Fighting To Save A Son

When this 48 Hours segment first appeared on Jan. 13, Larry Robison was still alive. On Jan. 21, he was executed.

Larry Robison was slated to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 17, 1999. As the date approached, the Robisons continued to visit him at Huntsville, Texas.

As the execution date neared, seeing their son became harder for the Robisons; they knew that soon he would be dead. "The visits are good," said his father, Ken Robison. "It's going to leave a void in our lives (when Larry is executed.)"

For his part, Larry Robison believed that he was responsible for the five murders. He deserves to die, he said. He was philosophical: "I don't presume to second guess what God's will is for me. If it's my time to go, I'll gladly get on that table and leave."

Although he appeared lucid, his parents insisted he was insane at the time of the murders.

"This wouldn't have happened if we had got him the proper treatment," his mother said. It is "hard to say" if he deserves responsibility for his crimes, because he was extremely psychotic when he committed them, she said.

Even though he thought he deserved to die, Larry Robison said that he was proud of his parents' fight to save him. "It's given them a purpose in their lives," he said.

Although he remembered the day of the crime, he didn't know why he committed the murders, Larry Robison said at one point. "(That's) something maybe I probably won't ever know."

He also said at one point he didn't think he currently was a paranoid schizophrenic. He was not taking medication.

In August his parents arrived for what would be their final visit.

"I just want to tell him good-bye and that we're going to miss him," mother Lois Robison said, citing "all the memories we have of when he was a little boy and what a wonderful boy he was."

"He's preparing to go over to the other side," she said of her son. "He says he's already halfway there."

But four and a half hours before Robison was due to die, the Texas Supreme Court issued a stay and ordered a hearing to decide if he was competent enough to be executed. His parents were ecstatic.

Rhonda Kreps was shocked. She believed the jury's verdict was fair and should be carried out.

In December, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Robison was competent and could be executed. Following the hearing, Lois Robison was allowed to hug her son for the first time in 12 years.

Afterward the family discussed whether it wanted to appeal one more time. "I say no," said Larry's sister Vickie, arguing emotionally that it was not what he wanted.

"There's a lot of people suffering here," Vickie Robison said. "It's not only our family. Our family is only one part. The victim's families are suffering, too. Larry's suffering."

Even so, Lois Robison refused to give up.

Her son's execution was sated for Jan. 21: Larry Robison requested that date because he wanted to die on a night with a full moon.

To review the facts in the case, return to A Son On Death Row.

Web story by David Kohn;