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Thread: Robert James Campbell - Texas

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Partially true. With more people exiting death row per year via executions, natural deaths and life sentences than people entering, Texas executions will drop in the next couple years like in Virginia. Same thing with Oklahoma. However there's at least thirty inmates who have at least been denied by the Fifth Circuit so there's some other factors apparently.

  2. #12
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    Family of slain bank teller awaits killer's execution - and hopes for 'closure'

    By Allan Turner
    The Houston Chronicle

    Houston trial lawyer Israel Santana is no stranger to society's pariahs - accused sex offenders, wife beaters and capital killers. He's looked for good in the worst and worked hard to ensure even the most despised get a fair day in court. A devoutly religious man and one-time church deacon, he knows - and doubtlessly has urged on jurors - the redemptive power of compassion.

    Still, Santana yearns for vengeance when he thinks of how his 20-year-old cousin, Alexandra Rendon, was robbed, raped and fatally shot by Houston high school dropout Robert James Campbell.

    Recounting how he recently worked through the night to craft a plea that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles not to stand in the way of Campbell's May 13 execution, Santana, himself the father of two young girls, vainly fought back tears.

    "This is still a battle within me. I'm told to forgive, but, I'm sorry, he deserves what's coming to him," Santana said. "My belief is that his real punishment will come after death. I believe he is an evil monster for what he did. His family, I feel for them. But he showed no mercy ... no remorse. He's an animal."

    The attack on the diminutive Rendon was so brutal that even death penalty foes say they appreciate the vehemence of Santana's feelings and agree Campbell should be severely punished. But, they argue, the killer was himself a child victim of violence and should not be put to death.

    Campbell and his accomplice, Leroy Lewis, abducted the young Bank One teller as she fueled her car at a service station not far from her southwest side apartment about 11 p.m. on Jan. 3, 1991. The men drove her to a muddy field in the 9700 block of Knight Road, where she was sexually assaulted and ordered to run.

    Campbell, 18, paroled months earlier after serving four months of a five-year sentence for two robberies, fired a shot at Rendon's head - and missed. The second shot slammed into the woman's back with deadly effect.

    Boasted to friends

    Campbell's friends later told authorities he had boasted of the crime. Police recovered Rendon's coat from Campbell's mother; her watch and high school class ring from the killer's girlfriend. Lewis, also 18, confessed to police. He was paroled in May 2012 after serving nine years of a 35-year sentence in the case.

    "The rape and murder of Alexandra Rendon was particularly heinous," said Josh Reiss a lawyer with the Harris County District Attorney's post-conviction writ division. "It is safe to say that Robert James Campbell preyed on the most vulnerable members of society."

    Campbell's lawyer, Robert Owen, a Harvard-educated professor at Northwestern School of Law's Bluhm Legal Clinic, confirmed that a petition on the killer's behalf has been filed with the Texas pardons board.

    'Much more to say'

    Formerly with the University of Texas law school's capital punishment clinic, Owen has defended clients facing execution at every level of the state and federal court system. In Texas, he is best known as attorney for Henry Skinner, the convicted Pampa triple killer whose life now hangs on the results of long-deferred DNA testing of articles collected at the crime scene.

    In Campbell's case, Owen said last week, no new appeals yet have been filed.

    "Legally, there's not much more to say," said Santana, who has been delegated to speak for the victim's mother, brother, stepfather and other relatives. "I'm sure his lawyers are scrambling looking for new evidence."

    That perspective, Santana said, reflects his legal training. "If you were to ask me about Alexandra as her cousin, something inside me - my heart - falls, my words are all choked ... Nobody deserves the hell she was put through."

    Santana and Rendon grew up in the same neighborhood. "I never remember her not smiling," he said. "... Attorneys, we sometimes have bad days. But I don't remember that with her. She was the most beautiful, spirited, happy girl you would ever meet."

    Rendon was planning to marry in April, and the family was busy making preparations. "She always said she couldn't wait to get us the invitations," Santana said.

    Rendon, Santana said, was buried in her wedding gown in one of the first funerals arranged by the Santana family's funeral home.

    As Rendon's family members searched for the missing woman, court documents indicate, Campbell and a companion abducted a woman and her 8-year-old son from the parking lot of toy store. Campbell drove the pair to an isolated field in southwest Houston, intending to fatally shoot the woman and drown her son in a lake. Campbell abandoned the plan, leaving them at the site bound with shoe strings, after his partner pleaded that their lives be spared.

