[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 9



TEXAS----impending execution

Executions dominate month of January


5 Texas inmates are scheduled to be executed this month, with the first
being an inmate convicted of the 1998 murder of a 3-year-old boy.

With 24 lethal injections carried out in 2006, Texas accounted for more
than 50 % of all national executions last year. That's 5 more than the
previous year, but still 16 short of the record-setting 40 from 2000.

Carlos Granados, 36, is set to die Wednesday for the slaying of 3-year-old
Anthony O'Brien Jiminez during a domestic dispute with the child's mother,
Katherine.

Katherine, Granados' girlfriend at the time, received more than 20 stab
wounds but survived.

Others executions scheduled this month include Jonathan Moore, convicted
of the 1995 murder of San Antonio police officer Fabian Dominguez;
Christopher Jay Swift, convicted of killing both his 8 months pregnant
wife and his mother-in-law in 2003.

Ronald Chambers was convicted of the 1975 murder of Mike McMahon and has
been on death row for 31 years, longer than almost anyone else in the
country.

Larry Swearingen is the fifth inmate scheduled to be executed, convicted
of the 1998 Montgomery County strangling of a 19-year-old girl. All 5 will
take place within a 20-day period.

Only 1 execution is scheduled for February, 3 in March and 1 in April.

April will mark the 4th execution of a female in Texas if Cathy
Henderson's sentence is carried out.

Henderson was convicted of killing 3-year-old Brandon Baugh by causing
head wounds while baby-sitting him at her home outside Austin.

(source: Hunstville Item)

***************

Jury to begin death penalty deliberations in '03 tragedy


In the 1st photographs Jorge Mauricio Torres Herrera looked like any other
15-year-old boy. He happily posed with relatives in his native El
Salvador. He knelt before an altar in a church ceremony.

Then the horrific picture flashed onto the screen for jurors to see: A
close-up of the dead boy's bruised face after he and 18 other illegal
immigrants were killed in the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt.

Such contrasting photos were shown for each victim Monday during
prosecutors' closing arguments of the punishment phase in the retrial of
Tyrone Williams, the truck driver facing the death penalty for his role in
the smuggling attempt.

"Is that a picture a mother should have to see?" Assistant U.S. Attorney
Daniel Rodriguez said, with the brutal image of the boy behind him.

Williams was convicted last month on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring
and transporting immigrants in his sweltering trailer during the 2003
smuggling attempt.

Of the more than 70 immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the
Dominican Republic packed inside Williams' trailer, 19 died from
dehydration, overheating and suffocation after nearly four hours inside
the ovenlike container.

Defense lawyer Craig Washington pleaded once more for leniency before the
case went to the jury, which today will begin deciding whether to sentence
Williams to death or up to life in prison.

"I ask you as if his father were asking. Please save his son, please save
his son," Washington said as Williams' parents and other relatives
watched.

Washington reminded jurors that Williams gave water to the immigrants
crammed into the trailer before he abandoned the container near Victoria,
about 100 miles southwest of Houston. Williams also has admitted guilt and
expressed remorse, signs that he could be rehabilitated, Washington said.

"If he's trying to kill the people in the trailer, why is he concerned
about getting them water?" he said.

Washington said what Williams did was out of character for him. "He made a
mistake in judgment, and you found him guilty of that. But he doesn't
deserve to die," he said.

Rodriguez described Williams as a "cold-hearted, callous, depraved"
individual who deserves a death sentence because he alone could have freed
the immigrants before they died but chose not to do so. Williams' prior
assault convictions and the smuggling attempt show he is a future danger
to society, Rodriguez said.

"These people didn't deserve to die," Rodriguez said. "He sure as hell
does."

(source: Associated Press)





**********************************

New prosecutor named to retry Anthony Graves----Batchelor tried a man
executed after evidence challenge


A special prosecutor appointed to retry former death-row inmate Anthony
Graves gained notice for prosecuting a man executed despite information
casting doubt on the evidence used to convict him.

Burleson County District Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett on Friday appointed
former Navarro County Criminal District Attorney Patrick Batchelor.

