June 26, 2013
Judge denies defense request in Falk murder case retrial
A Brazos County district judge on Tuesday denied a defense request that would have prohibited retrial of capital murder defendant John Ray Falk Jr.
The four-hour hearing leading to state District Judge John Delaney's ruling revolved around the issue of double jeopardy, the legal doctrine preventing a defendant from being tried twice for the same offense.
The hearing was the first time prosecutors and defense lawyers involved in Falk's case faced off since District Judge Ken Keeling surprised attorneys the morning of Jan. 28 by declaring a mistrial in what already was a legally convoluted and impassioned case.
Falk was one of two inmates at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville charged with capital murder for killing prison guard Susan Canfield, 59, as the two men made an escape in September 2007. His co-defendant, Jerry Duane Martin, was sentenced to death in 2009 by a Leon County jury that convicted Martin of driving the getaway vehicle that ran into Canfield while she was on horseback, causing her to fall to her death.
Martin is awaiting an execution date.
The trial was moved to Brazos County based on a defense change of venue request, and prosecuted by Walker County District Attorney David Weeks and assistant attorney general Jane Starnes, who have been aided by assistant attorney general Leslie Kuykendall.
Falk's defense team, local attorneys Michele Esparza, Kyle Hawthorne and Lane Thibodeaux, argued the mistrial in Falk's case was issued without "manifest necessity" and without exploring reasonable possible alternatives as is required by law.
In his order for mistrial, Keeling, a district judge in Leon, Walker and Madison counties, pointed to a 55-day stay in the trial as manifest necessity, saying he did not believe jurors could remain impartial in the face of such a delay.
The 55-day delay stemmed from a state appeal regarding jury instructions and capital murder law that could be applied that was reviewed by two Texas appeals courts before the higher court -- the Court of Criminal Appeals -- ruled in favor of prosecutors.
Lawyers on both sides were ready to deliver closing arguments in the guilt-innocence phase of Falk's trial when Keeling ordered the mistrial in January and recused himself from Falk's case.
"When you stop a trial after everybody has told their story ... and you stop it without manifest necessity, then jeopardy still attaches," Esparza said.
Delaney was appointed to take over from Keeling and presided over Tuesday's hearing.
A majority of the time was taken by Falk's defense lawyers as they walked Delaney through their double jeopardy arguments.
Two jurors from Falk's original trial testified for the defense and said they believed they could have come to a fair verdict despite the 55-day stall in proceedings, which supported the defense argument that Keeling declared the mistrial without knowing if jurors could proceed impartially.
Delaney permitted the testimonies for appeals purposes but did not consider the witness statements in making his ruling.
The judge questioned Falk's lawyers about their lack of objection to Keeling's mistrial, a fact state attorneys were quick to point out in their rebuttal to the defense.
"At the time the mistrial was levied, the jury couldn't have been saved, the objection would have been fruitless," Thibodeaux said.
Esparza added that several efforts were made to prevent a mistrial and "save the trial, save the jury," but Keeling ultimately ignored their requests.
Weeks argued the bottom line was "when it came down to the mistrial, [defense attorneys] were silent."
Meanwhile, Canfield's husband, Charles Canfield, who sat through Martin's trial and Falk's original trial, will wait on more legal proceedings as he nears the sixth anniversary of his wife's murder.
"It drags it all up for you every time you go through it," he said. "I just make sure I'm there to represent the person who can't sit in that room."
He described his wife as someone who was "never cruel, never mean, never foul," to inmates nor otherwise.
In addition to ruling against the defense's request to bar retrial, Delaney lifted a gag order and a seal of case records that had been ordered by Keeling at the start of Falk's original trial.
http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/a...tml?mode=story
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