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Thread: Rigoberto Avila, Jr. - Texas Death Row

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    The execution has been delayed (again) until July 10, 2013:

    http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_2...yed?source=rss

  2. #12
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    Following a court hearing Tuesday morning, 41st District Judge Anna Perez ruled additional time is necessary to allow Avila's defense attorney, Cathryn Crawford of the Texas Defender Service, to explore possible new evidence of Avila's innocence. Perez also ordered that Avila's execution be rescheduled for July 10.
    WTF Texas -.-

  3. #13
    Senior Member Member nmiller855's Avatar
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    He's had 13 years for appeals. These last minute stays are getting out of hand.

  4. #14
    CaliHornia
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    The system needs some order. I suppose "new evidence of innocence" comes up when it comes up. And when it's legitimate, it should be considered. But it does seem like a lot of what delays justice is not new evidence (i.e., the McCarthy case).

  5. #15
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    This was released on Friday even though the execution date has been changed to July 10, 2013.

    Media Advisory: Rigoberto Avila, Jr. scheduled for execution

    AUSTIN — Pursuant to a court order by 41st District Court of El Paso County, Rigoberto Avila, Jr., is scheduled for execution after 6 p.m. on April 10, 2013.

    On May 7, 2001, Avila was sentenced to die for the stomping-death of nineteenth month old Nicholas Macias.

    FACTS OF THE CRIME

    At trial, the evidence established that sometime between 6:00 and 6:15 p.m., on February 29, 2000, Marcelina Macias left her home to attend a class, leaving her 19-month-old son, Nicholas Macias, and his four-year-old brother, Dylan Salinas, in Avila’s care. At 7:02 p.m., Avila called “911” and told the operator that the infant boy he was babysitting had stopped breathing. When the paramedics arrived, they administered emergency treatment to the child before transporting him to the hospital. While treating the boy, paramedics found a bruise on Nicholas’s abdomen in the shape of a foot print. When they asked Avila about the bruise, he denied any knowledge of the marking. At the hospital, surgical at-tempts to save Nicholas’s life by repairing the injury to Nicholas’s intestines and other abdominal injuries were un-successful, and Nicholas died.

    An autopsy revealed that major organs in Nicholas’s body had been split in two by considerable blunt-force trauma consistent with being stomped by an adult. Specifically, the medical examiner reported that Nicholas “died of internal bleeding due to massive abdominal trauma resulting from blunt for[ce] injury.” The surgeon’s testimony likened Nicholas’s injuries to those caused by such events as exiting an automobile traveling at sixty miles per hour or being dropped twenty feet.

    Officer Jose Lopez testified that on February 29, 2000, he was dispatched to the home of a child who had stopped breathing. Avila told Lopez that he had been watching the television when Dylan came into the room and told him that Nicholas was not breathing. Dylan told Avila that “he had held [Nicholas’s] mouth” and then Nicholas stopped breathing. Lopez then allowed Avila to drive to the hospital.

    Detective Tony Tabullo arrived at the hospital to assess the situation. Because Avila was the last adult known to be with Nicholas, Tabullo asked him if he would be willing to discuss the incident with him at the Crimes Against Persons offices. Avila initially gave a statement in which he denied injuring Nicholas. Subsequently, Tabullo received from other detectives Polaroid photographs which appeared to show an adult-sized footprint on Nicholas's stomach. Tabullo confronted Avila with the photographs, after which Avila orally admitted to stomping Nicholas. Tabullo typed the confession, which Avila signed. The confession was admitted at trial. During the guilt-innocence phase of trial, Avila testified that he did not injure Nicholas.

    PUNISHMENT-RELATED EVIDENCE

    [Nicholas’s] five-year-old brother Dylan Salinas testified, on the evening of [Nicholas’s] injury, [Avila] directed Dylan to step on [Nicholas] before [Avila] did so and denied ever saying he had put his hand over [Nicholas’s] mouth.

    The jury heard the audiotape recording of [Avila’s] 911 call on the evening of [Nicholas’s] murder, which had been received at 7:02 p.m.

    A family friend testified (1) since [Nicholas’s] death, his siblings had exhibited sleeplessness, fear, crying spells, and clinging to their mother and (2) when she was informed of [Nicholas’s] death, Marcelina Macias wept and fainted.

