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Thread: Texas Capital Punishment News

  1. #21
    I think I'm gonna write the Texas legislature and discuss a change in the way the death penalty is imposed. Obviously Texas is very proud to be a tough on crime state. The public there have widespread support for capital punishment and the death penalty is imposed and carried out quite frequently. I believe we should maximize capital punishment to include 'Capital Murder' for anybody who is convicted of killing a child UNDER 12 (currently the law is anybody 6 or younger).. Another good proposal would be to allow a 2nd jury determine the sentence of a convicted killer if the first jury is unable to agree on a sentence. California has this law.

  2. #22
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    Spotlight on Spending: Capital murder cases

    CORPUS CHRISTI — It cost Nueces County 50 times more on average to pay for court-appointed attorneys in capital murder cases last year than other types of cases.

    For the last fiscal year, the county paid about $119,000 to defense attorneys in five capital murder cases. That's an average of about $24,000 a case. Court appointments in other criminal cases cost the county an average of $480 a case that year.

    But capital murder cases are rare compared with the thousands of other cases in which indigent defendants require court-appointed lawyers. Lawyers can be appointed in many situations including in criminal cases for adults and juveniles, mental health hearings, Child Protective Services cases, guardian and probate cases and appellate cases.

    The sheer volume of those cases is what made up the bulk of the $3.9 million the county spent last year in appointed attorney fees.

    Some years there aren't any capital murder trials but there still are costs because court-appointed lawyers may be preparing for upcoming trials or working on appeals. Those attorneys also may wait to submit their bills until after a case is completed, which may be months from the time they were appointed.

    The current fiscal year has a budget of $150,000, but so far nothing has been paid for court-appointed attorneys in capital murder cases, according to officials with the county auditor's office.

    The county, which provided the information under the Texas Public Information Act, begins its new fiscal year Oct. 1. Lawyers were appointed this year in at least two new capital murder cases.

    One case involves a Corpus Christi couple accused in the death of the woman's 21-month-old son.

    Lorraine Rodriguez, 24, and Juan Javier "J.J." Garza, 22, were indicted on capital murder charges in May related to the Jan. 1 death of Texas Ruiz. Both have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors announced at a hearing last month they likely wouldn't pursue the death penalty.

    Another case involves 21-year-old Jacob Gonzalez, who was arrested in May on suspicion of three capital murder counts in the shooting deaths of three women. His case has not yet been presented to a grand jury, according to court records.

    About $220,000 was spent in fiscal 2008-09, the most paid out in the past five years. The year before that, the total was $50,801. Four years ago, the costs dipped to a low of about $16,000.

    Capital murder carries only two punishment options — life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

    But there are few instances in which a person accused in a killing can be charged with capital murder.

    Some examples of capital murder include when the person murdered was a law enforcement officer or firefighter on duty, a child younger than 6 or if more than one person is killed in the same crime.

    Other instances include when a person is accused of killing for money, killing a judge in retaliation or committing a murder during another crime such as kidnapping, robbery, rape or arson.

    Capital murder defendants who can afford it can hire any lawyer they want no matter their experience.

    But when it comes to indigent defendants facing the death penalty, only a handful of attorneys in the area are eligible to be appointed.

    Judges are required to appoint at least two attorneys to defend an indigent person in capital murder cases in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Death penalty cases automatically are appealed directly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin. Indigent defendants are entitled to have one attorney appointed for direct appeals.

    Lawyers who want to be on the list of qualified attorneys for the 11-county region must apply and be selected by a committee. Those chosen attorneys, who are required to be experienced in criminal law and trying felony cases, must continue their legal education to be recertified each year. That includes periodic training and courses on death penalty cases.

    As of April, 19 attorneys were eligible to be a lead attorney on a death penalty case in this region. Of those, five are based in Nueces County. The rest are from Hidalgo and Cameron counties.

    Six of 13 lawyers qualified only to assist in those cases are from Nueces County. Six lawyers also are eligible to be appointed to handle direct appeals, two of which are in Nueces County.

    Corpus Christi attorney Richard "Rick" Rogers, who has handled about 20 capital murder cases in his career, said defending a person facing death is a huge responsibility that is time consuming and exhaustive.

