Whitehouse man set for execution on Wednesday asks for stay

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A Whitehouse man convicted of murdering his mother and scheduled to be put to death in two days has made an appeal for a stay of execution.

Tracy Beatty, 61, got a reprieve in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Beatty, of Whitehouse, was sentenced to death in 2004 for murdering his 62-year-old mother and burying her body in their backyard.

Beatty’s lawyer, Thomas Scott Smith, filed the appeal on Tuesday, citing “a significant issue of recently discovered juror misconduct” in which it is claimed that one of the jurors “failed to disclose that she knew the victim, Carolyn Click” as well as that the juror and Click were part of the same social circle of regulars at a local café. The filing claims that the juror withheld this information “despite inquiries into the issue and her receiving specific instructions to disclose that information.” Smith claims the juror’s failure to disclose this information violates Beatty’s Sixth Amendment right to a trial by a panel of impartial, indifferent jurors.

Previous reporting:

Execution date set for Smith County man who strangled mother, buried her in backyard