Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 24

Thread: Joe Franco Garza, Jr. - Texas

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Joe Franco Garza, Jr. - Texas





    Summary Of Offense:

    Garza was originally convicted and given the death penalty for the murder of 71-year-old preacher Silbiano Rangel. Garza then robbed Rangel and stole his truck. The sentence was overturned because evidence about Garza’s troubled past was not allowed in. Prosecutors presented evidence of Garza’s violent behavior while in prison, trying to prove he was still a danger to others.

    Garza was re-sentenced to death in Lubbock County in 2006.

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On January 25, 2010, Garza filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/tex...v00013/193111/

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    [EDIT]

    Joe Garza Jr.’s second federal habeas corpus petition took about three years to complete. It was filed in February 2010. An evidentiary hearing before federal judge Cummings was held in August 2010, and he ruled against Garza two months ago.

    As of Friday, May 3, 2013, Cummings had not ruled on Garza’s motion for reconsideration — a potential prelude to appealing to the Fifth Circuit.

    In 2006, Garza’s attorneys argued his trial defense team had not done enough to offer evidence of Garza’s troubled youth in the punishment phase. Cummings agreed and ordered a new punishment trial. A second jury affirmed the death sentence.

    http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/...ting-death-row

  4. #4
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On June 5, 2013, Garza filed an appeal in the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals over the apparent denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca5/13-70019/

  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Garza files federal appeal of 2006 death sentence

    Claims inadequate legal representation, failure to challenge prosecution's prison gang evidence.

    By Walt Nett
    The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

    Joe Franco Garza Jr., one of two Lubbock County inmates on Texas’ death row, claims in new court papers he should get a new trial because he received poor legal assistance at his 2006 resentencing.

    Appellate attorneys for Garza filed a brief Monday, Dec. 2, with the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming his lawyers failed to fully investigate prosecution evidence that he was a leader of a prison gang, and that they misled him into not testifying at a resentencing hearing.

    Garza, now 42 years old, has been on death row since 2000 for the Dec. 31, 1998 robbery and murder of Silbiano Rangel, a 71-year-old preacher.

    At trial, Garza was convicted of strangling Rangel with a sock, and stealing his jewelry, a check and his truck.

    A jury convicted him of the murder and sentenced him to death. In 2005, however, U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings granted Garza’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered a new sentencing hearing.

    Cummings determined that evidence about Garza’s juvenile record was improperly withheld from the punishment hearing in 1999.

    According to court records, Cummings found that evidence — including the crimes he committed as a child and the contents of three psychological evaluations — could lead a jury to issue a life sentence.

    The state filed a notice of appeal in that case, but the Fifth Circuit dismissed the matter after state attorneys failed to follow through.

    In Monday’s appellate motion, Garza’s attorneys offered six grounds for sending the case back for another sentencing — two regarding his wish to testify at the punishment hearing, and four challenging testimony and evidence related to allegations that he was a leader of a Texas prison gang.

    Garza’s attorneys contend that he was entitled to an evidentiary hearing while seeking a writ of habeas corpus into his claim that his trial lawyers acted improperly in keeping him from testifiying.

    According to the appellate brief, Garza advised his attorneys repeatedly that he wanted to testify, but “ no one ever discussed his testimony with him or prepared him to testify.”

    Instead, at trial, his defense attorneys encouraged him to not testify, and told him that his testimony could mean waiving some grounds of appeal.

    The appellate brief contends Garza gave in because he didn’t understand the effect his testimony might have on an appeal and because he hadn’t been prepared to testify.

    The habeas petition also challenges a decision by the state Attorney General’s Office denying his public records request for access to Texas Department of Criminal Justice training manuals, policy documents and other materials related to the way prison officials classify inmates as gang members.

    According to the brief, two TDCJ officials testified that they believed Garza was a leader of the Texas Syndicate gang, based on tattoos and on letters he’d written that they reviewed.

