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Thread: Anthony Pierce - Texas

  1. #1
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    Anthony Pierce - Texas




    Summary of Offense:

    Pierce was convicted of the August 1977 robbery-slaying of 40-year-old Fred Johnson, manager of a Church's Fried Chicken restaurant in Houston. Armed with a pistol, Pierce reportedly robbed the restaurant of $80 and as he started to leave, he turned to Johnson and said, "I've been meaning to kill you for a long time," and shot him once. Shortly after the shooting, Pierce went to a bar and stabbed a man who apparently survived. Testimony showed he killed Johnson because he was angry about the manager's earlier refusal to give him free chicken and money from the register.

    Pierce was sentenced to death in Harris County in March 1978.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Pierce's resentencing order was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit in today's orders/opinions.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...42-CV0.wpd.pdf

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Longtime Texas death row inmate wins appeal

    A federal appeals court Monday ordered a new sentencing trial for one of the longest-serving inmates on Texas death row.

    The ruling by 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans leaves intact the capital murder conviction for 50-year-old Anthony Leroy Pierce but orders a new punishment trial. Pierce has been on Texas' death row for 32 years. Only 3 prisoners have been there longer.

    Pierce has been tried 3 times for the Aug. 4, 1977, robbery and murder of Fred Johnson, a 40-year-old Houston fried chicken restaurant manager. Pierce's first 2 capital murder convictions were overturned on appeal.

    The appeals court declined to consider Pierce's claims of ineffective trial counsel and mental retardation making him ineligible for execution. In a 7-page dissent, however, Circuit Judge James L. Dennis said he would have ordered an evidentiary hearing on Pierce's retardation claim.

    In ordering a new sentencing trial, the 3-judge federal panel said the Harris County jury in Pierce's third trial in 1986 was kept from considering mitigating evidence as required by law. Such evidence could have persuaded jurors he didn't deserve a death sentence.

    A message left with a spokeswoman for the Harris County district attorney's office was not returned Monday night. Paul Mansur, 1 of Pierce's attorneys, said he had not finished reviewing the ruling the declined to comment Monday night.

    An employee at the fast-food restaurant testified she recognized Pierce as the gunman. A 12-year-old boy walking by the restaurant testified Pierce was the gunman he saw inside the place and then running away. The robbery netted about $80.

    A Texas Department of Criminal Justice summary of his case indicates that after the shooting, Pierce went to a bar and stabbed a man and that he was arrested in front of his apartment a few hours later while bragging about the attacks to friends.

    The conviction from Pierce's 1st trial was thrown out by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because of a jury selection problem. A similar jury problem got his 2nd trial result tossed on appeal. He was tried a 3rd time in 1986.

    Besides his capital murder conviction, Pierce has been convicted of manslaughter for fatally stabbing a fellow death row inmate in August 1979. According to prison records, the victim in that killing was Edward King, 37, who had been condemned for the slaying of a Dallas police officer.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Mr Pierce was one of the people evaluated by Dr George Denkowski for mental retardation.

    http://www.texastribune.org/texas-de...penalty-cases/

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    DA's office plans to not seek execution of man on death row since 1978

    After three convictions and death sentences, all of which were at least partially overturned on appeal, the Harris County District Attorney's Office plans to drop efforts to execute Anthony Pierce, who has been on death row since 1978.

    "I expect he will get a life sentence," Assistant District Attorney Lance Long said of a hearing set for Thursday in state District Judge Denise Collins' court.

    That sentence would be applied under state laws in force at the time of Pierce's August 1977 murder of fried chicken restaurant manger Fred Johnson, 40, meaning that he could be eligible for parole consideration.

    "I'm not going to discuss what's taking place before the pardons and parole board," Long said Wednesday, adding that he also would not explain why prosecutors have decided not to seek execution.

    Pierce, 53, who has spent more time on death row than all but two of its current residents, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on three occasions, most recently in 1986.

    Appeals courts tossed the first two convictions because of jury selection problems. Two years ago, a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit threw out the last trial's punishment phase because jurors were kept from hearing mitigating evidence as required by law.

    A new punishment phase was set for Collins' court on Sept. 10.

    Pierce's attorney, Robert K. Loper, hailed the decision to drop efforts to execute his client, noting that the one-time Houston laborer consistently has proclaimed his innocence. Loper said seating a jury for a new punishment trial likely would have taken about three weeks, and prosecutors would have had to present evidence regarding the crime.

    Former Houston Police Detective Johnny Bonds, though, decried the decision to not seek execution, saying that Pierce is a violent man who "will kill again."

    "He's an animal," Bonds said.

    Bonds, who investigated the Aug. 4, 1977, murder at the Church's Fried Chicken restaurant at 7423 Cullen Blvd., said Pierce had "a long string of juvenile offenses," including a robbery at the same restaurant.

    As Johnson held his hands up during the robbery, Pierce told the restaurant manager, "I've been meaning to kill you for a long time," and fired a fatal shot, Bonds said. "It wasn't even the same man," the former detective said.

    Pierce also has been convicted of manslaughter for fatally stabbing a fellow inmate in 1979. Killed in the attack was 37-year-old Edward King, who had been condemned for killing a Dallas police officer.

    http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...on-3825169.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  6. #6
    Jan
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    Anthony Pierce has now been resentenced to life.

    http://offender.tdcj.state.tx.us/POS...n?sid=02361924

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