    The high-stakes, lengthy process dissuades many criminal defense lawyers from taking on the task, he said.

    He pointed out that unlike other criminal cases in which jury selection typically lasts a few hours, it can take a week or longer to pick a jury in a death penalty case.

    That's because attorneys are required to question each potential juror and find out their beliefs on the death penalty.

    The time and expertise needed for the task is why appointed attorneys in those cases are paid a higher rate than in other situations.

    The rates the county pays in capital murder cases depend on whether prosecutors seek the death penalty.

    In cases where the death penalty is pursued, lead attorneys are paid $200 an hour while lawyers who assist are paid $150 an hour.

    When the prosecution doesn't pursue the death penalty, court-appointed attorneys are paid the same rates as in any other criminal case. In those instances, an attorney could be paid $800 to $1,500 for each day of trial depending on the rate the trial judge chooses. They also could bill $100 an hour for any other court time and $60 an hour for out-of-court work.

    The county also has a flat-fee scale for attorneys handling other types of cases that relies on the degree of offense.

    BY THE NUMBERS

    Here is what Nueces County has paid for court-appointed attorneys in capital murder cases.

    Fiscal year Cost

    2005-06 $198,497

    2006-07 $16,126

    2007-08 $50,802

    2008-09 $220,018

    2009-10 $119,148

    2010-11 $0*

    *As of July 13 ($150,000 is budgeted for the 2010-11 fiscal year)

    New fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

    Source: Nueces County Auditor’s Office

    ON DEATH ROW

    Six inmates from Nueces County are on death row:

    Larry Hatten originally was sentenced in 1996 for the 1995 shooting death of 5-year-old Isaac Jackson. The sentence was overturned by the criminal appeals court, but he was given the death sentence again in 1998.

    Daniel Lee Lopez was sentenced last year for killing Corpus Christi police officer Lt. Stuart Alexander, who was struck March 11, 2009, while placing a spike strip across a road to stop a high-speed pursuit.

    John Henry Ramirez was sentenced in 2008 for the July 19, 2004, stabbing of Pablo Castro, a convenience store clerk who was stabbed 29 times and robbed of $1.25.

    Martin Robles was sentenced in 2003 for the 2002 killings of John Commisky and Jesus Gonzalez, both 19. His execution date has been set for Aug. 10.

    Jose Villegas was sentenced in 2002 for the January 2001 killings of 3-year-old Jacob Salazar; Jacob’s mother, Erida Perez Salazar, also known as Erida Rosales; and her mother, Alma Perez.

    Richard Vasquez was sentenced in 1999 for the March 1998 killing of 4-year-old Miranda Lopez.

    http://www.caller.com/news/2011/jul/...-murder-cases/

  3. #23
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    This lengthy article would have been more helpful if it had informed us what the average attorneys' fees were in murder cases where the prosecution wasn't seeking the death penalty. Of course, that useful information gets left out when the journalist is trying to persuade us that we should just chuck capital punishment for cost reasons even if we're otherwise in favor of it.

  4. #24
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    Lubbock Co program for capital murder expanding almost statewide

    Lubbock's Public Defender program is expanding to become almost a fully statewide program. County Commissioners on Monday are expected to approve the expansion paid for by a state grand of $3.8 million.

    "We did such a good job that now we're getting a state grant to expand," says Commissioner Bill McCay.

    It started with Lubbock and surrounding counties as a way to share the cost of an attorney in capital murder/death penalty cases. It now includes counties along the Texas/Mexico border. After Monday's vote it will include all parts of the state except North Central and Northeast Texas.

    Currently there are offices in Lubbock, Amarillo, and Midland.

    According to David Slayton, Lubbock County Director of Court Administration, the Public Defender will soon have offices in Austin and Houston. The remaining parts of Texas could be included in 2013.

    http://www.kcbd.com/story/15545818/l...most-statewide

  5. #25
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    Nearly 400 capital murder convicts get life without parole

    In six years, Texas has built a "lifer's row" filled with 398 prisoners who will never be released through parole - a fast-growing group that already has outpaced the number of inmates serving a death sentence in the Lone Star State, a Houston Chronicle analysis of prison records shows.