    However, in the habeas process, Garza offered affidavits from two other TDCJ officials challenging the agency’s methods for classifying gang members in the state’s prison population.

    They contended that the process is a subjective one with no objective criteria other than self-admission, or clear signs in a tattoo, and that there is no third party review.

    http://lubbockonline.com/crime-and-c...death-sentence

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    1,363
    On April 29, 2014, the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hold a special hearing regarding Garza's appeal.

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk/ca...5/13-70019.htm

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217

    Oral arguments in Garza death sentence appeal presented

    A lawyer for Lubbock death row inmate Joe Garza argued Tuesday that his resentencing lawyers possibly harmed his chance of receiving a life sentence in 2006 when they denied him his constitutional right to testify.

    The state, on the other hand, believes Garza was given every due process and isn’t entitled to more rights.

    A three-judge panel at the New Orleans-based U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the arguments during an hour-long hearing.

    An opinion denying the request would start the execution process for Garza, who has been on death row since 2000. He is one of two Lubbock County inmates on Texas’ death row.

    Garza strangled 71-year-old preacher Silbiano Rangel and stole his money, jewelry and truck in 1998.

    A jury convicted Garza of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

    Garza filed a 2005 appeal in U.S. district court and was granted a re-sentencing hearing on grounds that he had ineffective council.

    U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings found that evidence improperly withheld from Garza’s defense team — including his juvenile criminal history and psychological evaluations — could lead a jury to issue a life sentence.

    Paul Edward Mansur, who argued Garza’s case before the appellate court, said Garza expressed his desire to testify at the resentencing trial but was never prepared for cross-examination by his trial lawyers. Instead, his lawyers told him he would lose two appeal rights if he testified.

    “The claim is that he wanted to testify,” Mansur told the judges. “Trial council promised that someone would come in talk to him about his testimony and prepare him to testify and that didn’t happen. And Mr. Garza didn’t find out that trial council didn’t want him to testify until trial was underway. And at that time he had not been prepared. He didn’t understand what trial council was telling him about waiving appellate rights if he testified, and basically he just felt that he was sandbagged by his trial council and he gave up his right.”

    Mansur said the preparation for cross examination would have affected Garza’s decision to take testify. His lawyers took that decision from him when they waived his right to testify in court.

    The state’s lawyer, Ellen Stewart Klein, argued Garza’s lawyers were not ineffective because they did advise him of the consequences of testifying, a common strategy of many trial attorneys.

    “These are the kind of complicated strategy decisions that trial counselors face every day and the Supreme Court repeatedly admonished we shouldn’t be second guessing,” she said.

    She said if Garza intended to testify, he wouldn’t have sat mutely by when his lawyers waived his right to take the stand.

    “We have the same judge there saying there’s nothing in his demeanor, nothing in his reaction to indicate he was being coerced or that he didn’t agree with this decision,” she said. “He set it up. If you go his way it's the perfect two bites of the apple; ‘I can follow my council's advice, sit here mutely, sit on my hands, not do anything and then complain about it later.’”

    Garza’s appeal also included challenges to allegations made by TDCJ officers that he was a leader of a Texas prison gang.

    Mansur used the last 10 minutes of his 30-minute limit to argue the three officers in question lacked the training to make the gang determination.

    He also said Garza was denied the employment records of two of the officers that showed they were fired for lying.

    “Essentially, we’re arguing that that’s Brady (evidence disclosure) material and he was entitled to,” he said.

    http://m.lubbockonline.com/filed-onl...peal-presented
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    1,363
    COA denied by the 5th Circuit yesterday.

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...13-70019.0.pdf

  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On August 26, 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit DENIED Garza's petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es\14-7279.htm

  10. #10
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Garza's petition for certiorari.

    Appeals exhausted decision could result in an execution date.

    Docketed: November 26, 2014
    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (13-70019)
    Decision Date: July 16, 2014
    Rehearing Denied: August 26, 2014
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •