Bio

Robert Jean Hudson was born on March 4, 1963, in Texas. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records list him as inmate number 999353, a Black male from Dallas County, Texas, with a 12th-grade education and prior work as a laborer.

Before the capital murder case, Hudson had multiple prior convictions and parole releases. TDCJ records list prior sentences for burglary of a habitation, burglary of a building, forgery, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and forgery by passing. Execution coverage also reported that he had at least eight convictions and one 1987 murder conviction in Dallas.

Hudson had been on parole for about six months when Edith Kendrick was killed. His later appeals focused partly on claims that jurors did not hear enough mitigation evidence about his background, family instability, psychiatric treatment, and medication, but the federal courts rejected his habeas claims.

Murder Story

On the evening of May 6, 1999, Hudson called his former girlfriend, Edith Kendrick, at her apartment. He became angry when he heard a man’s voice in the background. According to state evidence summarized by Amnesty International, Hudson went to the apartment, kicked open the door, and confronted Kendrick and the man inside.

When Kendrick tried to intervene, Hudson threatened her with a knife. The other man fled to call police. Kendrick’s young son tried to protect his mother and was seriously cut on the throat and neck before escaping from the apartment.

Hudson then attacked Kendrick. TDCJ records state that he stabbed her seven times in the upper torso. Later execution reporting said witnesses saw Kendrick reach a balcony while Hudson grabbed her by the hair and stabbed her six to eight times. Three wounds reached her heart, and records showed that any one of those wounds could have been fatal.

Kendrick died at the scene. Her wounded son ran for help and identified Hudson as the attacker. Police found Hudson at a nearby convenience store. Officers also found a woman’s watch and blood-spattered money in his pocket, identified as missing from Kendrick’s purse.

Hudson later signed a written statement admitting that he stabbed Kendrick. In that statement, he said he had lost control and wrote, “I loved Edith. I am sorry for what has happened and have told the truth about the incident.”

His trial began on February 28, 2000. The defense called no witnesses during either the guilt phase or the sentencing phase. On March 1, 2000, the jury sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in 2002, and later state and federal habeas challenges failed.

On November 20, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hudson’s stay request and petition for certiorari. He was executed by lethal injection in Texas later that day and was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m.