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Thread: Terence Tramaine Andrus - Texas

  1. #11
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Based on today's SCOTUS activity, Kavanaugh seems more wishy washy on capital punishment than Gorsuch, yet more conservative in other areas (see today's landmark ruling for an example).
    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

  2. #12
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    Would you agree less so than Kennedy Aaron?

  3. #13
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aaron View Post
    Based on today's SCOTUS activity, Kavanaugh seems more wishy washy on capital punishment than Gorsuch, yet more conservative in other areas (see today's landmark ruling for an example).
    Gorsuch is pretty solid on capital punishment, and also wrote today's ruling in favour of protecting LGBT+ workers? Honestly, what a king
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

  4. #14
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by johncocacola View Post
    Would you agree less so than Kennedy Aaron?
    Yes John. Kavanaugh is better than Kennedy.
    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

  5. #15
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    U.S. Supreme Court rules Texas death row inmate had an ineffective lawyer, orders new review

    In a 6-3 opinion, the justices said Terence Andrus had ineffective assistance from his lawyer and that it was unclear if the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals properly considered whether that could have affected his sentence

    The U.S. Supreme Court has again ruled against Texas’ top criminal court in a death penalty case, the latest in the high court’s repeated dismissals of Texas decisions against death row inmates.

    In a 19-page opinion on a 6-3 ruling Monday, the justices sent Terence Andrus’ case back to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for further review. They said the court must again examine whether the “abundant” amount of mitigating evidence not presented at Andrus’ trial should warrant a new punishment trial to decide if he should get lethal injection or life in prison without parole. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.

    Andrus was sentenced to death in 2012 for two 2008 shooting deaths in Fort Bend County during an unsuccessful carjacking attempt. Last year, the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the trial court’s recommendation on appeal that Andrus get a new punishment trial because his lawyer failed to raise potentially sentence-changing evidence.

    The Supreme Court ruling focused on the evidence that could have been used to sway the jury from a death sentence. This includes his mother’s drug addiction and prostitution, his role as caretaker for his siblings when his mother would disappear, his own drug abuse, multiple suicide attempts and a diagnosis of psychosis.

    “During Andrus’ capital trial, however, nearly none of this mitigating evidence reached the jury,” the justices wrote. “That is because Andrus’ defense counsel not only neglected to present it; he failed even to look for it.”

    The justices ruled that the work by Andrus’ lawyer, former Fort Bend County prosecutor James “Sid” Crowley, fell below what is legally reasonable representation. They sent Andrus' case back to the Court of Criminal Appeals to make a determination on whether, with better legal representation, there is a “reasonable probability” that Andrus’ jury would have instead delivered a life sentence. Both factors must be met for a new trial to be granted based on a constitutional violation of effective assistance of counsel.

    Crowley died in 2019, according to an obituary listing.

    Supreme Court justices said it was unclear in the Court of Criminal Appeals’ rejection of a new trial if it even considered whether Crowley’s representation could have affected the jury’s decision. The Texas court’s opinion simply stated that despite the trial court’s recommendation for a new trial, Andrus had failed to show what is needed for one — that the legal representation fell below an objective standard and that there was a reasonable probability that his sentence could have been different with better counsel.

    The dissenting justices said that was enough to indicate the Texas court had considered the standard, and argued the court shouldn’t have to show it again.

    “Perhaps the Court thinks the CCA should have used CAPITAL LETTERS or bold type. Or maybe it should have added: ‘And we really mean it!!!’,” Alito wrote in his dissent.

    Andrus, now 32, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the killings of Avelino Diaz and Kim-Phuong Vu Bui. According to court documents, Andrus confessed to the crime, saying that while he was high on PCP-laced marijuana, he tried and failed to steal Diaz’s car, shooting and killing him and Bui, who was in another car.

    At the punishment trial, Crowley brought forward Andrus’ parents, who largely said he was a good child and sibling and that he did not have access to drugs, which Andrus said was a lie, according to court documents. A prison counselor also testified that Andrus appeared to show remorse, and a drug expert spoke generally on the impact of substance use on developing brains, according to the opinion.

    Aside from Andrus’ own testimony, almost no evidence was presented on what the Supreme Court opinion called “a childhood marked by extreme neglect and privation, a family environment filled with violence and abuse.”

    The dissenting justices and the prosecution, however, point to Andrus’ often violent criminal history as a reason why even with bad lawyering, the trial would have likely still ended in the death penalty.

    “To establish prejudice, Andrus must show ‘a substantial, not just conceivable, likelihood’ that one of the jurors who unanimously agreed on his sentence would not have done so if his trial counsel had presented more mitigation evidence,” Alito wrote for the dissenting opinion.

    Andrus had previously been sent to a state juvenile lockup after taking part in a robbery, and he had been accused of other armed robberies and violence within the juvenile lockup. The majority opinion by the justices wrote that the lack of mitigating evidence presented hurt Andrus more because his lawyer was unable to counter the state’s presentation painting Andrus as a violent criminal.

    The justices said that in the lockup, Andrus was “steeped in gang culture, dosed on high quantities of psychotropic drugs, and frequently relegated to extended stints of solitary confinement.”

    In recent years, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has repeatedly been knocked in harsh rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court on death penalty decisions.

    Twice, the high court overturned the state court’s decisions in the case of Bobby Moore, first invalidating the Texas court’s method for determining whether a death row inmate is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. After the state court again said Moore did not qualify as intellectually disabled and was eligible for execution, the Supreme Court again tossed the court’s ruling and made the decision itself that Moore was disabled.

    Since then, Moore and other Texas death row inmates with intellectual disability claims have been resentenced to life in prison. Moore was granted parole earlier this month.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06...death-penalty/
    "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

  6. #16
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    I don’t really like Kavanuagh too much this is yet another bust decision from him. The one thing I can’t stand he wrote majority opinion that let Murphy live. This was the guy that let Ray die in February of last year. In other words deep down I really believe he wanted to see the black man die and let the white guy live.
    Last edited by Neil; 06-15-2020 at 03:57 PM.

  7. #17
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Firstly, Kavanaugh merely wrote a separate concurrence. Secondly, the yellow justices were cowed into submission after the media's eloquent and erudite response to the Ray execution, which essentially amounted to no more than "wow you're meanies." Race has no bearing, although it definitely was terrible optics.
    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

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    That’s not an excuse Thomas and Gorsuch didn’t cave in. Roberts is a swing vote and he’s pathetic on pretty much every other conservative social issue. I understand him caving. I’m not sure why Alto would cave he’s much more conservative then Kavanuagh anyway on this issue.

  9. #19
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    I'm not excusing or condoning the flip flop. I'm simply explaining the likely, ostensible impetus.
    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

  10. #20
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    Nevertheless, to reduce these "ineffective counsel" claims, Texas and its counties really should hire more public defenders and pay them better. Plus give them more than pocket change to do decent investigations and hire expert witnesses. And maybe reduce their case-loads.

    It may or may not be cheaper to do things this way, but eliminating that "ineffective counsel" issue might help get the condemned on that Final Ride faster.
    "Sorry for the delay, I got caught in traffic." — Rodney Scott Berget, South Dakota, October 29, 2018 — final words.

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