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Thread: Manuel Vasquez - Texas Execution - March 11, 2015

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    Manuel Vasquez - Texas Execution - March 11, 2015



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    Manuel Vasquez


    Summary of Offense:

    On March 19, 1998, in San Antonio, Vasquez and co-defendants strangled to death and robbed Juanita Ybarra, 51, as an ordered hit from the Mexican Mafia because she was not paying 10 percent to the Mafia. The victim's partner was severely beaten but survived.

    Vasquez was sentenced to death in Bexar County in November 1999.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Appeal of Gangbanger on Death Row Is Shot Down

    A member of the Mexican Mafia who faces the death penalty for killing a drug dealer over money cannot appeal his conviction and sentence, a federal judge ruled.
    In 1998, Manuel "Meme" Vasquez strangled San Antonio drug dealer Juanita Ybarra with a cord for allegedly brushing off "the dime" - a 10 percent tax on narcotic sales collected by the Mexican Mafia.
    Moses Bazan was with Ybarra in a motel room when Vasquez forced himself in along with Johnny Joe Cruz and Oligario "Bebe" Lujan to carry out the kill order.
    A jury in Bexar County, Texas, convicted Vasquez of capital murder in November 1999 and sentenced him to death.
    After failing to find relief in state court, Vasquez petitioned for federal habeas relief.
    U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez rejected that petition Thursday and denied him a certificate of appealability.
    Vasquez had claimed that Latinos were underrepresented in his jury, but Rodriguez disputed the attempt to identify juror ethnicity based on their last names.
    Rodriguez also disagreed that defense counsel improperly failed to seek a limiting jury instruction concerning Vasquez's gang affiliation.
    "With or without a limiting jury instruction, petitioner's jury was going to learn of petitioner's Mexican Mafia membership and hear Cruz's testimony regarding the reasons why petitioner and Lujan (both Mexican Mafia members) broke into Ybarra's and Bazan's motel room, fatally strangled Ybarra, very nearly killed Bazan, ransacked the room, stole valuables, and then retreated to the home of another individual with ties to the Mexican Mafia," Rodriguez wrote (parentheses in original).
    Vasquez waited to challenge the wording of the jury charge for the punishment phase until he applied for state habeas corpus relief, the decision states.
    "Petitioner argues, without any citation to authority, that because his trial counsel did not make a contemporaneous objection to the alleged defects contained in his punishment phase jury charge included in petitioner's final two claims herein, those complaints were not properly preserved for state appellate review and, therefore, petitioner's procedural default in failing to present those claims as part of his direct appeal should be forgiven," Rodriguez wrote. "There is, however, no legal support for petitioner's proposed 'new rule' suggesting that two state procedural defaults cancel each other out. That petitioner procedurally defaulted at trial by not timely objecting to alleged defects in his punishment phase jury charge and thereafter procedurally defaulted again by failing to present his complaints about his punishment phase jury charge on direct appeal does not transform petitioner's twice procedurally defaulted claims into claims properly subject to federal habeas review. To hold otherwise would stand the principle of procedural default on its head."

    http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/24/48653.htm
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On August 1, 2012, Vasquez filed an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca5/12-70020/

  4. #4
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    MANUEL VASQUEZ v. RICK THALER

    In an opinion dated January 2, 2013, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals DENIED Vasquez' application for a certificate of appealability.

  5. #5
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Should we be expecting a X date to be set sometime soon?

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Possibly, but more than likely after SCOTUS denial.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    and the article

    Mexican Mafia member on death row loses appeal

    A Mexican Mafia member sent to death row for strangling a woman in San Antonio 15 years ago for failing to pay the gang a 10 percent tax on illegal drug sales has lost a federal court appeal.

    Forty-four-year-old Manuel Vasquez was condemned for the slaying of 51-year-old Juanita Ybarra at a San Antonio motel.

    Appeals lawyers argued Vasquez had deficient legal help at his 1999 trial and that prosecutors withheld some interview notes from a man who was severely beaten in the same attack. The defense also challenged the racial makeup of the grand jury that indicted Vasquez and contended one of his gang partners gave perjured testimony.

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday rejected all claims.

    http://www.khou.com/news/national/185542021.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Again it is amazing to me that the 5th rules in such a timely manner while other circuits take nearly forever (like the 9th). I am surprised that citizens in the 9th's area don't revolt in some manner to demand a revision to the court systems out there to work more efficiently. After all......aren't all US citizens assured EQUAL representation under law?? Seems to me there is a huge disparity. JMHO

  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    I think the problems with delay more typically lie with the Federal District courts rather than with the Circuit Courts of Appeal. The Circuit Courts usually decide appeals within a year or two (even if we often don't like how the Ninth Circuit actually rules), whereas habeas cases at the District Court level sometimes go on for ten years or more.

  10. #10
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    From the USSC website:


    No. 12-9597 *** CAPITAL CASE ***
    Title:
    Manuel Vasquez, Petitioner
    v.
    William Stephens, Director, Texas Department of Justice, Correctional Institutions Division
    Docketed: April 4, 2013
    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (12-70020)
    Decision Date: January 2, 2013

    ~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Mar 29 2013 Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due May 6, 2013)
    May 6 2013 Order extending time to file response to petition to and including June 5, 2013.
    May 28 2013 Order further extending time to file response to petition to and including June 12, 2013.
    Jun 12 2013 Brief of respondent William Stephens, Director, Texas Department of Justice, Correctional Institutions Division in opposition filed.
    Jun 27 2013 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 30, 2013.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/12-9597.htm
    Last edited by FFM; 07-03-2013 at 08:03 AM.

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