    'Beyond words'

    In his trial, the defense called three of Campbell's family members and one of his friends to the stand. They testified that Campbell was remorseful and would not constitute a continuing threat to society.

    David Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, described the crime as "beyond words" and said he understands the Santana family's desire to see Campbell die.

    "If this happened in my own family, I would have, initially, this horrible angry response. I think it's almost natural," Atwood said. "In some people, though, there's 'divine intervention' - they come away from that and want, even, to forgive ... Some people get over the anger and that's a good thing. They have better lives. Others can't let go. It keeps gnawing at them."

    'A calming way'

    Campbell declined to be interviewed for this article, but death penalty opponent Angie Agapetus, a member of the anti-death penalty coalition who has visited him on death row since 2008, described him as "pretty calm and centered."

    "He calms down others on death row," she said. "He has a calming way about him ... I would say he's a lot different now than he was then."

    Agapetus said extreme physical abuse suffered at the hands of his father left Campbell "damaged."

    "He ran away from home at 12 and didn't go back," she said, advocating that he be kept behind bars for life rather than executed. "I'm not excusing it," she said of his crime, "but you don't find nurtured, well-raised people on death row. They're wounded. In a child, it's just wounding in a very core part of them."

    Santana, who has defended two capital cases in his legal career, said he understands anti-death penalty arguments.

    "They say that execution won't bring us closure," he said. "I don't know ... Possibly after he's executed, the memories will subside. It's not something we'll be going through every day."

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...ts-5452698.php

  3. #13
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    Lawyers for convicted killer Campbell file appeals days before scheduled execution

    Lawyers for convicted Houston rapist and killer Robert James Campbell this week launched appeals in state and federal courts in a near-last minute bid to save their client from execution on Tuesday.

    Campbell, 41, was condemned for the Jan. 3, 1991 murder of 20-year-old Bank One teller Alexandra Rendon, who was abducted while fueling her car at a service station near her southwest Houston home.

    In a petition filed Monday with Harris County's 232nd state District Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, attorney Robert Owen argued that Campbell has an IQ of 69, and therefore suffers a mental disability and is ineligible for execution. Owen also asserted that Campbell had suffered from inadequate legal representation.

    In an appeal in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, attorney Maurie Levin challenged the state's right to execute Campbell without divulging the source of the compounding pharmacy-produced drug used in executions.

    Owen, a law professor at Northwestern University, said in his appeal that testing performed last month indicated Campbell fell below the 70 IQ threshold of normal mental acuity. Owen asked the courts to re-open an earlier appeal, in which Campbell's mental disability claim was dismissed because of insufficient evidence.

    April's testing by psychologist Dr. Leslie Rosenstein marked the first time Campbell's mental ability thoroughly was valuated, he said. Rosenstein characterized the inmate as having "mild mental retardation."

    Owen cited Rosenstein's report in which she noted that tests administered to Campbell in grade school found mental deficiencies and a lack of progress in mastering his lessons.

    Additionally, Owen argued, Campbell suffered deficits in adaptive functioning that could be related to low mental ability. Campbell, he argued, had difficulty reading and with written communication. He had difficulty reading a clock, determining when his car was running out of gasoline and calculating change.

    Owen challenged the results of an intelligence test administered by prison authorities that found Campbell had an IQ of 84, charging that details of how the test was administered and by whom have been lost.

    In her federal appeal, Levin, a University of Texas law professor, challenged the state's right to keep secret who compounded the pentobarbital to be used in the execution. State prison officials turned to lightly regulated compounding pharmacies for the drug after its maker responded to pressure from anti-death penalty groups by halting sales to executioners.

    Levin filed her appeal less than a week after Oklahoma executioners spectacularly botched the execution of Clayton Lockett, a rapist-murderer who ordered an accomplice to bury his 19-year-old victim alive. Lockett groaned and writhed as the attempted execution using midazolom went awry. Lockett died more than 40 minutes later of a heart attack.

    In the Texas case, prosecutors said Campbell's attack on Rendon was part of a string of abductions and robberies. At the time, Campbell, then 18, had been paroled from state prison for four months after serving four months of a five-year sentence for two robberies.

    Days before Rendon's body was found in a muddy field off Knight Road, Campbell and two companions abducted a Houston-area woman and her 8-year-old son from the parking lot of a southwest side toy store. Campbell intended to rob the woman, then fatally shoot her and drown her son.

    His companions successfully pleaded that their lives be spared.

    Campbell's accomplice in the Rendon case, Leroy Lewis, was paroled in May 2012 after serving nine years of a 35-year sentence.