    Harris County prosecutors, who historically have led the state in seeking death sentences, have so far also been the most aggressive in pursuing capital murder charges and obtaining mandatory life without parole sentences in capital cases.

    Texas became the last of the death penalty states to approve life without parole in September 2005, after Harris County prosecutors dropped their opposition to the change. The law applies only to offenders convicted of capital murder.

    For the first time, it gave jurors and prosecutors a non-death sentence that guaranteed someone convicted of killing a child, killing multiple victims, slaying a police officer or committing another capital crime could not be released on parole.

    In all, 110 Harris County offenders have been sentenced to life without parole since the law took effect, compared with 11 death sentences.

    "Harris County is a tough law and order county on the really bad actors. That hasn't changed," said First Assistant District Attorney James Leitner.

    The change has led to fewer death sentences in Texas and nationwide.

    Fifty-one people were sentenced to life without parole in Dallas County. Tarrant County had 26; Bexar County had 22.

    Texas offenders convicted of capital murder were six times more often sentenced to life without parole than to death: 66 people got death sentences compared with the 398 lifers. The life without parole law has been used in about one third of all Texas counties at least once, the Chronicle's analysis of state prison records shows.

    Recent sentences


    Nationally, it's viewed as a less expensive option that offers the benefit of being reversible - unlike a death sentence - if innocence evidence or other information becomes available after the fact, said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

    "Texas is certainly down, and life without parole is definitely playing a role there," Dieter said. "And other states have found that as well."

    One of the most recent no-parole sentences went to former Houston Fifth Ward Pastor Tracy Bernard "T.B." Burleson, 44, convicted earlier this year of persuading his 21-year-old son to shoot his 56-year-old wife, Pauletta, May 18, 2010.

    "He could have been injected, but they gave him life, and I'm satisfied with that … I know I can't bring my sister back. But he's going to have ample time where he's going to think about what he did," said Fannie J. Aaron, the victim's sister. "And that's a lifetime. He won't be able to get out and take someone else's life."

    In August, Omar Javier Torres, arrested in North Carolina after two years on the lam, received a life without parole sentence for breaking into his ex-girlfriend's apartment and shooting her boyfriend.

    The no-parole option has been most controversial when used against juveniles; the U.S. Supreme Court last year issued a ruling in Graham v. Florida that banned the sentences for youths convicted of non-homicide offenses. Other appeals are pending.

    Juvenile offenders

    From September 2005 to September 2009, Texas allowed life without parole prison sentences for juvenile offenders who had been certified to stand trial as adults. The law was subsequently changed to bar such punishment. By then, 21 people sentenced for crimes they committed before age 18 had been sentenced, including eight from Harris County.

    Chris Joshua Meadoux, the only juvenile offender serving life without parole from San Antonio, was convicted of killing two friends when he was 16.

    Meadoux appealed his no-parole sentence to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that "juveniles are unfinished creatures whom we cannot label as irretrievably depraved." He lost the appeal in November 2010.

    Seventeen women are serving life without parole. Two were juvenile offenders. One is Ashley Ervin, a former Harris County area honor student sentenced for her role at 17 as the driver for a murderous robbery ring led by older males.

    Minority groups

    Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit critical of the national explosion in such sentences, argued the offenders are more likely to come from impoverished minority groups who sometimes get unfairly targeted by police.

    "We see that around the country that the race differences in life sentences are generally more extreme," he said.

    So far in Texas, 76 percent of the state's "lifers" are minorities, compared with 70 percent of death row inmates.

    http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...fe-2299362.php

  6. #26
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    Dallas criminal courts judge rules death penalty unconstitutional

    A state district judge in Dallas County has ruled that a Texas death penalty statute is unconstitutional because it allows prosecutors to arbitrarily seek capital punishment.

    Prosecutors are appealing Judge Teresa Hawthorne’s decision and have filed a motion to recuse her from Roderick Harris’ capital murder case.

    Hawthorne acknowledged when making her ruling last week that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and other courts have “consistently rejected” the reasons that she found the statute unconstitutional, according to a transcript of the hearing. But she said changes in the law can still be made.

