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Thread: Licho Escamilla - Texas Execution - October 14, 2015

  1. #31
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    To Joe_Conn the following article shows the brutal murder. He may not have owed an apology, but morally he should have apologized for his acts.

    Another execution in Texas, another argument for capital punishment

    Licho Escamilla is — or was — that charming fellow who will be remembered for a courtroom riot. It was a melee he started by throwing a water pitcher at the Dallas County jury that had just sentenced him to death.

    Let’s also remember what put him in that courtroom. On Thanksgiving weekend in 2001, Escamilla took Dallas police Officer Kevin James from his wife and 8-year-old daughter. Escamilla, already with a warrant out for his arrest in the shooting death of a West Dallas neighbor, got into a fight outside a fairly infamous northwest Dallas nightspot, Club DMX.

    Kevin James was a decorated seven-year officer who graduated tops in his cadet class. Like many cops, he worked off-duty security to supplement a city paycheck that fell far short of his societal value. In his case, he just wanted to save up enough to buy a house for his young family.

    In the fight outside Club DMX, Escamilla pulled a gun and fired into the darkness. James was the more seriously wounded of two off-duty officers hit by gunfire. Two shots from Escamilla’s gun put James on his knees. Escamilla strolled up and put three more shots into the back of a wounded cop’s head.

    After a chase, Escamilla was caught. He bragged about the killing to EMTs trying to patch him up. He told them he’d be out in 48 hours. He later admitted to killing James in a television interview.

    The state of Texas ended his life Wednesday night. He was the 24th person executed this year in the U.S. and 12th in our state. My only sympathy goes to Kevin James’ friends and family.

    My colleagues on the editorial board believe Texas should rid itself of the death penalty. They believe, in good conscience, that it’s a sentence of irrevocable finality too inconsistently applied, that once it’s carried out there’s no do-over on mistakes.

    Licho Escamilla might agree, if he could. In my mind, it’s better that he can’t.

    http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallas...nishment.html/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #32
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Dallas man freed after 17 years in prison for wrongful murder conviction

    Fox4News

    After serving 17 years in prison for the murder of a Dallas teenager, Quintin Alonzo is now a free man.

    The real killer confessed to the crime years ago and was eventually executed for also murdering a Dallas police officer. But it would still take years for Alonzo to be exonerated.

    It's hard to say one thing led to this man spending nearly half of his life behind bars. Attorneys say there was false testimony in the trial, legal restrictions that kept the real killer's confession from becoming public and a lengthy investigation to prove Alonzo was, in fact, innocent.

    “It's the court's hope that the next 17 years are happier than your last 17 years,” said Dallas County Judge Carter Thompson.

    A 10-minute hearing concluded nearly two decades behind bars for 38-year-old Quintin Alonzo, who got a tearful hug from his mother before the two left the courthouse.

    There were few words from Alonzo himself.

    “The person who inspires me the most is my mother because she's been there through the good and hard times,” he said.

    On June 9, 2001, Santos Gauna was a Molina High School graduate who was days away from joining the Marines. He was gunned down outside his West Dallas home at his send-off party. His mother and father also shot, but they survived.

    Alonzo's attorney says it was an eyewitness to Gauna's murder who mistakenly identified Alonzo in a photo lineup. It was followed by a shoddy police investigation that began his long, unfortunate tangle with the legal system.

    “For the most part, that was the end of the investigation when an eye-witness identified my client,” said Julie Lesser, Alonzo’s attorney.

    The man who opened fire was then-19-year-old Licho Escamilla, who was infamously captured on video throwing a pitcher of water at the jury during his capital murder trial for the shooting death of Dallas Police Officer Kevin James.

    Even though Escamilla had confessed to his attorneys to also killing Gauna, it was never revealed because of attorney-client privilege. Along the way, attorneys say there was also false testimony in Alonzo's trial.

    It wasn't until the eve of Escamilla's execution in 2015 that he confessed again. This time, he confessed to prosecutors with the Conviction Integrity Unit which launched their own investigation into Alonzo's innocence.

    “That's why it's so critical for us to have this kind of unit,” said Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson. “So that if something happened and it was wrong, that we have a unit that can now go back and investigate and say we are going to undo this.”

    The head of the Conviction Integrity Unit says proving Alonzo's innocence was also trickier than most cases because it lacked DNA evidence. His case was fast-tracked at the end with attorneys on both sides working around the clock to make things happen so he could attend his daughter's high school graduation.

    http://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-...der-conviction

    It appears in the end he tried to help out at least one person that suffered due to his actions.
    Last edited by Mike; 05-30-2018 at 06:34 PM.

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