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Thread: Darlie Lynn Routier - Texas Death Row

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    Darlie Lynn Routier - Texas Death Row




    Darlie Routier after her arrest


    Darlie Routier testifying at her trial


    Darlie Lynn Routier


    Darlie Routier’s latest mugshot

    Summary of Offense:

    Darlie Routier was convicted of the June 1996 murder of her five-year-old son Damon inside the family's suburban Dallas home. Damon and his six-year-old brother Devon were stabbed to death while they slept with their mother in the downstairs family room. Routier's husband, Darin, and infant son, Drake, slept through the attack in upstairs bedrooms and were not harmed.

    Routier, who also suffered stab wounds that police claimed were self-inflicted, testified that she too slept through the attack on herself and her children and awoke only to see that back of a man fleeing the home. Prosecutors argued Routier killed her children because they interfered with the lifestyle she wanted to live.

    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _

    On November 30, 2005, Routier filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/tex...cv01156/127253

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    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    June 18, 2008

    AUSTIN — Darlie Routier, a homemaker sent to death row after her two young sons were fatally stabbed in their upscale suburban house, on Wednesday was granted new DNA testing she hopes will prove her claim that the true killer was an intruder.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Routier should be allowed to conduct new DNA testing on blood stains on clothing, hairs and dried flakes of a substance found near the garage of the Routier home in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett.

    "This is an answer to a prayer," a tearful Darlie Kee, Routier's mother, told The Associated Press. "I'm not a scientist. But I know my daughter is innocent."

    Routier's previous appeals to the court had been denied, but state law allows for post-conviction DNA testing in some cases.

    Routier's children, Damon, 5, and Devon, 6, were stabbed to death in their home in 1996. Routier has maintained her innocence and claims an intruder attacked her and the boys then fled through the garage.

    She was arrested two weeks after the murders. Her 1997 trial was moved to Kerrville because of publicity surrounding the case. She was convicted of capital murder for Damon's slaying and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

    The items Routier can test were already tested for her trial. But her attorneys argue new, improved DNA technology could produce evidence to support her claim of an intruder.

    A spokeswoman for Dallas County prosecutors did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment.

    The items to be retested:

    _Blood stains on her night shirt that previous tests showed to be soaked in blood from her and the boys. She claims newer techniques may find another source of blood.

    _A blood stain on a tube sock found in an alley. The sock contained blood from both boys and a third blood stain that did not yield a result. The court agreed that newer techniques might yield a DNA result.

    _Dried flakes on a utility room door. Although the flakes were previously tested and found not to include human DNA, Routier alleges they are dried blood that should be re-examined.

    _Pubic and facial hairs. The pubic hair yielded no result and the facial hair was found to be from someone other than Routier or her husband. She maintains the facial hair is from the alleged intruder and hopes to connect it to the results from the other retested items.

    The court denied retests of a bloody palm print on the coffee table and blood stains on a butcher knife, which investigators said was the murder weapon.

    In granting the new testing, the court said the state's case against Routier remains strong, but if the new testing shows the results Routier alleges, there's a chance a jury would not convict her.

    "There is at least a 51 percent likelihood that the jury would have seen her as a victim herself, or at least that it would have harbored a reasonable doubt that she was not," the court wrote.

    Prosecutors alleged the motive for the killings was money. Darlie and Darin Routier were living an expensive lifestyle and financial pressures of credit cards and late mortgage payments were mounting, prosecutors said.

    Darin Routier also acknowledged that a few months before the murders, he talked about hiring someone to break into the family's house in an insurance scam.

    Kee said she and Routier's youngest son, 12-year-old Drake, visited her in prison Tuesday.

    "He knows his mother is innocent," Kee said.

    Source

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    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    November 18, 2008

    New developments in the Darlie Routier case that could get her off death row. Texas Judge Royal Furgeson is granting part of Routier's Motion for Discovery. That means Routier, formerly of Lubbock, can retest some physical evidence from the crime scene.

    Routier was convicted in 1996 of the stabbing death of her young son. She claims an intruder entered her Dallas area home, stabbed two of her children, and attacked her. Despite her claims that the intruder was the murderer, she was convicted and given the death penalty.

    Four unidentified fingerprints will be tested and run through the FBI database. Two of the fingerprints were left in blood, and don't match anyone known to be at the scene.

    Source

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    November 19, 2008

    Judge grants additional forensic testing for mom convicted of killing kids

    For the 2nd time in five months, convicted child killer Darlie Lynn Routier has been granted the right to more forensic testing of evidence in her effort to prove that an intruder killed her 2 sons in 1996.

