Nov. 15
TEXAS:
Supreme Court throws out Texas death sentence
The Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death sentence of a convicted
Texas killer because jurors in his trial did not consider his learning
disability and other evidence.
The unsigned 7-2 decision is another reproach of Texas, which executes
more people than any other state.
Texas courts had turned down LaRoyce Lathair Smith's appeal of his
sentence for the January 1991 killing of a Taco Bell manager during a
robbery attempt in Dallas. The victim, 19-year-old Jennifer Soto, was
pistol-whipped, shot and stabbed with a butcher knife.
In the ruling, justices cited their decision nearly 5 months ago in the
case of another Texas death row inmate, Robert Tennard, which opened the
door to new challenges from several dozen condemned men in Texas who claim
they have low IQs and were not given enough chance to present mitigating
evidence to a jury.
"There is no question that a jury might well have considered (Smith's) IQ
scores and history of participation in special-education classes as a
reason to impose a sentence more lenient than death," the court wrote in
Monday's decision.
Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the most conservative
justices, disagreed.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had joined Scalia and Thomas in
opposing the outcome of the earlier Texas case. Rehnquist, who has been
away from the court since last month while receiving chemotherapy and
radiation for thyroid cancer, supported the latest decision though no
explanation was provided.
In his appeal, Smith argued that jurors weren't allowed to consider
evidence including that he was 19 at the time of the Taco Bell robbery,
that he had a troubled home life and that he had a low IQ and learning
disabilities.
A Texas court rejected the claim, saying that wasn't relevant because
there was no link between the murder and his diminished capacity.
The Supreme Court has been critical of prosecutors' handling of some
capital cases in Texas, which last year was responsible for 24 of the 65
U.S. executions.
Also Monday, the justices ordered an appeals court to reconsider whether
Texas death row inmate Ted Calvin Cole, known as Jalil Abdul-Kabir, should
get a chance to challenge his sentence on grounds jurors did not take into
account his troubled childhood and emotional disorders. He was convicted
of strangling another man with a dog leash.
Earlier this year, justices lifted inmate Delma Banks' death sentence and
delivered a strong rebuke of Texas officials and lower courts for failing
to ensure he received a fair trial. The court said prosecutors hid key
information that might have helped Banks' case.
And last year, the court sided with a black Texas death row inmate, Thomas
Miller-El, who claimed prosecutors in Dallas County stacked his jury with
whites. The Miller-El case will be reviewed by justices for the second
time next month because an appeals court again found that he should face
the death penalty.
The Monday cases are Smith v. Texas, 04-5323, and Abdul-Kabir v. Dretke,
04-5876.
On the Net: The Smith v. Texas opinion is available at:
wid.ap.org/documents/scotus/041115smith.pdf
(source: Associated Press)
*************************
Dallas death sentence thrown out
The Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death sentence of a convicted
Texas killer because jurors in his trial did not consider his learning
disability and other evidence.
The unsigned 7-2 decision is another reproach of Texas, which executes
more people than any other state.
Texas courts had turned down LaRoyce Lathair Smith's appeal of his
sentence for the January 1991 killing of a Taco Bell manager during a
robbery attempt in Dallas. The victim, 19-year-old Jennifer Soto, was
pistol-whipped, shot and stabbed with a butcher knife.
In the ruling, justices cited their decision 5 months ago in the case of
another Texas death row inmate, Robert Tennard, which opened the door to
new challenges from several dozen condemned men in Texas who claim they
have low IQs and were not given enough chance to present mitigating
evidence to a jury.
"There is no question that a jury might well have considered (Smith's) IQ
scores and history of participation in special-education classes as a
reason to impose a sentence more lenient than death," the court wrote in
Monday's decision.
Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the most conservative
justices, disagreed.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had joined Scalia and Thomas in
opposing the outcome of the earlier Texas case. Rehnquist, who has been
away from the court since last month while receiving chemotherapy and
radiation for thyroid cancer, supported the latest decision though no
explanation was provided.
In his appeal, Smith argued that jurors weren't allowed to consider
evidence including that he was 19 at the time of the Taco Bell robbery,
that he had a troubled home life and that he had a low IQ and learning
disabilities.
A Texas court rejected the claim, saying that wasn't relevant because
there was no link between the murder and his diminished capacity.
The Supreme Court has been critical of prosecutors' handling of some
capital cases in Texas, which last year was responsible for 24 of the 65
U.S. executions.
Earlier this year, justices lifted inmate Delma Banks' death sentence and
delivered a strong rebuke of Texas officials and lower courts for failing
to ensure he received a fair trial. The court said prosecutors hid key
information that might have helped Banks' case.
And last year, the court sided with a black Texas death row inmate, Thomas
Miller-El, who claimed prosecutors in Dallas County stacked his jury with
whites. The Miller-El case will be reviewed by justices for the second
time next month because an appeals court again found that he should face
the death penalty.
The Monday case is Smith v. Texas, 04-5323.