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...le-5457987.php
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  4. #14
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    Media Advisory: Robert James Campbell scheduled for execution

    AUSTIN – Pursuant to an order entered by the 232nd District Court of Harris County, Robert James Campbell is scheduled for execution after 6 p.m. (Central time) May 13, 2014.

    On May 21, 1992, Campbell was sentenced to die for the Jan. 3, 1991 rape- and kidnapping-related capital murder of Alexandra Rendon.

    FACTS OF THE CRIME

    The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit described the facts surrounding the murder of Alexandra Rendon as follows:

    On January 3, 1991, Alexandra Rendon left her job at Bank One between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. She was wearing a white leather skirt, a cream-colored dress coat with snake skin patches on the shoulders, a high school graduation ring, an engagement ring, and a watch. At 10:53 p.m. Ms. Rendon purchased gasoline at a Chevron station located near her place of employment. The next day, Ms. Rendon’s mother realized that her daughter was missing, and on January 5, she contacted the police about her daughter’s disappearance.

    On January 14, 1991, the police picked up Lawrence Thomas, Campbell’s friend of three years, for questioning. Thomas told the police that Campbell had told him that he and his friend Lewis had gotten a car from a lady at a gas station, driven her to a field, and shot and killed her. On January 15, Thomas led the police to the field where Campbell had told him that Ms. Rendon’s body was located. On January 16, the police arrested Campbell for Ms. Rendon’s murder.

    At trial, the State presented several witnesses whose testimony tied Campbell to the commission of Ms. Rendon’s murder. Campbell’s friends Thomas, Carey Pennamon, and Jesse Criff all testified that Campbell told them that he had shot and killed a woman whose car he’d taken at a gas station. Campbell also mentioned to two friends watching a news story about Ms. Rendon’s murder, Otha Norton and Sheila Robeson, that Ms. Rendon looked like the woman he’d shot and killed.

    Additionally, Campbell told Thomas, Criff, and Pennamon that he’d shot at Ms. Rendon twice, hitting her the second time. He told Pennamon that he told her to “run […]” before shooting at her and told Thomas that he’d told her to walk away from the car before shooting at her. He showed Thomas the field where he’d left Ms. Rendon’s body, and described the location to Criff. That field was where the police later recovered Ms. Rendon’s body.

    The police also recovered many of Ms. Rendon’s belongings from Campbell’s friends and family. They recovered the coat Ms. Rendon had been wearing from Campbell’s mother Wilda, the class ring and watch she had been wearing from Campbell’s girlfriend Demetrius Brown, and the gun used to kill Ms. Rendon from Campbell’s friend Pennamon. (Pennamon had also seen Campbell wearing Rendon’s class ring a day or so after Ms. Rendon’s disappearance.) Pennamon testified that Campbell had asked him to hold onto the gun. Campbell offered Ms. Rendon’s white leather skirt, which Thomas had seen earlier in the car Campbell was driving, to his friends Robeson and Norton. Robeson declined the skirt because it was dirty and Norton later threw it away. Campbell told Pennamon that he had taken the personal belongings of the woman he had killed. Campbell also drove numerous friends, including Thomas, Norton, and Robeson around in a car identical to Ms. Rendon’s.

    The police recovered semen of two men from Ms. Rendon’s body. Campbell told Criff that he had sex with his victim and told Thomas that Leroy Lewis, who was with Campbell that night, had also had sex with her. DNA testing further determined that 85.3% of African-American males could be excluded from contributing the semen attributed to Campbell, and only four percent of African-American males could have contributed the semen attributed to Lewis. (The degraded nature of the DNA prevented more accurate results.)

    PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

    Under Texas law, the rules of evidence prevent certain prior criminal acts from being presented to a jury during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. However, once a defendant is found guilty, jurors are presented information about the defendant’s prior criminal conduct during the second phase of the trial – which is when they determine the defendant’s punishment.

    During the punishment phase of trial, the State offered evidence of other crimes Campbell had committed. Aside from judgments of conviction against Campbell for two robberies, the State presented evidence of two other carjacking crimes he committed about the time of Ms. Rendon’s disappearance. In both instances Campbell confronted persons getting into their cars, abducted them, took them to a remote location, and stole their personal possessions. In one instance, Campbell ordered the victim to walk away from the vehicle and shot at him twice, missing both times. In the other, Campbell’s accomplice talked him out of his plan to shoot the female victim and drown her son in a nearby lake.

