Alert – Sister of strangling victim is pleading with Texas NOT to execute his ‘remorseful’ killer – a lothario who famously wooed a British woman with kinky letters from death row

The sister of a prison strangling victim is pleading with the state not to execute his killer – a lothario who famously wooed a British woman from behind bars.

William Speer, 49, was supposed to face a lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville on Thursday for killing the inmate more than 26 years ago.

But in a bizarre twist Gary Dickerson’s sister along with religious leaders are asking for Speer’s life to be spared. Sammie Martin said that Speer is ‘remorseful’ and deserves freedom.

Speer killed Dickerson in 1997 in a sick bid to join the Texas Mafia prison gang. He was in jail for shooting his friend’s father in 1994 when he was aged just 16. 

He hit the headlines in 2013 after striking up a romantic relationship with Anna Curtis, from Mitcham, London, sending her kinky letters from death row.

Curtis was besotted with Speer, although it’s unclear if their relationship stood the test of time. In 2013 she said: ‘He’s a massive flirt. When he writes to me he calls me his peach, and I get butterflies in my stomach.’

Speer was still just a teenager when he killed Dickerson in July 1997 at the Telford Unit in Bowie County, Texas. 

He allegedly killed Dickerson in an attempt to join the Texas Mafia prison gang.

This came after the gang ordered the hit because they mistakenly thought Dickerson had snitched on them to authorities for trying to smuggle tobacco into the prison.

Dickerson’s sister Martin said that their mother was ‘devastated’ by her brother’s death, but is now pleading the state not to execute his killer. 

Lawyers backing Speer have claimed that his time in prison transformed him – and that he has since expressed regret for his heinous crime. He apparently helps lead a religious program which provides minister services to other death row inmates.

‘I am so aware of the things that I’ve done. I’m so aware of the pain and the hurt that I’ve caused. I could just say that I’m sorry,’ Speer said in a video submission for his clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. 

Speer was initially detained at age 16 for fatally shooting the father of one of his friends – Jerry Collins. 

On Tuesday, the paroles board voted against changing Speer’s death sentence to a lesser punishment in a 7-0 decision.

Efforts to halt Speer’s execution came from all different angles. The sister of his victim said: ‘I have spent much time reflecting on what justice my brother and my family deserved.

‘In my heart, I feel that he is not only remorseful for his actions but has been doing good works for others and has something left to offer the world.’

A group of religious leaders from across the country have spoken out in support of Speer as well, saying that Speer’s religious work ‘does not excuse his actions, but it gives us a fuller picture of who Will is as a human, Christian, leader, and teacher.’

The ex-lover of William Speer – Anna Curtis – also vouched for the inmate’s character during their whirlwind romance in 2013.

Curtis googled Speer before messaging him and admitted: ‘I wasn’t bothered about what he’d done in the past; I just wanted to put a face to a name.’

She said:  ‘With some people, you can see the evil in their eyes, but just from looking at his photo on the internet, I knew he wasn’t like that.’

In 2013, Curtis has exchanged hundreds of letters with the six-foot-nine-inch lag, who she calls her ‘gentle giant’.

She said they have even discussed marriage, and she is planning on visiting him next year.

Curtis, who has never been abroad and has just applied for her first passport, said: ‘He hasn’t popped the question yet, but it could be on the cards.’

The subject came about when Curtis sent Speer a letter with a suggestive tone.

‘When you’re exchanging letters with prisoners in America, if you put the stamp on the envelope in a certain position, it means something.

‘So I put the stamp to the side, thinking it meant “hugs and kisses”, but actually it meant “marry me,”‘ she explained.

Curtis revealed that she was smitten with the criminal: ‘I look forward to telling Will what I’ve been up to; he’s the first person I’ll go to. He’s interested in knowing what we do, what we eat, what our house is like, where we go and walk the dog, what the scenery is like.

‘He doesn’t have a TV, so I fill him in on the news. And he’ll talk to me about anything – his medical ailments, if someone new has come onto the block.

‘I just want to give him some insight into the free world and bring some comfort to his miserable life.’

Speer’s lawyers have also put in effort to divert Speer from his scheduled execution. His attorneys asked state and federal courts based on allegations that prosecutors at his 2001 trial failed to disclose evidence and presented false testimony, according to CBS News. 

His attorneys also claimed that trial lawyers failed to take into account Speer’s troubled childhood – which allegedly included physical and sexual abuse. 

The attorneys also tried to halt execution efforts because of claims that the state’s supply of pentobarbital was exposed to extreme heat in a recent fire – which would make it dangerous to use in a lethal injection. 

Although – the same reasoning was used to stop the execution of another inmate on death row, Jedidiah Murphy, but his execution went ahead as planned.