Texas to execute woman for torture and beating death of mentally disabled man with intellect of a seven-year-old whom she had promised to marry in insurance scam

Capital murder defendant Suzanne Basso is expected to be executed in Texas Wednesday for the brutal 1998 slaying of a mentally disabled man, becoming only the 14th woman to be put to death since 1976.
Basso was convicted in 1999 of leading a group of thugs in torturing and killing Louis 'Buddy' Musso, 59, so they could cash his life insurance policy.
Basso's lawyer argued that the 59-year-old woman is not mentally competent enough to face execution because she suffers from delusions, and that the state statute governing competency was unconstitutionally flawed. He also challenged the legality of a medical examiner's testimony.

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Justice for Buddy: Suzanne Basso (left), 59,  is scheduled to die for the 1998 torture slaying of Louis 'Buddy' Musso (right), a 59-year-old mentally impaired man with the intellect of a 7-year-old, near Houston

A state judge last month ruled that Basso had a history of fabricating stories about herself, sought attention and manipulated psychological tests.
‘She would pretend to be different things,’ recalled Colleen Barnett, who prosecuted Basso. ‘One setting she would pretend to be blind. One setting she would pretend she couldn't walk. One setting she had the voice of a little girl.
One mental health expert indicated additional testing over an extended period of time ‘would provide a more reliable evaluation,’ attorney Winston Cochran said in a federal court filing.
‘Why rush to judgment on Basso?’ he asked, seeking a punishment delay that was refused Monday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a federal judge.
He took his appeals Tuesday to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one step short of the Supreme Court.
At the competency hearing, a haggard-looking Basso sporting a cropped haircut testified from a hospital bed wheeled into a Houston courtroom and talked about a snake smuggled into a prison hospital in an attempt to kill her.

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Shocking crime: Basso was convicted in 1999 of leading a group of thugs in cutting and bashing Musso before dumping his body in a ditch so they could cash his life insurance policy

Cochran said a degenerative disease has left her paralyzed. Basso, 59, contended her paralysis was the result of a jail beating years ago.
At the hearing, she acknowledged representations about her background — that she was a triplet, worked in the New York governor's office, had a relationship with Nelson Rockefeller — were untrue. She originally was from the Albany and Schenectady areas of New York.

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Honey trap: Police say Basso met Musso during a church carnival in New Jersey and lured him to Texas after promising to marry him

At her trial, Basso was portrayed as the ringleader of a group of people who fatally tortured Musso in 1998 to steal his money.
Musso, who had the intellect of a 7-year-old child but cared for himself, had met either Basso or her son at a church carnival in New Jersey. He left there to move in with her in Jacinto City, just east of Houston.
‘She lured him to Texas with the idea they'd get married,’ Barnett said.
Evidence showed that she already was married, made herself the beneficiary of insurance policies purchased for Musso and took over his Social Security benefits.
Five others, including Basso's son, also were convicted for Musso's death. Prosecutors sought the death penalty only for Basso.
Court documents detailed extensive abuse Musso endured days before his body was found in a ditch by a jogger.
He'd been bathed in a solution of bleach and pine cleaner and scrubbed with a wire brush. An autopsy showed he had at least 17 cuts to his head; 28 cuts and cigarette burns on his back; bruises all over his body; a skull fracture; a fractured bone in his neck; 14 broken ribs and two dislocated vertebrae.

‘It was just horrible, horrible, horrible,’ Barnett said. ‘When you talk about the death penalty, what the death penalty was made for, it was for a case like this.’

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Web of lies: Basso had pretended to be blind or paralyzed, said she was a triplet, worked in the New York governor's office, and had a relationship with Nelson Rockefeller

Basso told police in a written statement that she drove Musso's body to the dump site.
She became a suspect after reporting Musso missing in an apparent attempt to distance herself from his slaying once his body was discovered.
None of the eight other women on Texas death row has an execution date.

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