    [Nicholas’s] mother testified (1) when she left their home on the evening of Nicholas’s murder, [Nicholas] and Dylan were chasing each other around the apartment as she kissed them goodbye, (2) [Avila] paged her around 6:50 p.m. that evening, (3) when she arrived back at her home, she observed EMS personnel working on [Nicholas] and she became hysterical, (4) when Dylan and [Avila] arrived at the hospital, Dylan was scared and clingy toward her, (5) prior to the evening in question, [Avila] had never struck or even disciplined any of her children, (6) she had been dating [Avila] for about four months before [Nicholas’s] death, (7) [Avila] first began babysitting her children at the beginning of February, 2000, about a month before [Nicholas’s] death, (8) she never saw [Avila] get angry with her children, but (9) she was aware [Avila] was jealous of her seeing other men.

    The defense presented a number of friends and relatives who all described [Avila] as a kind, caring, soft-spoken, non-violent person and a loving, supportive, father to his own son.

    PROCEDURAL HISTORY

    March 16, 2000 An El Paso County grand jury indicts Avila for the capital murder of an individual younger than six.

    May 3, 2001 After a trial in the 41st District Court of El Paso County, the jurors find Avila guilty of capital murder.

    May 7, 2001 After a punishment hearing, the court sentences Avila to death.

    May 19, 2003 Avila applies for state habeas corpus relief.

    July 2, 2003 The Court of Criminal Appeals affirms the conviction and the sentence. Avila v. State, No. 74,142, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 142.

    Sept. 10, 2003 In connection with Avila=s appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals denies rehearing. In re Avila, No. 74,142, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 321.

    March 22, 2004 On appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court denies certiorari review. Avila v. Texas, 541 U.S. 935.

    Sept. 29, 2004 The Court of Criminal Appeals denies habeas corpus relief. Ex parte Avila, No. 59,662-01.

    Sept. 19, 2005 Avila seeks federal habeas corpus relief.

    July 13, 2007 The federal district court grants Avila a new punishment hearing, denies a new trial on guilt-innocence, and allows him to appeal certain issues. Avila v. Thaler, 499 F. Supp. 2d 713 (W.D. Tex.).

    Feb. 17, 2009 The Fifth Circuit panel reverses the district court’s grant of a new punishment hearing and affirms its denial of a new guilt-innocence trial. Avila v. Thaler, 560 F.3d 299.

    Nov. 2, 2009 The U.S. Supreme Court denies certiorari review of the 5th Circuit decision. Avila v. Thaler, 558 U.S. 993.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #16
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    Prosecutors have withdrawn the execution date so that 'Avila could litigate new scientific evidence' that he's innocent.

    I wrote to the DA's office in El Paso county a few weeks ago questioning why they delayed the execution back in April and December 2012 (with a more specific response), and the response was that the defense believes that there is 'evidence' that he's innocent. Now the same thing has happened for a THIRD time. Throw in liberal judge Anna Perez, this silly claim regarding 'evidence' that he's innocent, prosecutors that have whimped out, and the result is an indefinite stay of execution until they have resolved the bogus argument that Avila has fabricated.

    News articles regarding the stay should be out pretty soon to confirm what I have just said.

  7. #17
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Execution date moved for El Paso man convicted of killing boy

    The execution date for an El Paso man convicted in the 2000 death of his then-girlfriend's 19-month-old son has been rescheduled again.

    The request was made by his attorneys who wanted more time to explore the possibility he may be innocent.

    Rigoberto "Robert" Avila Jr., 40, has been on Texas' death row since 2001 after his capital murder conviction in the Feb. 29, 2000, death of Nicolas Macias.

    In 2001, a state district court jury sentenced Avila to death after convicting him in Nicolas' death. Prosecutors had alleged Avila fatally beat Nicolas while Avila was baby-sitting Nicolas and his sibling.

    At the time, Avila was dating the children's mother, who was attending classes when Nicolas was injured. Nicolas' mother, Marcelina Macias, has declined interview requests from the El Paso Times.

    Avila was initially scheduled to be executed on Dec. 12 -- which happened to be the Catholic Church's feast day for Our Lady of Guadalupe -- but was rescheduled for April 10. After defense attorneys asked for more time to explore scientific evidence in the case, Avila's execution was rescheduled again for July 10.