Batchelor replaces interim special prosecutor Assistant Attorney General
Julie Ann Stone, who was appointed Thursday and held the post for less
than a day. The judge gave no reason for the change in her order.

Batchelor won the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, accused of
setting a fire that killed his three children in 1991. After the Chicago
Tribune reported that the arson evidence used to convict Willingham was
faulty, the New York-based Innocence Project presented a report signed by
5 arson experts that examined the trial testimony and found it based on
obsolete assumptions.

But after reviewing the information, Gov. Rick Perry declined to halt the
2004 execution.

Like Willingham, an innocence group says it has evidence showing that
Graves is innocent.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ordered a new trial for
Graves after determining that prosecutors withheld evidence and elicited
false testimony.

The case was assigned to Towslee-Corbett, who was forced to appoint a
special prosecutor after Renee Mueller, district attorney for Burleson and
Washington counties, recused her entire office.

Towslee-Corbett has set Graves' bail at $1 million, an amount that U.S.
Magistrate Judge John Froeschner on Friday called "pretty excessive and
pretty oppressive," but nevertheless legal.

Towslee-Corbett also has imposed a gag order over the opposition of
Graves' attorneys, who said in court documents that media coverage was the
only way to ensure that he received a fair trial.

Graves was sentenced to death for the 1992 slaying of a grandmother and 5
children.

They were bludgeoned, stabbed and shot, then the house was torched to
cover the crime.

Robert Carter, who was executed for the crime, said repeatedly that Graves
was not involved.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

*******************

BRIDGERS TELLS GIRLFRIEND HE'S NOT RETARDED


"I'm not retarded," death row inmate Allen Bridgers said recently during a
recorded phone conversation placed from the Smith County Jail.

Bridgers, sentenced to lethal injection for the 1997 capital murder of
53-year-old Mary Amie in Tyler, told his apparent girlfriend on New Year's
Day that he knew he was not mentally retarded but that claiming it would
buy him a "couple more years."

The convicted killer was set to die in July until he made a last-minute
claim that he was mentally retarded. On Monday, 114th District Judge
Cynthia Stevens Kent began hearing evidence on the issue of mental
retardation. If she finds that he is mentally retarded, Bridgers' death
sentence would be commuted to a sentence of life in prison because the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing the mentally retarded is
unconstitutional.

The burden of proof in a mental retardation claim lies on the defense. The
3-pronged approach to diagnosing mental retardation includes below-average
intellectual functioning, usually denoted by an IQ score of 70 or less;
manifestation of the disorder by age 18; and consideration of adaptive
functioning, or how a person operates in daily life.

Bridgers' mother Linda Gorum, of Virginia, testified for the defense and
prosecutors entered recorded telephone conversations Bridgers had with
her, with his father, and with his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden.

"We both know that you're not mentally retarded," his girlfriend said.

"Yea, we both know that," Bridgers replied, adding that it bought him more
time.

During a phone conversation with his mother in December, Bridgers talked
about being tested by doctors and his upcoming court case. "I'm just
praying for a life sentence," he said.

Ms. Gorum told her son not to act like he knew everything on the tests.
She also told him to stop writing letters to her. "You're going to lose
your case," she said.

In court, she testified that she could tell Bridgers wasn't writing the
well-written, typed letters, even though Bridgers said he did.

Mrs. Gorum said she had Bridgers when she was 16 and had his brother,
Harry Bridgers Jr. 11 months later. She said the father of her sons, Harry
Bridgers Sr. went to prison when Allen was about 3 years old and they
divorced.

She said Bridgers learned to walk and talk at about 2 but had problems
with potty training.

School records show that Mrs. Gorum reported during his school years that
Bridgers learned to walk and talk at 11 months and was potty trained at 1
1/2 years old. She said her court testimony was more accurate because she
has talked to family members and recalled her own memory of his childhood.

HEAD INJURIES

Three times during his childhood, Bridgers suffered head injuries, his
mother said. As a baby, he was dropped by a friend, leaving a bump on his
forehead that remained for a couple of days. At 8 months old, he fell down
some stairs and had a knot on his head. Each time she took him to the
emergency room and he was released, she said. When Bridgers was about 12,
he was hit by a car and suffered brain swelling and was in the hospital
for about 4 days, she testified, adding that he began getting migraines
after the accident.

