David Martin Long | |
|---|---|
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| Born | July 15, 1953 Tom Green County, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | December 8, 1999 (aged 46) Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, Texas, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
| Conviction(s) | Capital murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 5–7 |
| State(s) |
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Date apprehended | October 24, 1986 |
David Martin Long (July 15, 1953 – December 8, 1999) was an American murderer who was sentenced to death for the murders of three women, and later confessed to committing seven murders. His case received media attention after he was placed on life support for a drug overdose two days before his scheduled execution. The New York Times said that the medical personnel who treated Long "found themselves in the odd situation of trying to restore to good health a man with only two days left to live."[1]
A native of Texas, Long grew up mostly in California. He started drinking alcohol at age 12, was sent to a reformatory around that time, and spent many years addicted to drugs. In 1986, Long confessed to killing three women in Lancaster, Texas; he was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row. He was never tried for any other murders, but while in police custody for the murders in Lancaster, he confessed to two additional crimes: the fatal 1978 beating of a gas station attendant in San Bernardino, California, and a 1983 arson that killed his former boss, Bobby Neal Rogers, in Bay City, Texas. Long later confessed to setting a 1986 fire in West Texas that killed two women. While Long's confession in the West Texas fire was found to lack credibility, it sparked new interest in the validity of Ernest Willis's conviction for the crime. The conviction was overturned and Willis was released from prison in 2004, having spent 17 years on death row.
On December 6, 1999, two days before Long was to be executed, he took an overdose of prescription drugs. He was placed on a ventilator and admitted to an intensive care unit in Galveston, Texas. Officials in Texas refused to delay his execution. Long's condition improved significantly by the day after the overdose. He was placed on a medically supervised flight back to death row in Huntsville on December 8, and he was executed that day as scheduled.