    The defense called three family members and a friend to testify on Campbell’s behalf. They testified that Campbell was remorseful, needed rehabilitation, was loved by his family, and would not be a future danger to society.

    PROCEDURAL HISTORY

    On April 2, 1991, a Harris County grand jury indicted Campbell for rape- and kidnaping-related capital murder.

    On May 14, 1992, after a trial in the 232nd District Court of Harris County, jurors found Campbell guilty of capital murder.

    On May 21, 1992, after a punishment hearing, the judge entered an order sentencing Campbell to death.

    On June 14, 1995, on direct review, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Campbell’s conviction and sentence.

    On April 15, 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of the Court of Criminal Appeals decision.

    On April 23, 1997, Campbell filed his first application for state habeas corpus relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied Campbell’s petition on March 8, 2000.

    On Nov. 2, 2000, Campbell filed his federal petition for habeas corpus relief in the Southern District of Texas. The federal district court denied the petition on March 19, 2003.

    Campbell filed his second application for state habeas corpus relief on June 2, 2003. The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Campbell’s second application for habeas corpus relief on July 2, 2003.

    On July 22, 2003, Campbell moved in the Fifth Circuit for permission to file a successive federal habeas corpus petition. The Fifth Circuit denied Campbell permission on Nov. 13, 2003.

    On Dec. 9, 2004 - in connection with Campbell’s initial federal petition for habeas corpus relief – the Fifth Circuit denied Campbell a certificate of appealability, thus denying permission to appeal.

    On Nov. 14, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of the Fifth Circuit Court’s decision denying Campbell a certificate of appealability.

    On Aug. 14, 2006, Campbell filed his third application for state habeas corpus relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Campbell’s third application for habeas corpus relief on April 25, 2007.

    On Nov. 26, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of the Court of Criminal Appeals decision regarding Campbell’s third application for state habeas corpus relief.

    Campbell filed his fourth application for state habeas corpus relief on Sept. 5, 2012.

    On Nov. 7, 2012, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief on Campbell’s fourth application for habeas corpus relief.

    On Oct. 7, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of Campbell’s fourth application for state habeas corpus relief.

    On Nov. 18, 2013, the 232nd District Court of Harris County scheduled Campbell’s execution for May 13, 2014.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #15
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    State court narrowly dismisses killer's bid for stay days before execution

    By Allan Turner
    The Houston Chronicle

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in a 5-4 vote Thursday rejected an appeal by convicted Houston killer Robert Campbell, who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the January 1991 rape-murder of a 20-year-old Houston bank teller.

    Campbell's attorney Robert Owen had raised claims that Campbell, 41, is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution and that his defense had suffered because of inadequate legal representation.

    The state's top criminal appeals court said the allegations did not meet relevant judicial standards for consideration, dismissed the appeal as an abuse of the writ and turned down the request for a stay.

    Judge dissents

    In a dissent, Judge Elsa Alcala argued that recent testing of Campbell showed he had an IQ of 69, indicating that he is intellectually disabled. She also noted that a 2003 appeal based on intellectual disability was rejected by the court because of a reported Texas Department of Criminal Justice intelligence test report showing an IQ of 84, well above the disability threshold.

    But, Alcala noted, Campbell's latest appeal asserted that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not provide results of a second test that indicated disability.

    4 justices favor review

    Furthermore, she said, the new appeal asserted that the Harris County District Attorney's office failed to provide Campbell's lawyers with documents that would have supported his 2003 claim.

    Alcala was joined by justices Tom Price, Cheryl Johnson and Cathy Cochran in favoring a court review of Campbell's claims.

    The five majority justices were Sharon Keller, Lawrence Meyers, Paul Womack, Michael Keasler and Barbara Harvey.

    Campbell was condemned for killing Alexandra Rendon, after abducting her as she fueled her car at a service station not far from her apartment.

    A second appeal for Campbell remains active in a Houston federal court.

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...or-5464153.php

  6. #16
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Victim's Family Relieved Texas Judge Denies Stay of Execution

    A Texas inmate's bid to stop his lethal injection because the state won't disclose where it got the drugs was rejected Friday by a federal judge, drawing outrage from his lawyers and bringing relief to his victim's family.

    If Robert James Campbell, 41, is executed on Tuesday, he will become the first U.S. prisoner put to death since last month's debacle in Oklahoma in which an inmate appeared to regain consciousness and writhe in pain after receiving the deadly shot.

    In court papers, Campbell had cited the botched execution of Clayton Lockett — which was denounced by the White House — in asking for a reprieve.

