By Cody Stark
The Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE — Correctional officers from various prison units in Walker County will come together tonight to show their support for a coworker who was slain in the line of duty as her convicted killer is slated to be executed.
Jerry Martin, 43, is set to die today for the murder of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employee Susan Canfield six years ago. Canfield, 59, died from severe head injuries when the horse she was riding was struck by a stolen truck Martin was driving while he and another inmate escaped from the Wynne Unit on Sept. 24, 2007.
TDCJ Region I Director Richard Alford said Monday that correctional officers planned to form a “wall of gray” outside the Huntsville Unit when Canfield’s family walks to and from the execution.
“Mrs. Canfield’s murder is still fresh on a lot of people’s minds and it rivets through the community,” Alford said. “We want to give her family a sense of support. (Wynne Unit) Warden (Billy) Hirsch and the employees wanted to do something to honor her.”
Canfield worked for TDCJ for seven years. She was serving as the high rider, or last line of defense, the day Martin and John Falk Jr., broke away from a work detail in a vegetable garden at the Wynne Unit.
Alford said they also plan to have a riderless horse with a black saddle — an age-old ritual symbolizing the loss of a fallen comrade — on hand.
Alford said they did not have an official head count for those who will be attending tonight’s execution, but he expects it to be a large crowd.
“Mrs. Canfield would do anything for anybody,” Alford said. “There are going to be some people who will not be able to make it — that would love to be there — because they will be on duty.
“But this is an opportunity for Mrs. Canfield’s coworkers to show their respect for her and her family.”
More than 1,000 correctional and law enforcement officers attended Canfield’s funeral, which was held at Sam Houston State’s Johnson Coliseum on Sept. 29, 2007 to accommodate the crowd.
A scholarship endowment fund in Canfield’s honor was set up by correctional officers and friends at SHSU’s College of Criminal Justice. TDCJ employees from across the state help contribute to the fund and fundraisers are held each year in Canfield’s memory to raise more money for the endowment.