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Thread: Rodney Charles Rachal - Texas

  1. #1
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    Rodney Charles Rachal - Texas




    Facts of the Crime:

    Convicted and sentenced to death in the murders of Charles Washington, 17, and Terrance Davis, 18.

    Rachal was sentenced to death in Harris County in March 1993.

  2. #2
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    The Fifth Circuit denied a Certificate of Appealability for Rachal in an opinion dated February 15, 2008.

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    October 14, 2008

    HOUSTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to review the case of a convicted killer condemned for the slaying of one of two men killed during a robbery at a Houston apartment complex 18 years ago.

    The rejection by the high court moves Rodney Charles Rachal a step closer to lethal injection. He does not have an execution date.

    Rachal was a 20-year-old father of eight children in 1990 when he was arrested for the fatal shooting of Charles Washington, 17. Another man, Terrance Davis, 18, also was gunned down. Two others were wounded in the gunfire.

    Rachal gave a confession to police after he was arrested about two weeks after the shootings. The ninth-grade dropout is a native of Natchitoches Parish, La.

    In his appeal, Rachal, 38, argued that his trial judge violated his constitutional rights by appointing only one lawyer for his defense. In a ruling denying his appeal in February, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there is no constitutional guarantee to a second lawyer in a capital case.

    Rachal also challenged evidence at the punishment phase of his 1992 trial that showed he had killed another man during an armed robbery months before the apartment complex shootings. A grand jury in that case refused to indict Rachal, but prosecutors used the earlier shooting to bolster their arguments that he would be a future danger, which is one of the elements jurors consider when deciding a death sentence.

    Court records show the apartment shootings were the climax of a plan involving Rachal, two other men and two women to rob people so they could get drug money.

    One of the men, Tommy Ray German, received 55 years in prison for his involvement, then picked up another 10 years for escape. The other, Howard Ray Gipson, is serving a 30-year term for three counts of aggravated robbery.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6057740.html

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    On September 23, 2009, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a subsequent writ of habeas corpus on the basis that Rachal is entitled to relief from his death sentence because he presented significant mitigating evidence related to his moral culpability and the appropriateness of a death sentence that could not have been given full effect by the sentencing jury. Rachal's case was remanded to trial court for further consideration.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OP...PINIONID=18789

  5. #5
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    Rachal's sentence was reversed today by the TCCA.

    http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OP...PINIONID=22050

  6. #6
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    And the article..

    Death row inmate wins new punishment hearing

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out the death sentence of a convicted killer because jurors couldn't adequately consider evidence of his difficult childhood when they were deciding his punishment.

    Rodney Rachal has been on death row since March 1993 for the robbery and fatal shooting of Charles Washington at a Houston apartment complex in 1990.

    Rachal's trial in October 1992 came during a time before guidelines covering punishment phases of capital murder trials were refined by rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The appeals court in 2009 asked his trial court to review the case. The Austin court's decision Wednesday backed the findings of the trial court that the 41-year-old Rachal deserves a new punishment hearing.

    There was evidence that Rachel was a troubled and impoverished youth.

    http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/ne...#ixzz1lFcfsZt7

  7. #7
    Jan
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    Sentence reduced to life, #1860536

    http://offender.tdcj.state.tx.us/POS...n?sid=04054732

    Parole Eligibility Date: 2028-06-03

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