August 5
TEXAS----stay of impending execution
U.S. District Court -- Eastern District of TEXAS
The following transaction was received from sm, entered on 8/4/2005 at
3:36 PM CDT and filed on 8/4/2005
Case Name: Lewis v. Director, TDCJ-CID Case Number: _5:05-cv-70_
Filer: Document Number: _10_
(https://ecf.txed.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_case_doc?10,90430,,90573814,)
Docket Text: ORDER granting [8] Motion to Stay Execution ORDERING that
execution of Ricky Lewis, scheduled for 6:00 pm on 9/7/2005 is hereby
ORDERED STAYED and the Director ordered not to carry out the order of
execution entered by the 114th District Court of Smith County, TX and this
stay is to remain in effect until further order of this court.. Signed by
Judge David Folsom on 8/5/2005. (sm,)
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Ex-con convicted in fatal shooting----Retardation claim to come up in
penalty phase
Jurors convicted a man of capital murder Thursday after hearing that he
ended a crime spree of robberies and shootings at desolate Houston-area
office parks with the killing of a young mother a week before Christmas
2002.
Lamar Baskin, 45, stared blankly at state District Judge Brock Thomas as
the judge read the guilty verdict, which jurors reached after about four
hours of deliberation.
Baskin, who claims to have mental retardation, could face the death
penalty. The trial's punishment phase begins Monday.
Baskin was convicted in the fatal shooting of Laura Powell Higgins, a
28-year-old wife and mother from Pearland who was gunned down at the Hobby
Business Park on Dec. 20, 2002.
Higgins' death capped a string of attacks that included the shooting and
robbery of at least 4 men at similar office parks during the previous 13
days.
Several members of Higgins' family hugged in the courtroom after the
guilty verdict and said the trial has been an emotionally draining
reminder of their loss almost 3 years ago.
"You can't imagine how it feels to get your heart ripped out and stomped
on, and it felt like that all over again today," said Jennifer Bacot,
Higgins' niece. "I just pray that he won't do this to any other family
ever again."
Three men testified this week that Baskin was the man who robbed and shot
them in December 2002. Ballistics tests showed bullets that injured them
and the one that killed Higgins were fired from the same gun.
His motive in each case was simply to steal money, said prosecutors Di
Glaeser and Denise Nassar.
"Mr. Baskin's objective was to always get the cash get the cash and get
out," Glaeser told jurors.
Defense attorneys did not call any witnesses to testify and argued that
the evidence against Baskin did not rise beyond reasonable doubt.
"What the prosecutors are trying to do is to get you to connect the dots
in a way that gets you to make up stuff in the middle," defense attorney
Katherine Scardino told jurors in her closing remarks.
After the verdict, Scardino said the conviction was "not too surprising"
and that she and defense attorney Allen Isbell plan to fight to save
Baskin's life by proving he has mental retardation and is therefore
ineligible for a death sentence.
A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling bars the execution of the mentally
retarded. Whether that applies to Baskin will be a question for jurors to
decide next week.
One recent test showed Baskin has an IQ of 65. The traditional cutoff for
mental retardation is 70.
Prosecutors dispute the claim, pointing to the GED that Baskin received in
prison.
Baskin has been in jail since his February 2003 arrest in an unrelated
robbery.
In 1992, Baskin was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted
of auto theft in Harris County. He was paroled after serving 5 years.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
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NARRAMORE CASE BEGINS MONDAY WITH JURY SELECTION
In Gilmer, jury selection will begin Monday in the trial of a Gilmer man
accused of beating a man to death, then beheading him and setting the body
on fire.
Jeremy Narramore, 30, was charged in the April 2004 murder of Joe Carroll
Nickelbur Jr., 32, of Gilmer.
The trial will begin either Monday or Tuesday, depending on how long jury
selection takes, said Alice Blasingame, the judge's secretary.
Nickelbur was bludgeoned in the throat after Narramore and 2 other men
confronted him about "giving bad drugs to their girlfriends," according to
witness statements reported in an arrest affidavit.
The three men dragged the body to their car and dumped it in a pasture in
northwestern Upshur County, the affidavit states.
A rancher discovered the body and left the area to summon authorities, but
when deputies arrived, the body was decapitated and on fire, according to
earlier reports on the incident.
Jason Fredrick Baughman of Ore City and Gregory Scott Narramore, Jeremy
Narramore's brother, are also charged with murder in the case. Their court
dates have not been set.
(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)
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Lucero's motion is denied ---- Hearings will not be held to decide role
Bible played
A judge will not hold court hearings on a defense motion that claims a man
convicted of fatally shooting 3 neighbors should get a new trial because
the jury's foreman read Bible verses during deliberations.
In a letter Wednesday to defense attorney Warren Clark and 47th District
Attorney Randall Sims, 251st District Judge Pat Pirtle denied the defense
motion for court hearings on jury deliberations that led to Jimmie Urbano
Lucero's death sentence.
In May, Lucero, 47, was convicted of capital murder in the Sept. 6, 2003,
shotgun slayings of 3 next-door neighbors - 71-year-old Pedro Robledo, his
72-year-old wife, Maria, and their 31-year-old daughter, Fabiana - at the
family's home in the 1700 block of East Sixth Avenue. Jurors later
sentenced Lucero to death by lethal injection.
In a new trial motion filed last month, Clark said two of 12 jurors
initially indicated they were unwilling to sentence Lucero to death.