    Hawthorne, who could not be reached for comment later, said she refused to be a “rubber-stamp judge.” The Democrat took office in January and is a former public defender.

    “My decision is not an act of unabashed judicial activism,” she said Monday from the bench. “I remember when women and blacks could not vote. I remember when so-called witches were burned. I remember when gays had to hide to be in the military. My decision is not to buck the system or stir the waters.”

    Prosecutors, in their motion filed Wednesday seeking Hawthorne’s recusal from the case, said the judge “has demonstrated a deep-seated antagonism toward the death penalty and the state’s exercise of its discretionary authority to seek death in this case.”

    “A reasonable person who witnessed Judge Hawthorne’s conduct at the December 19th hearing and knew all the facts relating to her conduct would have a reasonable doubt about her impartiality,” prosecutors said in their motion. “Furthermore, Judge Hawthorne’s bias and prejudice concerning a relevant subject matter — the punishment to which Harris may be subjected — warrants her recusal.”

    Harris is accused of shooting and killing brothers Alfredo and Carlos Gallardo during a robbery and then getting into a shootout with police in March 2009. Police say Harris netted $2 in the robbery at a southeast Dallas mobile home.

    The brothers were trying to protect Alfredo Gallardo’s wife and three children, ages 5, 8 and 13. Police said Harris kept asking for more money after herding the family into a closet. The brothers fought back and were killed.

    Dallas police say they also believe Harris is linked to an unrelated robbery and murder earlier the same month. Police say Harris and two other gunmen targeted a north Oak Cliff apartment, where they held an 11-month-old at gunpoint to rob the child’s mother. Police say the robbers then went to another apartment, where Harris shot three brothers, killing one.

    Hawthorne ruled that she believed:

    The Legislature failed to define terms like “continuing threat” and “moral blameworthiness” for jurors deciding between a life or death sentence.

    The Legislature’s definition of mitigating evidence is vague.

    State law prevents jurors from knowing that one vote for life can keep a defendant from receiving a death sentence.

    The law allowing a judge to enter into evidence “any matter that the court deems relevant to sentence” means that each judge hearing a case has the power to influence a sentence.

    “The law should not be arbitrary or capricious,” Hawthorne said in court.

    The Dallas County district attorney’s office and special prosecutor Kevin Brooks declined to comment about the ruling or the recusal motion.

    Brooks was appointed special prosecutor in the case because he had already been working on the case when he left the DA’s office earlier this year.

    Brad Lollar, one of Harris’ defense attorneys, said he believed that the appellate court would be interested in issues surrounding the lack of definitions and the fact that jurors consider whether a defendant would continue to be a threat based on his release into society.

    “That’s not going to happen” after sentencing in a capital murder case, Lollar said. “He’ll either get life without parole or death.”

    A Harris County judge made a similar ruling on the constitutionality of the death penalty in March 2010. State District Judge Kevin Fine eventually withdrew his ruling and refused to recuse himself from the case.

    That case ended in a plea agreement earlier this year when John Edward Green Jr. pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder. He fatally shot a Houston woman and wounded her sister in a June 2008 robbery.

    The chance that a higher court will agree with Hawthorne is “a long shot,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. But he said changes in an appeals court’s makeup can produce different rulings on the same issues.

    “That’s sometimes how laws get changed,” Dieter said. “What’s been rejected before could be seen differently.”

    Lollar pointed to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy as an example of a jurist changing his opinion on death penalty issues. Lollar said that within a 10-year span, Kennedy changed his mind on whether the mentally retarded and those who are 17 at the time of the crime could be executed for capital murder. Executions of the mentally retarded and juveniles are no longer allowed in the United States.

    “Unless you give the court the opportunity to reconsider, how do you change the law?” Lollar said.

    A hearing on the recusal motion is scheduled for January before another judge. Testimony in Harris’ trial is expected to begin in May after a months-long process of jury selection.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime...titutional.ece

  7. #27
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    Dallas DA Craig Watkins says his great-grandfather was executed in Texas

    Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins made a startling disclosure today:

    "People don't know that my great-grandfather was executed by this state," he said.

    The district attorney offered no further details.