Mrs. Gorum said that while growing up, Allen was quiet and a "loner" with
few friends but he was really friendly with other children. She said she
had problems with receiving feedback from him during conversations and he
was not good at following instructions.

She said she felt her son was abnormal growing up because of the amount of
time it took him to learn to do things.

Mrs. Gorum said Bridgers was sad all of the time and had low self esteem.
He was placed in special education classes in first grade and he failed
2nd grade. In 10th grade he was taken out of special education and placed
in normal classes but his grades soon fell and he dropped out of school.

She said Bridgers had problems reading and would get upset about it. He
attended 12 different schools in 11 years, but she did not feel changing
schools affected his performance.

At 14, Bridgers was placed in a juvenile facility for stealing and
burglary.

She said he left home at 17 to go to California, but he ended up in jail
in Georgia.

When asked by prosecutors, Mrs. Gorum said she knew nothing about Bridgers
using drugs and alcohol when he was a teenager.

She said her son married and lived with a woman who had children of her
own, but they divorced after he was put on death row.

Bridgers' mental retardation hearing will continue in Judge Kent's court
Tuesday morning.

He is being defended by Houston attorneys Jared Tyler, Jason Luong and
David Dow, who work for the Texas Innocence Network.

Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham and Assistant DA Mike West are
representing the state.

Bridgers, who was 27 and a transient from Virginia at the time of the
murder, was staying with the victim at her Tyler home.

In a taped confession, Bridgers told police that he waited in bed with a
.38-caliber pistol under his pillow while Ms. Amie took a shower. When she
crawled into bed, he shot her in the back and face, stole $1,400 cash and
her car, purse and jewelry, and fled to Florida. Bridgers said he was high
on cocaine at the time.

(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)

*************************

Delay sought in execution of child killer----Attorney did poor job on
appeal, inmate's new lawyers say


Wednesday's scheduled execution of Carlos Granados, who killed a
Georgetown 3-year-old in 1998, should be delayed because Granados was
ill-served by Austin lawyer Ray Bass, a prominent criminal defense
attorney who handled his appeal, the inmate's new lawyers said Monday.

Bass filed a two-page appeal  raising a single issue challenging Granados'
death sentence  that was so deficient that it deprived the condemned man
of his right to a proper appellate review of his sentence before
execution, lawyer William Christian said.

"As none of us can be comfortable in this day and age executing a person
whose capital sentence has never been reviewed, as that lack of review is
no fault of Mr. Granados, his sentence should be commuted to life
imprisonment," Christian said in a petition to the Texas Board of Pardons
and Paroles.

The board voted 7-0 Monday to deny the commutation request, as well as
Granados' bid for a 120-day reprieve to allow time to complete a new
application for a writ of habeas corpus, a key appeal that lets death row
inmates challenge their conviction and sentence on constitutional grounds.

But Granados is not out of options.

His lawyers filed an emergency motion Monday asking the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals, which recently began cracking down on deficient
court-appointed habeas lawyers, to give Granados a second chance to file a
"meaningful" writ application.

Granados also asked Gov. Rick Perry for a 30-day delay of his execution  a
politically unlikely result given the gruesome nature of the crime.

Granados was sentenced to die for fatally stabbing Anthony O'Brien
Jimenez, 3, in the Georgetown apartment of the child's mother during a
domestic dispute. Granados also stabbed the mother 20 times, but Katherine
Jimenez, whom he had been dating, survived. Police found Jimenez near
death, her arm draped over her son's body.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley vividly remembers walking
through the Jimenez living room as an assistant district attorney in 1998.

"It looked as if someone took a bucket of red paint and had thrown it
everywhere," he said. "I remember walking into that apartment and just
being horrified."

Police captured Granados, holding a kitchen knife and begging to be shot,
in the apartment. With the boy's mother as a witness and unrefuted
physical evidence linking Granados to the crime, the trial focused on
whether Granados would receive death or life in prison. Jurors deliberated
for four hours before sentencing him to die.

