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)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS
Rick Halperin Tue, 9 Jan 2007 16:39:59 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS Rick Halperin