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Staples has trio of bills in stable
A Montgomery County Representative has drafted 3 bills that deal with
salary and benefit issues for state employees.
State Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, has focused his new bills for the
upcoming session on these increases. Staples represents the northern
Montgomery County area.
Staples also is re-introducing a bill that would require that jury to
determine, during the sentencing phase of a trial, if individuals are
mentally retarded. If the jury determines the person is mentally retarded,
they would not be eligible for the death penalty.
This bill is designed to ensure compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court
ruling, which declares that executing the mentally handicapped represented
cruel and unusual punishment.
Those found to be mentally handicapped will be sentenced to life in prison
and will not be eligible for parole for 40 years.
The new session convenes on Jan. 11.
The full list of bills being proposed is available at
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/reports/daily/79R/daily.htm
(source: The Courier)
***************************
Condemned man says he's not killer----Execution set Wednesday in '94
robbery-slaying
A construction worker whose 6-foot-3-inch frame earned him the nickname
"Horse," Robert Preston Tate boasted that he could intimidate any would-be
robber who threatened his north Houston neighborhood hangout.
His protective instinct emerged on the night of Feb. 18, 1994, when armed
robbers burst into the Handi Food Mart, a family-owned store set between
houses in a residential area.
The men grabbed two cases of beer and money and fled. Tate, who was
outside, drew his unloaded gun and pursued. The 28-year-old was shot twice
in the chest and died as he lay in a ditch.
More than 2 years would pass before his arrest, but Anthony Guy Fuentes, a
1-time private school student who spent summers with his grandmother in
Germany, was convicted in Tate's murder and sentenced to death.
He is scheduled to be executed Wednesday and would be the 23rd man in
Texas to receive a lethal injection this year. 2 other inmates from Harris
County were executed last week, and 6 from around the state are scheduled
to die through March.
With his execution days away, Fuentes, 30, will not talk about the
shooting. He says only what he has maintained since his arrest: that he
was one of three men who robbed the store, but he did not kill Tate.
"I can't be sorry for something I didn't do," he said in a recent
interview from death row in Livingston.
During his 1996 trial, an accomplice and a bystander testified Fuentes was
the triggerman.
But Donald Cantrell, a lawyer who represented Fuentes at trial, said their
identification has always troubled him. He said he has doubts about the
testimony from Fuentes' accomplice, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to 15 years, and questioned the witness's accuracy.
"It was night," Cantrell said. "He had been drinking. He saw this person
for a maximum of 30 seconds, and he was some distance away. There is no
question that Anthony was there, but I have always had questions as to
whether he was the shooter."
Fuentes' family has more concerns. They note that his photo was
significantly larger than others in a spread of suspects and that he was
one only one of the robbers old enough to be eligible for the death
penalty. They question whether Tate truly was the good Samaritan that
prosecutors billed him as, saying that no one was in danger when he chased
the robbers.
Prosecutors maintain the witness testimony is solid and point to Fuentes'
history, which includes 2 nonfatal shootings that were introduced in the
punishment phase of his trial.
"Both accomplices say he was the shooter, and one was closest to Fuentes
at the time," said Assistant District Attorney Vic Wisner.
Fuentes has no appeals pending, although lawyers are contemplating an
11th-hour effort.
Watched store built
Tate watched the Gaw family build the Handi Mart in the 1980s. He
befriended the Gaw children, particularly the boys Daniel and Ben, who
taught him Chinese phrases so he could speak to their grandmother.
Tate was outside the store drinking a payday beer with several co-workers
on the night he was killed.
"It was pretty shocking," said Daniel Gaw. "He always came around to get
whatever, and then he was dead."
Ricky Spies, a childhood friend who still lives one block from the store,
fondly recalled Tate's personality.
"He would help anybody, and that's what ended up killing him," Spies said.
"He was trying to help somebody and he paid the ultimate price. If
(Fuentes) was the one who killed him, then he deserves to die."
When Fuentes was arrested, his life " was just starting to come together,"
said his stepmother Janis Fuentes.
Kicked off the team
Fuentes had fallen in with troublemakers after he failed an algebra class
and was kicked off the Sam Houston High School varsity football team
before he could take the field for a game. He failed out of school, and
though his grandparents enrolled him in private school, he landed in the
Harris County Jail after pleading guilty to a 1994 assault.
When he was released, his family said, Fuentes had changed. He worked as a
limousine driver and was making plans to get married when a lead on Tate's
murder brought police to Fuentes.
When he received his execution date in June, there were a dozen men set to
die before Fuentes. Last week, as prison officials took the last of those
men, Frederick Patrick McWilliams, to the death chamber in Huntsville,
Fuentes had few thoughts about his own execution.
"I am not concerned for myself, but I hate hurting my family," he said.
"Because whatever they do to you is not just done to you. There are other
people who suffer."
Not a week passes without a family member visiting, most often his
grandfather, Guy Landrum, who raised Fuentes. They, too, spoke little last
week of his execution date.
"It is time for him to come home," said Janis Fuentes. "It is not time for
him to die."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