    Cathryn Crawford and Kathryn Kase, attorneys with the Texas Defender Service who are representing Avila in his appeals, requested that Avila's July 10 execution date be withdrawn to allow them to explore the possibility Avila may be innocent, based on a scientific study that Nicolas was injured by a sibling.

    District Attorney Jaime Esparza did not oppose the request, which was granted by 41st District Judge Anna Perez last week. Perez also scheduled a new execution date in January 2014.

    Avila's attorneys commended Esparza for not opposing their request for more time. Esparza declined to comment on the request, but said he allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Avila based on Nicolas' brutal death. At the time, jurors did not have the option of sentencing Avila to life in prison without parole.

    According to testimony by two medical experts at Avila's trial, Nicolas had severe internal injuries, including a severed pancreas, that were caused by the same amount of force seen in high-speed traffic crashes. They also testified Nicolas' injuries could not have been caused by an accident.

    One witness, pediatric surgeon Dr. George Raschbaum, testified the only way a 4-year-old child could have caused Nicolas' injuries was if he had jumped on Nicolas from a height of 20 feet.

    During an El Paso Times editorial board meeting last week, Crawford said testing by their defense expert indicates Nicolas' injuries could have been caused by a 4-year-old child jumping from a height of 16 to 24 inches. The bed in the bedroom Nicolas and his sibling were playing in was 18 inches high.

    "It is very clear that physically, this is a very possible scenario," Crawford said. "We're hoping to present the evidence to the court to determine if the jury had heard this, would they have possibly found him not guilty. That's all we're asking for."

    Crawford and Kase stopped short of saying Avila is innocent, but said they are exploring the possibility Nicolas was fatally injured by his 4-year-old sibling, who was mimicking wrestling moves both had seen on pay-per-view a few days earlier.

    According to preliminary biomechanical testing conducted by a defense expert, Crawford and Kase said, it is possible Nicolas could have suffered his injuries after his sibling leaped from a bed onto the boy, who was lying on the floor.

    However, the biomechanical testing was not available to Avila's defense attorneys at the time of his 2001 trial, and according to Senate Bill 344, a state law that will take effect Sept. 1, a defendant is entitled to a court hearing based on "relevant scientific evidence" not available at the time of the defendant's trial.

    Crawford said she and Kase are also looking into the possibility that Avila unknowingly signed a confession where he admitted to hitting Nicolas.

    Avila had initially told then-El Paso police homicide Detective Tony Tabullo that Nicolas and his sibling were playing in a bedroom while Avila was watching television in a different room when Nicolas' sibling told Avila the boy was not breathing.

    Crawford said in the first statement, Avila initialed each paragraph indicating he had read them. She said Avila's first statement was consistent with what he told police and paramedics at the scene and what Nicolas' sibling described during an initial interview with a police investigator.

    During the early morning hours of March 1, 2000, while Avila was still at police headquarters, Tabullo learned of a bruise on Nicolas' abdomen that paramedics interpreted as a shoe mark, Crawford said.

    Crawford said Tabullo, who retired from the police department in 2003, had Avila sign a second statement that said Avila confessed to beating Nicolas. Avila signed the second statement because he trusted it was the same as the first.

    Kase and Crawford also noted Avila had no previous criminal or violent history and was a Navy veteran.

    Crawford and Kase said they expect to file more extensive documents once the new law becomes effective in September. Kase said Avila's case will very likely be the first case heard under the new law.

    http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_2...ce=most_viewed
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
    Jan
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    Rescheduled for January 15, 2014!

  9. #19
    Member Member alexisidem's Avatar
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    I do not think Texas would delay an execution, should it be clear and plain. There must be something that defence needs to check to be able to proof his innocence (or guilt). If he will found guilty beyond any doubt, he will certainly be executed. Nothing will change this. 6 months won't make any difference.

  10. #20
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    I know we shouldn't judge, but.... The defense is now trying to assert the infant boy may have been killed by his four-year-old brother. See Heidi's post of 04-08-2013, 10:47 AM on the previous page of this thread.

    If Avila was supposed to be watching the kids, why didn't he know that and state it at the time? This is another Hail Mary play, but it could result in an acquittal, not merely a commutation of sentence.

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