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Thread: Randy Ethan Halprin - Texas Death Row

  1. #41
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Hopefully the TCCA rejects the recommendation. It's too bad Halprin didn't exhaust his appeals and get executed before Cunningham's alleged comments were brought to light.
    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

  2. #42
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Texas Seven escapee deserves a new trial, judge says

    Randy Halprin, who is Jewish, argued he didn’t receive a fair trial because former State District Judge Vickers Cunningham was prejudiced against him

    By The Dallas Morning News

    Texas Seven prison escapee Randy Halprin should get a new trial because the judge in his 2003 capital murder trial harbored anti-Semitic views, a state district judge recommended Monday.

    Halprin, who is Jewish, has argued he didn’t receive a fair trial because former State District Judge Vickers Cunningham was prejudiced against him. The state’s highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, halted Halprin’s scheduled execution in 2019 and sent the case to Judge Lela Mays for review.

    Halprin, 44, was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the killing of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins on Christmas Eve 2000. He has denied being one of the men who shot Hawkins. Before escaping prison in 2000, Halprin was serving a 30-year sentence for beating a child in Tarrant County.

    Mays issued her recommendation Monday. The appeals judges will make the final decision on a new trial.

    “In light of all the evidence, this court finds both that Judge Cunningham harbored actual, subjective bias against Halprin because Halprin is a Jew and that Judge Cunningham’s anti-Semitic prejudices created an objectively intolerable risk of bias,” Mays wrote.

    Cunningham could not immediately be reached for comment. He has previously declined to comment on the case.

    Mays noted that Cunningham presided over jury selection, decided what evidence was allowed in the trial and what was excluded, gave instructions to the jury and delivered the death sentence.

    “Judge Cunningham’s bias towards Halprin not only harmed him, but it undermined the public’s confidence that criminal justice has been — and will be — dispensed impartially,” Mays wrote.

    She pointed to a decision Cunningham made to deny Halprin’s lawyers from showing jurors a document ranking each of the seven escapees’s culpability according to their personalities and leadership qualities. The ranking, conducted by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, listed Halprin last and called him the weakest member of the group.

    Cunningham’s denial of that document was a critical ruling, Mays wrote.

    “Jurors could have found the ranking document corroborated Halprin’s testimony about his subordinate role in the group of escapees, testimony the prosecution urged the jury not to believe,” she said.

    Tivon Schardl, one of Halprin’s lawyers, said in a written statement that Mays “undoubtedly made the right call.”

    ”The facts were never in dispute,” Schardl said. “Contrary to what the state said, the Constitution protects Texans from religious bigotry in the criminal justice system. We’re confident the Court of Criminal Appeals will reach the same conclusion and order a new, fair trial for Randy Halprin.”

    Cunningham was alleged to have called Halprin “that [expletive] Jew” — and worse — during his trial. He denied the allegation, saying that the accusations were “lies from my estranged brother and his friends.”

    His brother, Bill Cunningham, came to The Dallas Morning News in 2018 and said Vic Cunningham was a lifelong racist.

    The then-judge said he wasn’t a bigot but confirmed that a trust fund set up for his children includes a stipulation that is intended to discourage them from marrying a person of another race or of the same sex.

    Tarrant County prosecutors have handled the appeal after Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot recused his office from the case.

    Prosecutor Anne Grady argued that evidence doesn’t show Cunningham’s personal bias affected the case. She argued Cunningham’s comments about Halprin were made years after the trial and, therefore, did not show he was prejudiced against Halprin during the trial.

    Defense lawyers Ed “Bubba” King and George Ashford III, who represented Halprin at his trial, have disputed claims that Cunningham denied him a fair trial because he is Jewish.

    Cunningham, who was a prosecutor before becoming judge, was generally tough on defense lawyers, they said. But they never got the sense he was prejudiced against Halprin because he was Jewish.

    All the other members of the Texas Seven were sentenced to death except for Larry Harper, who killed himself before being captured. Four have been executed; only Patrick Murphy, 60, remains on death row with Halprin.

