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Thread: Raymond George Riles - Texas

  1. #1
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    Raymond George Riles - Texas




    Facts of the Crime:

    Riles was convicted of the December 1974 attempted robbery and slaying of a Houston used car dealer, John Thomas Henry. Henry, 31, was shot at the car lot following a dispute with Riles and co-defendant Herbert Washington over the condition of a car recently purchased by Riles. Following the shooting, Riles reportedly stood over Henry and demanded his money.

    Riles was sentenced to death in Harris County in February 1976.

    No execution date has been set because he suffers from delusions and paranoia.

    http://www.alternet.org/story/106300...ow_syndrome%22

  2. #2
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    It sucks that this piece of trash will likely never be executed

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    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Bob, Riles will never be executed as for the duration of his time on Texas' death row. As of October 2019, Riles has been awaiting execution since February 1976.
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    Honestly I can believe that Riles is insane - I mean, that picture of him in the visitor box is giving me mad scientist vibes.
    Last edited by Moh; 10-14-2019 at 03:53 PM. Reason: Cussing
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Frequent Poster NanduDas's Avatar
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    He may be insane, but he still deserves the needle. But yeah, he’s never gonna get it.
    "The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer." -Theodore Roosevelt

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Riles has filed an appeal based on Penry issue claiming the jury instructions at the time didnt allow the jury to consider his mental illness in the penalty phase. This is the same issue that has seen dozens of inmates get reversed previously. There seems to be a trend following Fierro where the mentally ill inmates who cases have been dormant for years are filing Penry appeals. I imagine others like Rabbani, Mooney, Jordan and a couple others could file similar motions.

    https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...iles-Writ.html

    You can never be 100 percent sure with these things but based on what happened with the other cases (especially Fierro) this will very likely get reversed.

  7. #7
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Texas' longest-serving death row inmate could get new shot at fair punishment

    By Nicole Hensley
    The Houston Chronicle

    The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has asked Texas’ highest-ranking criminal judges to consider a new punishment for Raymond George Riles — the state’s longest-serving inmate awaiting execution following the 1974 murder of a Houston man.

    The former trucker, now 70, has been locked up for more than 40 years. But for decades, Giles — convicted in 1976 of capital murder — has been considered mentally ill and incompetent for execution and no date has recently been set. His lawyers and prosecutors now agree that the Court of Criminal Appeals should let Riles have a second chance at a punishment hearing.

    In a brief, District Attorney Kim Ogg outlined her reasoning. Sentencing for capital crimes, she said, have changed since Riles’ conviction. Juries — prompted by the so-called Penry claim set through a U.S. Supreme Court precedent — are now asked to weigh mitigating evidence, such as an offender’s childhood trauma, brain injuries or mental illness, into the punishment.

    “In 1976, Riles’ capital murder jury was not given this opportunity,” Ogg said in a later statement.

    Riles, then 24, and an accomplice, Herbert Washington, shot and killed a used car dealer in Houston’s Northside neighborhood. The duo confronted the victim, 31-year-old John Thomas Henry, over the condition of a car and shot him while demanding the money back, authorities said.

    Riles pocketed $42 from the robbery.

    Washington, also sentenced to death, had his sentence overturned and he pleaded guilty to two related charges.

    “Our prosecutors notified the crime victim’s son,” Ogg continued in a statement. “These cases are heartbreaking because the process takes so long that laws can and sometimes do change, and it just prolongs justice and healing for the families of the dead.”

    The brief, published Friday, concludes with Ogg asking that a new punishment hearing take place and for a jury to take that evidence into account. The outcome could lead to a jury sticking to the death penalty or a number of years determined by that jury.

    Defense attorneys for Riles argue that mitigating evidence would include “serious mental illness since childhood.”

    “Mr. Riles’ mental illness is one of the ‘diverse frailties of humankind’ that a jury must be permitted to weigh when deciding whether to impose the ultimate punishment,” lawyer Jim Marcus, of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said in a statement.

    Marcus and co-counsel Thea Posel, also with the university, said that Riles has been treated with “heavy antipsychotic drugs” over the past four decades and that he had multiple trips between death row and the psychiatric hospital.

    Unhinged antics were documented in the initial trial, in which Riles tore off a door jamb, jumped on the defense table and screamed that the judge and prosecutors were “mad dogs.”

    On another occasion, he shouted religious scripture: “Woe be to unjust judges.” He was barred from the courtroom during most of the trial.

    Riles had the death sentence reversed on appeal in 1978 but a jury again found him guilty and ordered him to be executed. He made notoriety again in 1985 when he set fire to himself — suffering burns to about 30 percent of his body — in his cell while reciting religious chants.

    Early in his incarceration, Riles said he could no longer live under the mental stress prompted by death row and asked that the courts either set him free or execute him.

    “We suffer and we eventually end up executed anyway,” Riles in 1986 told reporters. “This is not living at all."

    He was nearly executed by lethal injection that year and got as far ordering his last meal. A stay prevented the execution hours before the scheduled punishment.

    Ogg’s 17-page document also cites another recent instance of where the Penry claim was used — with success. The state court, citing inadequate jury instructions, overturned in 2019 the death sentence for another longtime inmate, Cesar Fierro, in the 1980 killing of an El Paso man. Fierro was instead sentenced to life.

    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...t-15915818.php
    Last edited by Moh; 02-02-2021 at 04:33 AM. Reason: Added source and link

  8. #8
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Pro-criminal DA strikes again. DA's are supposed to try to circumvent this crap and prevent inmates from obtaining new relief not lead the charge for thugs.
    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

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    Senior Member Member FLMetfan's Avatar
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    Texas' longest-serving death row inmate could get new shot at fair punishment

    Fair???? He got a fair sentence. Did John Henry get a Fair sentence when Riles shot him in cold blood?
    "I am the warden! Get your warden off this gurney and shut up! You are not in America. This is the island of Barbados. People will see you doing this." Monty Delk's last words.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Housing this guy on death row is a waste of money. He will never be executed. However, a new sentencing hearing will probably never happen because there's no way he's competent to assist his defense.

    Also, I don't buy that Ogg would conduct a new sentencing hearing

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