    The revelation from the first black district attorney elected in Texas came in a news conference after a hearing to exonerate a man, Richard Miles, whose trial and convictions for murder and attempted murder have raised questions.

    Before mentioning his executed relative, Watkins said exoneration proceedings offer an opportunity to examine whether Texas is "doing the right thing" by using capital punishment. He added, however, that his office will continue to pursue death cases because it is the law.

    Watkins, who has in the past expressed conflicting personal opinions about the death penalty, left as the news conference continued.

    He did not indicate whether he or his family believed that his great-grandfather had been wrongly convicted.

    He could not be reached for comment later.

    His office confirmed that the execution had taken place -- on Aug. 10, 1932 -- but released few other details.

    It was not clear how long Watkins has known about his great-grandfather's execution or how it may have helped shape his views on criminal justice and the death penalty.

    Since taking office in 2007, Watkins has publicly said that he was against the death penalty, then changed his mind and came to support it.

    "I came in with a certain philosophical view. I don't have that anymore," Watkins said in 2010. "From a religious standpoint, I think it's an archaic way of doing justice. But in this job, I've seen people who cannot be rehabilitated."

    Watkins at the time said he still had concerns that prosecutors somewhere might send an inncoent man to death row.

    Despite any personal ambivalence, the Dallas County district attorney's office has continued to pursue death sentences. His office in January successfully fought to recuse a judge from a case when she declared the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional.

    An Associated Press story from October 1931 that ran in The Dallas Morning News said that the man believed to have been Watkins' great-grandfather was sentenced to death after a jury deliberated 40 minutes in a case involving the murder of a Fort Worth man.

    The murder occurred just over a month before the trial.

    The man was shot and killed in an automobile with his fiancee, who was 23. She identified the defendant as one of two assailants.

    Another newspaper article said the defendant was at large after escaping from prison, where he'd been serving a 35-year sentence for burglary.

    A cousin of the district attorney, Kurt Watkins, said today that he had never been told about a relative's having been been executed in the '30s.

    "I would have heard that, or maybe I didn't hear about it because I was younger," Kurt Watkins said.

    http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/a...ns-says-h.html

  8. #28
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    AP Interview: Texas DA Seeks Death Penalty Review

    The Texas prosecutor leading an aggressive push to free wrongly imprisoned inmates, in a county where more than two dozen wrongful convictions have been overturned, is calling for a review of the capital punishment system in the nation's busiest death penalty state.

    Craig Watkins' tenure as Dallas County's top prosecutor has earned him a national reputation. Now, as Watkins publicly acknowledges that his great-grandfather was executed in Texas almost 80 years ago, he called on state lawmakers to review death penalty procedures to ensure the punishment is fairly administered.

    "I think it's a legitimate question to have, to ask: 'Have we executed someone that didn't commit the crime?'" Watkins said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    After becoming district attorney in 2007, Watkins started a conviction integrity unit that has examined convictions and, in some cases, pushed for them to be overturned. Dallas County has exonerated 22 people through DNA evidence since 2001 by far the most of any Texas county and more than all but two states. An additional five people have been exonerated outside of DNA testing. Most of those exonerations occurred during Watkins' tenure.

    Texas has executed 55 inmates since 2009, including 13 last year, a 15-year low. Twelve former death row inmates have been freed since 1973.

    "I think the reforms we've made in our criminal justice system are better than any other state in this country," Watkins said. "But we still need reforms. And so, I don't know if I'm the voice for that. I just know, here I am, and I have these experiences."

    Among those experiences was hearing about the execution of his great-grandfather, Richard Johnson. According to state criminal records and news accounts, Johnson escaped from prison three times while serving a 35-year sentence for burglary, and he was charged with killing a man after his third escape. He was convicted of murder in October 1931 and executed in the electric chair in August 1932.

    Watkins said he did not get a full explanation of what happened until he became district attorney. His grandmother, who was a young girl when her father was executed, still struggles with the story, according to Watkins and his mother, Paula.

    Watkins says he opposes the death penalty on moral grounds but doesn't want those beliefs "pushed upon someone else." He has sought the death penalty at trial in nine cases, with eight death sentences received. An additional four death penalty cases are pending, according to his office. A panel within his office reviews possible death penalty cases and votes on whether to pursue them.