The motion claimed those jurors were coerced into voting for the death
penalty when the jury foreman read a Bible verse during deliberations.
But the prosecution contended biblical readings played no part in the
jury's decision to sentence Lucero to death by lethal injection.
Pirtle said Thursday he will not act on a defense motion for a new trial
and that the motion will expire as a matter of law in about 2 months.
In his ruling, Pirtle said he decided not to conduct evidentiary hearings
in the case because he did not wish to subject jurors to cross-examination
about their deliberations.
"Such public scrutiny of confidential deliberations would discourage open
discussion among jurors and could potentially be threatening to the entire
jury process," Pirtle's letter said. "To conduct a hearing simply to make
a record, without any expectation that the hearing would result in
admissible evidence, does not protect jurors from the inconvenience and
potential harassment that such a hearing would impose."
Under Texas law, Lucero is still entitled to an automatic appeal of his
death sentence.
(source: The Amarillo Globe-News)
**********************
Revised numbers show jail crowding is worse ---- 'Computer error' missed
400-600 more Harris County inmates, state says
Overcrowding in the Harris County Jail is considerably worse than numbers
cited in June indicated, a state jail standards official said Thursday.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards had found the jail in noncompliance
last June, estimating that overcrowding had left nearly 1,300 inmates
sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
Actually, the number sleeping on mattresses at the time of the report was
closer to 1,700 to 1,900, said Terry Julian, executive director of the
Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
Julian blamed the discrepancy on a "computer error."
"I was shocked. The situation was much worse than it appeared. Somehow
this number never came out even after the initial error. I find that a
little disconcerting," said Bill Medaille of the American Civil Liberties
Union's prison and jail accountability project.
The Harris County Commissioners Court is expected to approve nearly $1.5
million next week for staff to open more space and ease overcrowding in
the county jail, county officials told the state regulators.
Sheriff Tommy Thomas said he's asking county commissioners Tuesday for
$700,000 to fund jobs for 60 new detention officers through the end of the
budget year in March.
He said he's also seeking $750,000 in overtime pay between now and the end
of September, although ongoing overtime needs are likely to run into the
millions.
With more jailers on hand, the county will be able to open up more space
for the burgeoning jail population, which a state official said is growing
at a rate of 100 per month.
Doug Adkinson, deputy chief of staff for County Judge Robert Eckels, told
Julian that county commissioners are expected to approve the funding.
It represents a first step in attacking the jail's overcrowding. County
officials are also working on a more comprehensive long-term plan that
they earlier said could cost as much as $8 million. The Commissioners
Court is expected to take up longer-term solutions in mid-September.
Other options under consideration include pressing the state to pick up
inmates detained for Texas prisons more quickly, sending fewer people to
jail for technical parole violations and diverting more low-level
offenders to probation.
"This is a big ship, and you can't turn it real quick. It may be like the
Titanic. Hopefully, there's no icebergs out there that's going to sink
you," Julian told county commissioners at the jail standards meeting.
Julian expanded his Titanic analogy in a later interview, saying that with
a jail population of 9,100 inmates, it will take Harris County longer to
get back into compliance than it will for other counties.
"Part of the problem is they're taking in more inmates than they're
letting out. It's like the gaping hole in the side. They just started
bailing the water from the Titanic a little late," he said.
Chief Deputy Mike Smith, who oversees the jail, said the crowding could
ease if the county can find a way to slow the intake.
Also, officials cited the addition of nearly 1,000 inmates convicted of
state jail felonies who are serving their time in the county jail.
"Harris County is growing, so long term we'll have more people. We do feel
like the intake has taken significant growth this year, and everybody's
scrambling," Smith said.
Late last week, officials said that about 740 inmates had been moved from
mattresses on the floor to bunks. Yet, based on the revised numbers cited
by Julian, that still leaves roughly 1,000 without adequate sleeping
arrangements.
The ACLU's Medaille said he was surprised the Jail Standards Commission is
urging jail officials in Galveston to move faster to ease overcrowding in
their jail, while taking a more patient attitude with Harris County.
"It seems to be the biggest issue on their plate and they didn't demand
speedy action," he said. "I thought it was just odd. They weren't exactly
subservient to the Harris County jail, but they weren't tough in any way."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
********************************
Death penalty gets paroled -- Court ruling creates problem in Texas
Here's the problem with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling prohibiting
capital punishment for those who committed a crime at the age of 17 or
younger - the unintended consequences.
When the highest court in the land ruled that executing criminals who
committed their crimes as juveniles constituted "cruel and unusual
punishment," it is unlikely the justices on the highest court in the land
intended to grant a get-out-jail-free card.
However, that's the case.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry had no choice last month but to commute the death
sentences of 28 death row inmates who fell under the court's ruling to
life in prison.
The possibility exists these convicted criminals could be released.
85 % of Texas death row inmates who had their sentences commuted to life
in prison in 1972 have been released, so there is precedent.
Some have committed other crimes. Some have not. At least 2 killed again.
But that's not the point.
There is an inherent problem with a system that determines a person is
guilty of a heinous crime and deserves the ultimate form of punishment,
but then is forced to release this same person, even if it is years later.
Did the Supreme Court's decision seek to end what it considered a
constitutional violation, or alter justice from its most extreme form to
leniency that puts potentially dangerous and violent killers back on the
streets?
History proves it would not be "unusual" for this person to commit another
crime, perhaps in horrific fashion. Now that is "cruel."
(source: Editorial, The Amarillo Globe-News)