    This month, a federal judge granted additional testing of a bloody sock; new forensic testing of a butcher knife presented in the original trial as the murder weapon, as well as new testing of fibers from another knife; and permission to run four fingerprints through a national database.

    His decision, which was signed Nov. 5, piggybacks a state appeals court decision in June to allow her defense team to test some pubic and facial hairs.

    "To have two separate courts say, 'Yes, you have valid claims,' obviously it's a big deal, especially for the fingerprints," said Stephen Cooper, one of Mrs. Routier's attorneys. "Everyone has said no [to checking the fingerprints]. We've been trying to get the fingerprints in the FBI database for comparison for 10 years now."

    Mrs. Routier, 38, was sentenced to death for the stabbing death of her 5-year-old son, Damon. She also was charged with killing his older brother, Devon, who was 6, but she was not tried in that case. She has long contended that an unidentified intruder killed her boys and then stabbed her in the June 6, 1996, attack in Rowlett.

    Dallas County First Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore said prosecutors are confident that Mrs. Routier's conviction and death sentence will stand.

    "I'm not afraid of the testing," Ms. Moore said, adding that the defense has to prove there is consistent evidence of an unidentified person who might have been an intruder.

    Mrs. Routier's appellate attorneys have been filing requests in both state and federal courts. In state courts, they have asked for post-conviction DNA testing, which was first allowed for Texas prisoners in 2001. On the federal side, her attorneys have asked for a writ of habeas corpus to fight her death penalty conviction.

    Even while granting the most recent round of testing, U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson questioned how some of the items might prove Mrs. Routier's theory of an intruder attack, according to court records.

    Even if another person's DNA is found on the bloody sock, that won't necessarily prove that there was an intruder who killed the children, Judge Furgeson wrote in his 18-page ruling.

    Judge Furgeson also denied some requests, including testing on a blood-soaked night shirt that Mrs. Routier was wearing that night and a review of previous DNA tests.

    (Source: KHOU News)

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    Husband divorcing wife on death row for killing son

    LUBBOCK — The husband of death-row inmate Darlie Routier is divorcing his wife.

    The 40-year-old woman was sentenced to death for killing her middle son, 5-year-old Damon, in 1996.

    Darin Routier told The Associated Press on Friday that he still believes in his wife's innocence and that the divorce was a mutual decision that was "very difficult."

    His attorney filed the papers Wednesday in Lubbock, where he lives with the couple's youngest son, Drake, who is 15.

    Darlie Routier contends an unidentified intruder killed her sons and stabbed her in the family home in Rowlett, a suburb of Dallas. Six-year-old Darin also was killed.

    Her conviction is being appealed in federal courts, Darin Routier said.

    She is among 10 women on death row in Gatesville, about 316 miles southeast of Lubbock.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1QtZxA9jT

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    Husband divorces Texas death row inmate Darlie Routier

    The husband of Texas death row inmate Darlie Routier has divorced the former homemaker who was condemned after her young sons were fatally stabbed in their Rowlett home.

    Darin Routier said after filing for divorce in June that he still believed his ex-wife was innocent. The divorce was finalized Friday in Lubbock County, where Darin Routier lives with the pair's youngest son.

    Darlie Routier was convicted in 1997 of killing 5-year-old Damon a year earlier. The 40-year-old also was charged with killing Damon's 6-year-old brother, Devon, but was not tried for the death.

    Darlie Routier contends that an unidentified intruder killed the boys and stabbed her in the family’s home. One of 10 women awaiting lethal injection in Texas, she is housed in Gatesville, between Dallas and Austin.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state...ie-routier.ece

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    I'm somewhat torn on this case. It's been featured on several national programs. I'd say at least 60% of the evidence says she's guilty but WHY would she kill her own kids?? I mean what was the motive??

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    It's certainly not unprecedented for mentally unbalanced wives to murder their children. Apparently, her own wounds appeared to be self-inflicted. Then again, I don't know whether there were other crimes around that time and place involving a housebreaker stabbing children to death. My guess is that there weren't.

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    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    She´s not the only mother who murdered her kids. One is that the kids are straining. Another may be that the kids and the lifestyle doesen´t fit. So the kids are a burden for the parent(s).

    I don´t really doubt about her guilt, but I think Darin Routier took part in the crime. I don´t know why she doesen´t blame him. Is it because the plan works perfect for him. If she blame shim no one believes her, because all the evidence point sat her?

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Deadly Women painted the best picture with her motive, she was jealous of the older boys. She was no longer the center of attention. We all know how she loved being the center of attention. Just Google "Darlie Silly String". In my opinion the silly string incident doesn't prove she is guilty, but inviting the news media, the way she was dressed speaks volumes about her character.

    Just read this... Darlie Routier 911 Call Analysis

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