    While Watkins doesn't take a position on his great-grandfather's guilt, he said hearing about the incident made him think harder about whether defendants, particularly African-Americans, are being treated fairly by the courts.

    Watkins, the first African-American district attorney in Texas, said he remains troubled by allegations that faulty evidence and prosecutorial misconduct were used to secure convictions. Watkins did not offer specific proposals for changes or suggest halting executions, but he said he wanted state lawmakers to take a look at how the death penalty is handled in counties.

    "I think in Dallas County, we're getting it right," he said. "But I think the larger responsibility is for other places to get it right."

    The latest wrongfully convicted man to be exonerated in Dallas County, Richard Miles, was formally declared innocent Wednesday by a judge. Miles was released from prison in 2009, 15 years after a jury convicted him of murder and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week declared that his case was one of actual innocence.

    With a handful of other exonerees watching, Watkins told the courtroom that it was a "fair question" to ask whether Texas had executed an innocent person.

    "I think anyone that does not that sits in a DA's seat have doubts, they shouldn't be DAs," he said.

    http://www2.wsav.com/news/2012/feb/2...ew-ar-3288039/

  9. #29
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    Dallas County DA Craig Watkins is basically personally opposed to capital punishment. However, he continues to seek the death penalty at trials as well as requesting execution dates for Dallas County death-row inmates whose appeals have been exhausted. Apropos, does anyone here know what's behind the hold-up in Harris County? There are plenty of inmates there whose appeals have been exhausted for quite some time and, yet, execution dates are, apparently, not being requested for them. Is the DA there a closet abolitionist? What gives?

  10. #30
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    Harris DA offers some being retried option of life term

    Death penalty trials, beginning with weeks of hand-picking jurors, continuing through relentless questioning and concluding with arguments about justice and mercy, are exhausting and emotional.

    Yet, with more than a dozen death row cases from 20 years ago overturned in recent years for flawed jury instructions, Harris County prosecutors have been faced with doing them over again.

    Since 2009, three of the defendants have had their lives spared after Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos allowed them to plead guilty in exchange for stacked life sentences.

    Three other men whose capital murder cases were reversed have gone through a second grueling trial and are back on death row, including Carl Wayne Buntion, who was again sentenced to death earlier this month.

    The death penalty cases tied to flawed jury instructions continue to come back to Harris County as they exhaust their other appeals.

    On Tuesday, Roger Wayne McGowen's case was sent back for a retrial. The 48-year-old, on death row for 25 years, was convicted of killing a 67-year-old woman during a bar robbery in 1986.

    'We look at it again'

    McGowen's case is typical of what the District Attorney's Office has to review before deciding whether to again seek the death penalty.

    "We look at it again, from start to finish, and decide if it is still a death penalty case," said Jim Leitner, the district attorney's first assistant. "We really have to look at who is the worst of the worst."

    The office has to balance the time and energy of redoing an old case against finite resources, which may mean a death row inmate can get a deal by pleading guilty to stacked life sentences.

    "Even though a jury once decided this is a death penalty case," Leitner said. "We look at what evidence we still have, access to witnesses, strength of the case and the willingness of the person to plead to something that will keep them out of commission forever."

    Some attorneys have been able to persuade prosecutors to walk away from the death penalty.

    "Death penalty trials take weeks and weeks longer, everything is amped up," said attorney Danalynn Recer. "It takes a huge amount of resources and exhausts everyone, including the victim's family, and then the case goes on forever."

    Recer, a staunch death penalty opponent, has worked with two death row inmates who slipped the hangman's noose. She said the defendants most likely to get off death row are the ones who accept responsibility. They also agree to waive time served and any appeals.

    "We structure the plea in a way that there's not ever going to be parole," Recer said. "And in those instances it's the smartest outcome for everybody."

    Recer was able to get Robert Tennard off death row in 2009 for fatally stabbing an acquaintance named Larry Neblett the night of Aug. 15, 1985.

    Tennard, then a 22-year-old rapist on parole, and two friends were drinking and smoking marijuana with Neblett at his home when Tennard stabbed the man 15 times.

