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Thread: Joe Franco Garza, Jr. - Texas

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Lubbock Death Row Inmate Strikes Out at U.S. Supreme Court

    The United States Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from death row inmate Joe Franco Garza of Lubbock. He was condemned by a Lubbock County jury for strangling Silbiano Rangel, 71, to death from behind with a sock and then stealing his truck on December 31, 1998.

    According to court records, Garza drove the truck to the home of his 13-year-old pregnant girlfriend. He then drove her to Dallas in the stolen truck.

    He was convicted and sentenced to death in April 2000. The sentence was overturned once on appeal, and he was sentenced to death a second time in 2006.

    The Supreme Court did not issue an opinion as part of its order to deny Garza’s petition. A specific execution date has not yet been assigned.

    http://www.myhighplains.com/story/d/...OEWi40gYZxSWdw
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  2. #12
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Execution scheduled for September 2, 2015.

    http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_ro...xecutions.html

  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Article

    Execution Date Set for Joe Franco Garza of Lubbock

    An execution date was recently set for Joe Franco Garza, 43, who was convicted of capital murder by a Lubbock County jury for strangling Silbiano Rangel, 71, to death in December 1998. The date will be September 2 at 6:00 pm.

    Garza was convicted in 2000, but the sentence was overturned on appeal. He was again sentenced to death in 2006.

    Official records said Garza came up from behind Rangel with a sock to strangle and kill him. Garza then stole his truck and drove to the home of his 13-year-old pregnant girlfriend. From there, he then drove her to Dallas in the stolen truck.

    TDCJ online records were updated last week to reflect the new execution date.

    Court records in Lubbock County confirm the information and show that State District Judge John “Trey” McClendon signed the order for an execution date on March 26.

    Garza’s case was rejected by the United State Supreme Court just weeks before McClendon signed the order.

    http://www.everythinglubbock.com/sto...TkaU64T3HiLnPA
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    This thug got a stay, probably for DNA testing.

    http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_ro...xecutions.html

  5. #15
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Judge orders execution date withdrawn for Lubbock inmate

    By GABRIEL MONTE
    A-J MEDIA

    A 43-year-old death row inmate has evaded execution after successfully filing a motion requesting evidence used against him be tested for DNA.

    Lubbock Judge John McClendon with the 137th District Court withdrew Joe Franco Garza’s execution date and ordered state criminologists to test DNA found on physical evidence prosecutors used 16 years ago to link Garza to a 1998 murder.

    Garza, who maintains his innocence, has exhausted appeals at the state and federal levels.

    Lawyers for Garza filed a motion in June hoping new technology will prove their client’s innocence.

    “Because Mr. Garza would not have been convicted if exculpatory results had been obtained through DNA testing, this court should find this request was not made for purposes of causing unreasonable delay,” the motion states.

    McClendon withdrew Garza’s Sept. 2 execution date in an Aug. 3 order, according to court records.

    State attorneys agreed with the additional testing, according to the judge’s order.

    “It’s possible (Garza’s attorneys are) hoping evidence will show some other alternative perpetrator,” said Jeff Ford, a Lubbock County assistant district attorney in the appellate division.

    Ford said the state agreed to the testing because Garza met the standard for a state statute for post-conviction DNA testing.

    Garza was convicted of capital murder in April 2000 and was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

    A Lubbock County jury found Garza guilty of strangling to death Silbiano Rangel and then stealing his 1992 Ford Ranger pickup truck, which was found in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

    Police found Rangel’s body on the side of the road in the 7300 block of King Street with the sock used to strangle him still wrapped around his neck.

    Garza was arrested Jan. 7, 1999, after police received a Crime Line tip identifying him as Rangel’s killer.

    In the motion, Garza’s attorneys argue the state failed to present conclusive physical evidence linking their client to the crime.

    They also said witnesses who testified against him at trial gave inconsistent statements and admitted to lying because they were also suspects in Rangel’s murder.

    Among the evidence McClendon ordered tested were the sock used in Rangel’s murder, Rangel’s clothes and fingernail clippings investigators collected.

    According to the motion filed by Garza’s attorneys, only Rangel’s fingernail clippings were tested for DNA. The only DNA profile found on the clippings was the victim’s.

    Investigators found a hair with a follicle on the outside of the sock and hair fragments inside the sock.

    Texas Department of Public Safety criminologist Cathy McCord testified at Garza’s hearing she did not test the hair follicle for DNA because it appeared different than the defendant’s.

    The hair fragments found inside the sock visually matched Garza’s and were relied on heavily in the trial to link him to the murder, the motion states.

    Visual hair analysis, the motion states, has been discredited widely since the time of Garza’s trial.

    However, the hairs were not tested for DNA as the DPS lab in Lubbock did not have the technology at the time to analyze them.

    Garza’s attorneys also asked the court to have the sock and clothes tested for skin cells and sweat as present technology may be able to generate DNA profiles.

    Rangel’s fingernails will be retested for the same reason.

    “The technology today is more sensitive than was available at the time of Garza’s trial and has a higher likelihood of detecting foreign contributors to DNA underneath fingernails,” the motion states.

    Ford said the DPS lab in Lubbock will analyze the sock and Rangel’s clothing and the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification will work on analyzing the hair fragments.

    He said the Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney’s Office will ask the court to set an execution date once the results are in, which will likely take months.

    Attorneys for Garza could not be reached for comment.

    http://lubbockonline.com/crime-and-c...lubbock-inmate

  6. #16
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    See you in six years, if I'm still alive of course. I'm not sick or anything, but you never can rule out a drunk out a drunk driver or a hurricane. The streets are awfully tough.

    And for the state legislature that let this happen, why is it not mandatory to test ALL DNA no matter how insignificant in the years leading up to execution day? The Abolitionists have all of the arrows, don't give them more.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

  7. #17
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    Are there any updates here?
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Other than a line from a newspaper reporting in 2017 that he is still awaiting results of his test there has been nothing.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  9. #19
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    On another note, does anyone know what happened to his eye?
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  10. #20
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    I couldn’t find anything on it. That’s the reason this case caught my eye (no pun intended).
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

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