Bass, a 35-year lawyer who did not return 2 messages left at his office
Monday, was appointed to file a habeas petition on Granados' behalf in
1999.

A habeas application can total dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pages as it
reinvestigates every aspect of the case to determine whether a death
sentence was properly levied. Facts must be found outside the trial record
witnesses and jurors are interviewed; police and prosecutor files are
reviewed; the inmate and family members are questioned to look for
mitigating evidence that could have swayed jurors to choose a life
sentence.

Bass did not quote anything from outside the trial record, did not meet
Granados, did not request help from an investigator or mitigation expert,
did not file a motion for discovery seeking case materials and did not
attach exhibits in support of his single claim, Christian said in his
motion to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

"Two years earlier, (Bass) filed a 4-page writ in the case of Ramiro
Ibarra," the motion stated. "As with Mr. Granados, only one claim was
presented for review."

In asking for a new writ, the motion said that without proper
investigation, it is impossible to know what other challenges could have
been raised.

The motion also quoted an Oct. 29-30 report in the Austin
American-Statesman that chronicled poor representation by state habeas
lawyers and noted that the court responded by creating tougher standards
for habeas practitioners. Recently, the court directed a Houston judge to
investigate claims that habeas lawyer Steven "Rocket" Rosen filed a
one-issue, record-based writ without meeting his death row client, Juan
Reynoso.

"To permit Mr. Granados' execution to proceed despite the fact that he
(too) appears to have been deprived of competent counsel . . . would be
grossly unjust," the motion said.

Left unresolved by the court, however, is how to handle cases in which
deficient writs have been filed.

Granados' new lawyers suggested two avenues: vacate Granados' first writ
and order the trial court to appoint another habeas lawyer or reconsider
Granados' first writ and fashion an "appropriate remedy" allowing the
inmate to file a properly investigated writ.

A ruling is expected before Granados' 6 p.m. Wednesday scheduled
execution.

(source: Associated Press)

************

Delay sought in execution of child killer----Attorney did poor job on
appeal, inmate's new lawyers say


Wednesday's scheduled execution of Carlos Granados, who killed a
Georgetown 3-year-old in 1998, should be delayed because Granados was
ill-served by Austin lawyer Ray Bass, a prominent criminal defense
attorney who handled his appeal, the inmate's new lawyers said Monday.

Bass filed a two-page appeal  raising a single issue challenging Granados'
death sentence  that was so deficient that it deprived the condemned man
of his right to a proper appellate review of his sentence before
execution, lawyer William Christian said.

"As none of us can be comfortable in this day and age executing a person
whose capital sentence has never been reviewed, as that lack of review is
no fault of Mr. Granados, his sentence should be commuted to life
imprisonment," Christian said in a petition to the Texas Board of Pardons
and Paroles.

The board voted 7-0 Monday to deny the commutation request, as well as
Granados' bid for a 120-day reprieve to allow time to complete a new
application for a writ of habeas corpus, a key appeal that lets death row
inmates challenge their conviction and sentence on constitutional grounds.

But Granados is not out of options.

His lawyers filed an emergency motion Monday asking the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals, which recently began cracking down on deficient
court-appointed habeas lawyers, to give Granados a second chance to file a
"meaningful" writ application.

Granados also asked Gov. Rick Perry for a 30-day delay of his execution  a
politically unlikely result given the gruesome nature of the crime.

Granados was sentenced to die for fatally stabbing Anthony O'Brien
Jimenez, 3, in the Georgetown apartment of the child's mother during a
domestic dispute. Granados also stabbed the mother 20 times, but Katherine
Jimenez, whom he had been dating, survived. Police found Jimenez near
death, her arm draped over her son's body.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley vividly remembers walking
through the Jimenez living room as an assistant district attorney in 1998.

"It looked as if someone took a bucket of red paint and had thrown it
everywhere," he said. "I remember walking into that apartment and just
being horrified."

Police captured Granados, holding a kitchen knife and begging to be shot,
in the apartment. With the boy's mother as a witness and unrefuted
physical evidence linking Granados to the crime, the trial focused on
whether Granados would receive death or life in prison. Jurors deliberated
for four hours before sentencing him to die.

