The Last Defense is a seven-episode docu-series that investigates the lives and trials of people on death row. The second episode (June 19) investigates the cases of Julius Jones and Darlie Routier. Routier was convicted of murdering her five-year-old son Damon. Both her sons, Damon and six-year-old Devon were stabbed to death with a kitchen knife in their Rowlett, Texas home on June 6, 1996 at approximately 2 am. (Routier was never charged with the murder of Devon.) When Routier called 911, she said someone had broken in the house and stabbed her boys and her in the throat. Her husband Darin and their third son, 7-month-old Drake, were upstairs asleep at the time — they were unharmed. Routier was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Routier’s husband filed for divorce in 2011 although he says he still believes his wife is innocent.
[Texan journalist Kathy Cruz wrote Dateline Purgatory: Examining the Case that Sentenced Darlie Routier to Death]
Routier is imprisoned at Mountain View Unit, where all of Texas’ female death row inmates are held. There are a total of six awaiting execution. One of the non-death row inmates at Mountain View Unit is Yolanda Saldívar, the Selena fan club president who shot and killed the 23-year-old Tejano singer Selena in 1995. (The film Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez, tells this tragic story – see streaming link above.) Saldívar is serving a life sentence and will become eligible for parole in March 2025. The Last Defense, which is produced by How To Get Away From Murder star Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon, airs Tuesdays at 10pm on ABC.
