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

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    Licho Escamilla - Texas Execution - October 14, 2015


    Police Officer Chris James




    Summary of Offense:

    On November 25, 2001, in Dallas, Escamilla got into a fight in the parking lot of a nightclub. When Dallas City police officers arrived to stop the fight, Escamilla shot a police officer, Chris James, twice. The officer died en-route to the hospital.

    Escamilla was sentenced to death in Dallas County in November 2002.

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 2, 2008, Escamilla filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/tex...v02248/162846/

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Dallas Police Officer's tragic death recalled

    As Lori James' police officer husband headed out to work that night, she told him, "Be careful. See you in the morning."

    Hours later, she heard a knock at the door. Her husband, Dallas police Officer Christopher Kevin James, was dead - shot outside a northwest Dallas nightclub. That was Nov. 25, 2001, and hardly a day goes by that Lori James doesn't think of the man she married a month before he was lost to her forever.

    He was the 74th Dallas officer killed in the line of duty.

    "Our world as we knew it came to an end," she said. "I will never be the same."

    Around the corridors of the northwest patrol station, colleagues still fondly remember the hardworking, amiable officer whom friends knew as Kevin or "K.J." A makeshift memorial adorns his assigned locker at the station.

    James joined the department in 1995, graduating first in his academy class. He later joined the station's community policing unit, where he worked as a bicycle officer.

    "He was happy-go-lucky as a friend," said Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse, his former partner. "But when it was time to put the uniform on and be Kevin the policeman, he knew how to take care of business. You never had to worry that he was going to be unsafe or not serious when it was time to get serious."

    James certainly got serious one day in January 2001.

    He and Janse came upon a man making a possible drug deal. The man fled in a car, and they chased him. He crashed his vehicle near Love Field.

    As they approached the car, Janse rounded the passenger side, but smoke from an exploded air bag obscured his view. What Janse didn't see was the man raising his gun to point it at him. James, approaching the driver's side, saw it and fatally shot the man. Police found a large amount of crack cocaine afterward.

    "He saved my life that day," Janse said.

    In the months afterward, Lori James sensed a new foreboding in her soon-to-be husband.

    "It really shook him," she said. "That was the first time I'd ever seen any kind of fear. He was really affected by the ordeal and having killed somebody."

    But it was also a happy time for the couple. They married in October 2001, five years after meeting at a country and western club. That weekend, they went house hunting and spent time with his 8-year-old daughter.

    "His little girl was his world," said John Wagler, one of his close friends. "The time that he was with Shelby, you usually couldn't reach him."

    James didn't typically work off-duty jobs on the weekends he had his daughter. But the night he died, he decided to take the off-duty security shift at the club because he and his wife needed extra money for the new house.

    That night, James crossed paths with known gang member Licho Escamilla.

    Escamilla was wanted in a killing earlier that month of a West Dallas man. James and three other off-duty Dallas police officers were working security at the northwest Dallas club. It had a reputation for attracting a dangerous element.

    About 2:45 a.m., a brawl broke out near the valet stand. Officers tried to break up the fight, and Escamilla pulled a gun from his waistband and began indiscriminately firing at James and Senior Cpl. Clarence Lockett.

    Lockett was struck in the hand. Two rounds hit James, with one striking James' gun, disabling it. James fell to his knees. Escamilla calmly approached James, firing three fatal rounds into the back of his head.

    Hearing the shots, Sgt. Mark King began chasing Escamilla. Senior Cpl. Lance Crawford joined in the foot chase, and they exchanged gunfire with Escamilla. They shot and arrested him after Escamilla tried to carjack a vehicle. Escamilla's gun was empty.

    Crawford then found out that James had been shot.

    "It was absolutely the worst night that I've ever had since I've been at work," said Crawford, who attended James' wedding. "I survived. He didn't. It was a horrible, horrible thing."

    The club closed its doors in the years after James' death. Escamilla is on death row awaiting his fate.