    Tennard agreed to a life sentence for the death and a second life sentence for another assault. He also waived his appeals.

    'Penry cases'

    The cases that are being reconsidered, like Tennard's, were tried before 1991 with jury instructions that did not allow jurors to properly consider mitigating evidence.

    They are commonly called "Penry cases," for Johnny Paul Penry, a capital murder defendant whose case twice went to the U.S. Supreme Court, the second time for flawed jury instructions.

    Retrying the sentencing phase of a trial actually means redoing the case entirely because prosecutors want jurors to have the complete story. If the verdict is life in prison instead of death, jail time is governed by the law at the time of the slaying, so the killers could be eligible for parole.

    Of the Penry cases to come back to Houston, three inmates have been able to get off of death row. Three others have been retried and again condemned to die by lethal injection.

    Buntion's retrial

    One of the most notorious defendants to be retried was 68-year-old Buntion, who gunned down Houston police officer James Irby in 1990.

    "Sometimes we see, even though they're 60 years old, if we plead him, he could conceivably be out the next day, and he's just as bad today as he was back then," Leitner said. "Like Buntion."

    Attorneys for Buntion tried in vain to broker a deal for the career criminal to plead guilty to past wrongdoing in exchange for several life sentences stacked together.

    Casey Keirnan, one of Buntion's lawyers, said it was not fair that one death row prisoner can get a life sentence while others, including his client, wait for their death warrant to be signed.

    "No man should have to face the death penalty twice," Keirnan said. "If there was a mistake made in the law, all of those sentences should have been commuted to life."

    He said the law never envisioned defendants spending 20 years waiting to be executed then going through another death penalty trial.

    "That's cruel and unusual," Keirnan said.


    More Information

    More than a dozen death row cases from 20 years ago in Harris County have been overturned in recent years for flawed jury instructions. The Harris County District Attorney's Office has been faced with prosecuting the cases again or reaching plea deals with the convicted killers.

    Some of the cases are pending.

    So far three men have been retried on punishment in those cases and were resentenced to death:

    Carl Wayne Buntion
    - Fatally shot HPD motorcycle officer James Irby during a routine traffic stop in 1990.

    Brian Edward Davis - Robbed and stabbed 31-year-old Michael Foster in 1991 after meeting him in a bar.

    Raymond Deleon Martinez - Shot tavern owner Herman Chavis in the back during a 1983 robbery.

    Three men have been allowed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences:

    Theodore Goynes - Abducted, raped and fatally shot 25-year-old Linda Tucker in the head in 1990. Her body was found in an abandoned apartment complex.

    Roy Gene Smith
    - Went on a crack-fueled rampage in 1988 that ended with Smith killing James Whitmire for $4.27.

    Robert Tennard - Fatally stabbed Larry Neblett 15 times as a companion killed one of Neblett's friends with a hatchet in 1985. The four men were drinking and smoking marijuana together.

    Outcomes of death row cases

    More than a dozen death row cases from 20 years ago in Harris County have been overturned in recent years for flawed jury instructions. The Harris County District Attorney's Office has been faced with prosecuting the cases again or reaching plea deals with the convicted killers. Some of the cases are pending.

    So far three men have been retried on punishment in those cases and were resentenced to death:

    Carl Wayne Buntion: Fatally shot HPD motorcycle officer James Irby during a routine traffic stop in 1990.

    Brian Edward Davis: Robbed and stabbed 31-year-old Michael Foster in 1991 after meeting him in a bar.

    Raymond Deleon Martinez: Shot tavern owner Herman Chavis in the back during a 1983 robbery.

    Three men have been allowed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences:

    Theodore Goynes: Abducted, raped and fatally shot 25-year-old Linda Tucker in the head in 1990. Her body was found in an abandoned apartment complex.

    Roy Gene Smith: Went on a crack-fueled rampage in 1988 that ended with Smith killing James Whitmire for $4.27.

    Robert Tennard: Fatally stabbed Larry Neblett 15 times as a companion killed one of Neblett's friends with a hatchet in 1985. The four men were drinking and smoking marijuana together.


    http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...of-3433777.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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