    The family of the woman he was convicted of murdering in 1991 — bank teller Alejandra Rendon — said they were concerned that the Oklahoma botch might buy Campbell more time.

    "As far as the execution being cruel and inhumane, I don't see that," said Rendon's cousin, Israel Santana, a criminal defense lawyer. "What she was put through was cruel and inhumane.

    "I would love to tell Robert Campbell: Would you like to be put to sleep or would you rather be brutally raped and shot? My cousin was not given a choice. Nobody can even fathom the terror she went through."

    Rendon, 20, was abducted from a gas station, sexually assaulted, taken to a field and then shot in the back. A witness said Campbell bragged that he told Rendon, "Run, bitch, run," before firing.

    The young woman — described by her cousin as "bubbly" and always full of excitement — was buried in the gown she would have worn at her wedding four months later.

    "I don't know if the execution will give us closure, but I'm hoping it will," Santana said.

    A state appeals court this week rejected Campbell's claim that his IQ is too low for him to be executed. The challenge on the grounds of drug secrecy was made in a separate filing in federal court. The denial will be appealed, his lawyers said.

    Texas uses pentobarbital to execute prisoners. Like many states, it has refused to disclose the source of its supply, hoping to inoculate the pharmacy against bad publicity and legal hassles.

    Death-row prisoners have argued without success that they need the information to ensure the drugs are properly prepared, pointing to a few cases in which condemned men have complained of pain mid-execution.

    Pentobarbital was not used in the Lockett execution. Instead, the state was trying a new three-drug cocktail for the first time: the sedative midazolam, the paralytic vecuronium bromide and the heart-stopper potassium chloride.

    Prison officials admit that they could not find a suitable vein in Lockett's arms or legs and took the unusual step of running a catheter into his vein.

    All the midazolam had been administered and the two other drugs were flowing in when, prison officials say, his vein collapsed.

    Lockett then struggled and mumbled, witnesses said. The execution, which lasted 43 minutes, was halted but he died minutes later.

    Oklahoma has put executions on hold until a state investigation into what went wrong is finished, but Texas has said the Lockett case should not affect its own execution because it uses a different protocol.

    One of Campbell's lawyers, Maurie Levin, said it was "unthinkable" for Texas to proceed with the execution without revealing where the drugs came from.

    "It is deeply shameful that Texas has more interest in protecting the identity of the supplying compounding pharmacy than they do in ensuring that they carry out executions in a humane manner," she said in a statement.

    "Texas carries out more executions, by far, than any other state. Death penalty states around the country —including Oklahoma — are pausing to be sure future executions do not submit prisoners to the substantial risk of the torturous death experienced by Mr. Lockett in Oklahoma.

    "Yet Texas is vigorously pursuing Mr. Campbell’s execution, at the same time they have decided to suddenly shroud the process in secrecy," Levin said. "This is unacceptable, and should not be tolerated in a civilized society.”

    http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/let...cution-n101811

  7. #17
    Weidmann1939
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    By my count 5 new execution dates have been set since Mr Lockett's demise. When SCOTUS adjourns for the summer recess. We'll see another raft of fresh execution dates.

  8. #18
    Senior Member Frequent Poster elsie's Avatar
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    Another IQ test. I would not believe any test a death row inmate took.

  9. #19
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    Inmate cites Oklahoma ordeal to stop his execution

    Attorneys for a condemned killer facing execution this week in Texas are insisting his punishment should be stopped because he risks the same ordeal experienced recently by an Oklahoma inmate whose lethal injection was disrupted.

    Robert Campbell's scheduled Tuesday evening execution in Huntsville would be the first nationally since Clayton Lockett's bungled punishment April 29. Lockett died of an apparent heart attack after Oklahoma prison officials aborted his execution following the failure of an intravenous line carrying the deadly drugs.

    Lawyers for Campbell say they must know the source of the drug used in Texas. Prison officials have refused.

    Attorneys also are arguing in appeals that Campbell's mentally impaired and ineligible for execution.

    Campbell was convicted of the 1991 abduction and fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Houston woman, Alexandra Rendon.

    http://www.chron.com/news/texas/arti...on-5471470.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  10. #20
    Weidmann1939
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    Now I know they're blowing smoke. There is zero similarity between Texas's one drug protocol and Oklahoma's three drug protocol. Further having read the TCCA's 5/4 opinion from last week. The claims made about mental retardation are just more "retrospective analysis" from an expert. (latter day heresay)

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