    Four years ago, Lori James, Janse and other friends of the fallen officer set up the Kevin James Endowment Fund to help raise money for the Dallas Police Association's Assist the Officer Foundation, which helps sick or injured officers and the families of those killed in the line of duty. So far, the fund has raised more than $26,000.

    "When he was alive, he wanted to make a difference," Lori James said. "Now that he's gone, he can still make a difference."

    http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/arch...rs-tragic.html

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 26, 2012, Escamilla's habeas petition was DENIED in Federal District Court.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...248/162846/59/

    On September 18, 2012, Escamilla filed an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca5/12-70029/

  5. #5
    bem17356
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    I've read better then a dozen appeals this week. Is there anything to Escamiila's habeas petition or his appeal to the Fifth Circuit? (i.e. merit)
    Last edited by bem17356; 09-20-2012 at 09:06 AM.

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Today, the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted in part, and denied in part, Escamilla's application for a COA:

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...-70029-CV0.pdf

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Article

    Condemned Dallas killer gets go-ahead for appeal

    A federal appeals court is allowing the convicted killer of an off-duty Dallas police officer to move forward with an appeal that contends his trial attorneys failed to provide evidence of a troubled childhood that could have swayed jurors from sending him to death row.

    Lawyers for Licho Escamilla argued to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that details of his abusive upbringing weren't disclosed until after his trial. If successful, the appeal could result in a new punishment trial for the 31-year-old Escamilla. He was condemned for the 2001 fatal shooting of Christopher James, who was working security at a Dallas club.

    Escamilla's 2002 trial was marked by him throwing a pitcher of water toward the jury and hitting and kicking people as the judge read his sentence.

    http://www.kswo.com/story/25263496/c...ead-for-appeal
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  8. #8
    Passed away.
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    This makes tpg very angry. I cannot post what I am thinking.

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    Dallas Police Association responds to convicted cop killer’s death penalty appeal




    A federal appeals court is allowing the convicted killer of an off-duty Dallas police officer to move forward with an appeal that contends his trial attorneys failed to provide evidence of a troubled childhood that could have swayed jurors from sending him to death row.

    Lawyers for Licho Escamilla argued to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that details of his abusive upbringing weren’t disclosed until after his trial. If successful, the appeal could result in a new punishment trial for the 31-year-old Escamilla. He was condemned for the 2001 fatal shooting of Christopher James, who was working security at a Dallas club.

    Escamilla’s 2002 trial was marked by him throwing a pitcher of water toward the jury and hitting and kicking people as the judge read his sentence.

    The Dallas Morning News reported in 2001 that Escamilla was wanted on an unrelated murder charge when he went to the Northwest Dallas club that night. James and another officer went to break up a fight when Escamilla opened fire on them.

    James was struck in the upper arm, and he fell to the ground, unable to use his duty weapon. Escamilla, who was 19 at the time, then stood over James and shot him three times in the head.

    James’ widow Lori said in a 2011 interview with The Dallas Morning News that “our world as we knew it came to an end,” that night.

    James was a Dallas Police Association board member, and was the only sitting member to ever be killed in the line of duty.

    In response to the appeal moving forward, current Dallas Police Association Vice President Frederick Frazier said: “We understand that every individual deserves their due process no matter what crime they have committed. But in the eyes of the DPA, (James) is a member who paid the ultimate sacrifice and saved lives. We stand by the jury and judges’ original decision on this case, as well as the family of officer Christopher James, who have been waiting for justice and closure for all these years.”

    On a more personal note, Frazier added: “This was a true, hardened criminal. He doesn’t deserve to share the same air we do. He was an animal in that courtroom, he was an animal in the street.”

    The Assist the Officer Foundation, which helps sick and wounded officers, set up an endowment fund in his name.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  10. #10
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On December 2, 2014, oral argument will be heard in Escamilla's appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk/ca...5C12-70029.htm

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