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/cour...al-judge-says/
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  3. #43
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS REMANDED TO TRIAL COURT WITH WRITTEN ORDER:

    https://search.txcourts.gov/handdown...ate=05/11/2022
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  4. #44
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    The evidentiary hearing in trial court requested by the TCCA in Halprin's case was held yesterday, at 9.00 AM.

    https://obpublicaccess.dallascounty....rideFormat=PDF

  5. #45
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Prosecution agrees that 'Texas 7' death row inmate should get a new trial because of judge's biases

    WFAA

    One of two living members of the "Texas 7" prison gang, all of whom were convicted in the murder of a North Texas police officer in 2000, could get a new trial over his judge's alleged anti-Semitic comments, according to sources.

    Randy Halprin was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 in the killing of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins.

    But nearly 20 years later, witnesses have testified that the judge in Halprin's case, Vickers Cunningham, was known to make racial and anti-Semitic comments against Halprin, who is Jewish.

    Sources say prosecutors now agree that the 2003 trial judge exhibited bias against Halprin, which prevented a fair and impartial trial.

    This is another step in Halprin potentially getting a new trial. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will have to sign off for that to happen.

    Halprin was among the seven inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in 2000 and committed numerous robberies, including one in which Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins was fatally shot on Christmas Eve. After a nationwide manhunt, the infamous "Texas 7" were captured near Colorado Springs.

    Halprin had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Oct. 10, 2019, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution just days before.

    Halprin and Patrick Murphy are the last two of the "Texas 7" who have not been executed. Murphy also got a stay of execution in November 2019, after the state refused to provide Murphy a Buddhist chaplain.

    In a hearing last month, former judge Vickers Cunningham's brother, Bill Cunningham, was among the witnesses who testified against him.

    "He should never have been a judge regrettably, should never have been a judge calling balls and strikes in a system that is supposed to be equal and fair for everyone,” said Bill Cunningham.

    His brother and several other witnesses testified that during Halprin’s trial, former Judge Vickers Cunningham would refer to him as “an *expletive* Jew.”

    "It’s clearly derogatory the way he phrased it. He’s not referring to Jewish people in a broad term, he says “the Jew.” And it’s clearly derogatory,” said Dr. Brian Edward Stone, a defense witness.

    In December 2000, Halprin and six others escaped a prison in Kennedy, Texas. They were known as the "Texas 7."

    On Christmas Eve, they shot and killed Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. Six were caught and eventually sentenced to death. The seventh escapee committed suicide.

    Before his escape, Halprin was already serving a 30-year prison sentence for beating a child. He confessed to being there when Officer Hawkins was murdered, though denies he fired a gun.

    Prosecutors say Halprin is a bad man; but his attorneys argued he deserves a new trial.

    https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/lo...6-351615177bbb

    I give it 5 years before he's released. Yet another case that would've been easily solved if some cop just vented him instead of cuffing,
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  6. #46
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Pathetic. Cunningham's purported anti-Semitism, even if true, had literally no impact on the outcome. Literally any judge would have sentenced the Texas Seven to death.
    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

  7. #47
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Since she announced her retirement, Sharen Wilson made a gradual but complete metamorphosis from being the undisputed champion of Texas death penalty to this.

    I hope TCCA disregard her suggestion, both here and in Storey's case, and her successor will keep a more trustworthy line.
    Last edited by Mastro Titta; 09-28-2022 at 03:17 AM.

  8. #48
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aaron View Post
    Pathetic. Cunningham's purported anti-Semitism, even if true, had literally no impact on the outcome. Literally any judge would have sentenced the Texas Seven to death.
    This is correct, but a judge or juror who is personally biased against a defendant is structural error. If they don't have a legitimate factual argument that the judge wasn't biased (and it sounds like they don't), then their concession as a pure matter of legal ethics and should be applauded.

    Would be nice if defense attorneys did stuff like this more often.

  9. #49
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    The state shouldn't play fair if inmates won't. Obfuscate at all costs. The law and common sense/realpolitik are at odds more often than one might think, and I'm in full favor of using the latter when it favors our side and hiding behind the former when convenient.
    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. #50
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    That might be the case if the the rules of professional conduct held prosecutors to the same standard as defense attorneys, but they don't.

    The Supreme Court is (rightly) unambiguous that a personally biased judge cannot be harmless error. It helps you just as much as it helps Halprin.

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