Griffith lay unconscious on the death-chamber gurney, his spiritual adviser, Ron Cloutier, assured his daughter, Michelle Clark, and his ex-wife, Cheryl Stanley, that their presence had meant a lot to the condemned man.

After the execution, McCormick's daughter, Dawn Kirkland, issued a prepared statement on behalf of her family.

"Our family lost much more than a beautiful daughter, mother, sister and friend on Oct. 10, 1994," she wrote. "We lost the glue that held our family together. In the many years since, our family has renewed itself with new grandchildren and new family and friends. However, we will never be the same.

"The heavenly light that was our Debbie was taken from this earth way too soon."

Kirkland said her family will pray for Griffith's relatives. For the killer, though, she said, "Michael Griffith will meet his judgment today and not only here on earth."

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said authorities think — but could not confirm — that Griffith was the only former law enforcement officer executed in the state.

As Griffith, his appeals exhausted, awaited execution, law enforcement officers in two states lamented his slide into deadly violence. Griffith had served as a Harris County deputy more than a decade before he lost his job because of violence to women in 1993.

Bay County, Fla., Sheriff Frank McKeithen worked with Griffith in the '70s and remembered him as "a good officer."

"Everybody liked him," McKeithen said, adding that Griffith was once named officer of the year. "It just came as a total shock when I read what had happened."

Griffith joined the Harris County Sheriff's Office in 1981 and rose to the rank of sergeant. Former colleagues testified on his behalf during the punishment phase of his trial, telling jurors Griffith had been a dedicated, compassionate officer.

Female witnesses, including two ex-wives, testified of rages in which he beat them, pointed pistols at their heads and threatened to kill them.

Griffith's violent behavior reached its nadir on Columbus Day 1994 when, strung out on alcohol and Demerol, he robbed the Always and Forever Flower Shop and Wedding Chapel at 3500 Mangum.

Griffith forced McCormick into a back room where he sexually assaulted her and stabbed her eight times. Griffith, testimony at his trial revealed, had previously purchased flowers at McCormick's shop.

Days later, Griffith robbed a savings and loan, shooting a teller twice in the head, and robbed a second flower shop, where he again sexually assaulted a clerk.

allan.turner@chron.com