Bio

Leon Rutherford King was born on May 22, 1944. He was a Texas prison inmate with prior convictions for burglary, forgery, and drug possession before the murder of Michael Clayton Underwood. On April 10, 1978, King and an accomplice, Allen Ray Carter, abducted 26-year-old Underwood and his girlfriend at gunpoint after they left a Houston club. The couple was robbed and taken to an isolated area, where Underwood was beaten to death with the butt of a shotgun. His girlfriend survived the attack.

King was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death twice, with his second conviction coming in May 1980. During his years on death row, his attorneys filed appeals arguing that his violent behavior was linked to severe brain damage. The case moved through the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and reached the United States Supreme Court, which denied his final emergency appeals. On March 22, 1989, King was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit. He was 44 years old and was the 30th inmate executed in Texas after the state resumed capital punishment.

Murder Story

On April 10, 1978, Michael Clayton Underwood and his female companion went to the Montrose area of Houston, Texas, where they stopped at two nightclubs. After leaving the second club around 11:30 p.m., they were confronted by Leon Rutherford King and Allen Carter, who had driven up in a maroon pickup truck. Carter got out of the truck with a shotgun and ordered the couple into the vehicle.

King and Carter robbed the couple and drove them to a remote field. There, Underwood was beaten to death. Reports state that his head was smashed with the butt of a shotgun while his female companion was forced to watch. She survived the attack.

King was convicted of capital murder on October 16, 1978, and sentenced to death. His original conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on February 6, 1980, and the case was retried. In May 1980, King was convicted and sentenced to death again.

King’s appeals continued through state and federal courts. His lawyers argued, among other things, that his crimes were linked to possible brain damage, but the courts did not stop the execution. On March 21, 1989, the United States Supreme Court rejected emergency appeals. King was executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight on March 22, 1989.