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Thread: Eric Christopher Houston - California Death Row

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    Eric Christopher Houston - California Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    The Lindhurst High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on May 1, 1992 at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst. The gunman, 20-year-old Eric Houston, was a former student at Lindhurst High School. Houston killed three students and one teacher, and wounded nine others before Houston surrendered to police. On April 30, 1992 Eric Houston phoned the principal of Lindhurst High School, threatening to "shoot up a school rally" to be held on the following day. The pep rally was cancelled. Eric nonetheless arrived on the school campus the following day, armed with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a sawed-off .22 caliber rifle around 2:40 p.m. As he entered the school, he fatally shot teacher Robert Brens, his Civics teacher during his senior year. He then shot and killed Judy Davis, a 17-year-old student inside Brens' classroom. Houston then walked through the hallway outside the classroom and fatally shot student Jason Edward White in the chest.

    Further on, Houston pointed his shotgun at a female student, but before he could fire his weapon, another student, Beamon A. Hill, pushed her aside and took the shotgun blast to the side of his head. Houston then entered a classroom with about 25 to 30 students inside. According to reports, Houston would send a student to retrieve more hostages, and eventually held over 80 students hostage. He engaged in an eight-hour standoff with police before surrendering to authorities. While in police custody, Eric Houston stated that he was despondent over losing his job and was angered that he had failed to graduate from high school or obtain a GED. He also confessed to holding a grudge against his former Civics teacher Robert Brens, who failed Houston in his class. Houston was found guilty on all charges against him.

    Houston was sentenced to death on September 20, 1993 in Napa County.
    Last edited by Moh; 03-20-2014 at 05:06 PM.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    High court upholds death penalty in school rampage

    The California Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death penalty of a high school dropout convicted of going on a murderous rampage through his former Northern California school in 1992.

    The court unanimously ruled that Eric Houston received a fair trial in 1993. The court also said that there was overwhelming evidence he planned the killings, which supported his first-degree murder convictions.

    Houston ultimately killed three students and a teacher and injured 10 more during the rampage and the eight-hour siege afterward at a school about 40 miles north of Sacramento.

    Houston was a 20-year-old dropout of Lindhurst High School in Yuba County when he walked into the school on the afternoon of May 1, 1992, with a 12-gauge shotgun in his hand, a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle slung over his back and a grudge.

    He was wearing a camouflage vest with pockets full of shotgun shells, two bandoliers full of ammunition, and a full ammunition belt. He had a canteen on his belt. Houston had spent the morning waiting for his unemployment check and then went shopping for shotgun ammunition.

    When he arrived at the school in the Olivehurst neighborhood just outside Marysville, he entered the classroom of civics teacher Robert Brens and opened fire, killing the teacher and a student. Brens gave Houston a failing grade in an economics class in 1989. Houston blamed the teacher for his failure to graduate and the loss of a job and a girlfriend.

    After leaving Brens' classroom, Houston wandered down the hallway and shot into classrooms along the way. Ultimately, he made his way to an upstairs classroom and ordered the teacher to leave and commanded the two dozen students to blockade the door with a bookshelf. After sending students on several forays throughout the school to roundup other students, Houston took about 80 students hostage in the classroom. He released several throughout the day while negotiating with police.

    Houston surrendered to police at about 10 p.m. after receiving a "contract" promising him he would serve no more than five-years in a minimum-security prison.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/02/468...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    You have to be kidding me.....he actually believed he'd get such a "deal" after killing people? I'd have to say if anyone gets to claim mental retard it's this guy.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Houston's petition for writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
    Case Nos.: (S035190)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On December 4, 2013, Houston filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cal...cv05609/272492

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Houston filed another habeas petition before the California Supreme Court on the 27th of September 2016.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...=party&start=1

  7. #7
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Houston's habeas case has been fully briefed since June 8, 2017.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...JSMCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Lindhurst High School shooter files appeal of death sentence

    By Veronica Catlin
    Fox40

    A man who was convicted of murdering three students and a teacher by way of a mass shooting at Lindhurst High School in 1992 is appealing his conviction.

    On May 1, 1992, Eric Christopher Houston, 20, entered his former high school in Olivehurst while armed with a shotgun and a rifle. He shot and killed four people, wounded several others with gunfire, and held almost 90 students hostage for about eight hours before surrendering.

    According to official court records obtained by FOX40.com, Houston targeted Lindhurst High because one of his former teachers gave him a failing grade which he felt prevented him from graduating when he attended in 1989. In addition, he blamed the failing grade for his loss of employment and breakup with his girlfriend. At trial, Houston also accused this former teacher of molesting him.

    Houston’s trial was moved from Yuba County to Napa where a jury convicted Houston of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and a variety of other related charges. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection scheduled for 2022, but it was delayed because of appeals.

    The death penalty is legal in California, however,Governor Gavin Newsom placed an official halt on capital punishment in June 2023. According to www.npr.org, no one in the state has been put to death in almost 17 years, however, if the moratorium was lifted, Houston would be due.

    Houston is on death row at San Quentin State Prison and has appealed the court’s decision several times. Although the Supreme Court upheld the sentencing on most of Houston’s appeal claims, one will be further investigated.

    His most recent appeal challenges the death sentence under a claim that it is cruel and unusual punishment because of his mental status.

    Records show that during Houston’s hearing, UC Davis Medical School board-certified psychiatrist and former professor Charles Schaffer diagnosed Houston with major depression with psychotic features and bipolar disorder. He also noted the probability of an unspecified personality disorder and PTSD; however, in Schaffer’s opinion, Houston could understand the nature and quality of his acts and could distinguish right from wrong.

    Yuba County Board of Supervisors approved a memorandum of understanding with the San Joaquin County District Attorney to help litigate the validity of Houston’s claims because of Yuba County staffing shortages. On Oct. 27 Yuba County district attorney signed a memorandum of understanding to execute the litigation. Officials say the process could take between two and three years before a judge decides.

    “Even if Houston is found to be ineligible for the death penalty, under current law, he will not be released from prison,” said Yuba County District Attorney Clinton Curry. “His sentence would simply be converted from death to life without possibility of parole.”

    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/yu...eath-sentence/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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