Bass, a 35-year lawyer who did not return 2 messages left at his office
Monday, was appointed to file a habeas petition on Granados' behalf in
1999.

A habeas application can total dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pages as it
reinvestigates every aspect of the case to determine whether a death
sentence was properly levied. Facts must be found outside the trial record
witnesses and jurors are interviewed; police and prosecutor files are
reviewed; the inmate and family members are questioned to look for
mitigating evidence that could have swayed jurors to choose a life
sentence.

Bass did not quote anything from outside the trial record, did not meet
Granados, did not request help from an investigator or mitigation expert,
did not file a motion for discovery seeking case materials and did not
attach exhibits in support of his single claim, Christian said in his
motion to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

"2 years earlier, (Bass) filed a four-page writ in the case of Ramiro
Ibarra," the motion stated. "As with Mr. Granados, only one claim was
presented for review."

In asking for a new writ, the motion said that without proper
investigation, it is impossible to know what other challenges could have
been raised.

The motion also quoted an Oct. 29-30 report in the Austin
American-Statesman that chronicled poor representation by state habeas
lawyers and noted that the court responded by creating tougher standards
for habeas practitioners. Recently, the court directed a Houston judge to
investigate claims that habeas lawyer Steven "Rocket" Rosen filed a
1-issue, record-based writ without meeting his death row client, Juan
Reynoso.

"To permit Mr. Granados' execution to proceed despite the fact that he
(too) appears to have been deprived of competent counsel . . . would be
grossly unjust," the motion said.

Left unresolved by the court, however, is how to handle cases in which
deficient writs have been filed.

Granados' new lawyers suggested two avenues: vacate Granados' first writ
and order the trial court to appoint another habeas lawyer or reconsider
Granados' first writ and fashion an "appropriate remedy" allowing the
inmate to file a properly investigated writ.

A ruling is expected before Granados' 6 p.m. Wednesday scheduled
execution.

(source: Austin American-Statesman)

*************

Jury to begin death penalty deliberations in '03 tragedy


In the first photographs Jorge Mauricio Torres Herrera looked like any
other 15-year-old boy. He happily posed with relatives in his native El
Salvador. He knelt before an altar in a church ceremony.

Then the horrific picture flashed onto the screen for jurors to see: A
close-up of the dead boy's bruised face after he and 18 other illegal
immigrants were killed in the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt.

Such contrasting photos were shown for each victim Monday during
prosecutors' closing arguments of the punishment phase in the retrial of
Tyrone Williams, the truck driver facing the death penalty for his role in
the smuggling attempt.

"Is that a picture a mother should have to see?" Assistant U.S. Attorney
Daniel Rodriguez said, with the brutal image of the boy behind him.

Williams was convicted last month on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring
and transporting immigrants in his sweltering trailer during the 2003
smuggling attempt.

Of the more than 70 immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the
Dominican Republic packed inside Williams' trailer, 19 died from
dehydration, overheating and suffocation after nearly 4 hours inside the
ovenlike container.

Defense lawyer Craig Washington pleaded once more for leniency before the
case went to the jury, which today will begin deciding whether to sentence
Williams to death or up to life in prison.

"I ask you as if his father were asking. Please save his son, please save
his son," Washington said as Williams' parents and other relatives
watched.

Washington reminded jurors that Williams gave water to the immigrants
crammed into the trailer before he abandoned the container near Victoria,
about 100 miles southwest of Houston. Williams also has admitted guilt and
expressed remorse, signs that he could be rehabilitated, Washington said.

"If he's trying to kill the people in the trailer, why is he concerned
about getting them water?" he said.

Washington said what Williams did was out of character for him. "He made a
mistake in judgment, and you found him guilty of that. But he doesn't
deserve to die," he said.

Rodriguez described Williams as a "cold-hearted, callous, depraved"
individual who deserves a death sentence because he alone could have freed
the immigrants before they died but chose not to do so. Williams' prior
assault convictions and the smuggling attempt show he is a future danger
to society, Rodriguez said.

"These people didn't deserve to die," Rodriguez said. "He sure as hell
does."

(source: Associated Press)