June 11
TEXAS:
'I did not kill my babies'----City native's murder conviction, appeal featured
in docu-series
When Altoona native Darlie Lynn Routier was convicted by a Texas jury in
February 1997 of stabbing to death her young son, Damon, 5, and by implication,
her other son, Devon, 6, she reportedly cried out, "I did not kill my babies."
Both boys were murdered on June 6, 1996, as they were sleeping with their
mother in the downstairs television room of the family's Rowlett, Texas, home,
while her husband, Darin, was in an upstairs bedroom with their 18-month-old
son Drake.
Routier, then in her 20s, also suffered grievous injuries that night, including
a badly bruised arm and stab wounds to her neck, which came within 2
millimeters of slicing a carotid artery, an injury that could have killed her
within minutes.
She said she fought an intruder and after he allegedly fled through a cut
screen in the home's utility room, she and Darin, who was awakened by the noise
and came downstairs, took steps to quell the bleeding of their 2 children, and
call 911.
When EMTs and police arrived, the older boy was dead on the floor while Damon
was alive. He died on the way to Baylor Hospital in Dallas.
Darlie Routier described the intruder as a man with long hair, wearing a
baseball hat, a dark T-shirt and jeans.
On the scene that night was a veteran but retired Rowlett police officer, James
Cron who, after only 25-30 minutes, was convinced there was no intruder and
that the murders were an inside job. He concluded Darlie Routier had staged the
scene, including her own injuries.
The family room was a mess, with blood on the floors and furniture, and broken
glass from wine glasses and other evidence scattered about.
When Cron was asked at trial why he debunked the story of the intruder, he
answered, "It's sort of a big picture. It's not any one thing. It was the
overall scene which, primarily, is the lack of evidence in many cases. But the
entire scene indicated to me there had not been an intruder."
Within days, Routier was charged only with Damon's death and the case went to
trial within 7 months.
2 days later, on Feb. 3, 1997, the jury recommended that Routier be put to
death, and since that time, she has remained on death row in a state where the
death penalty is often carried to conclusion for both men and women.
For the past 22 years, Routier has maintained she didn't commit the murders.
She and her mother, Darlie Kee, formerly of Altoona, have proclaimed Routier's
innocence through newspapers, books and several TV documentaries.
Aided by a team of lawyers at her side, the mother-daughter pair have
challenged the verdict in both the state and federal courts.
Despite the passage of time, the Routier case continues to gain national
attention and will be the premiere case in a new series called "The Last
Defense," which will air on ABC Television Network beginning at 10 p.m.
Tuesday.
The 7-week docu-series explores the flaws in the American justice system
through the Routier case and that of another death row inmate, Julius Jones,
who was convicted of a car-jacking murder in Oklahoma.
Jones, too, maintains his innocence.
Actress Viola Davis is the executive producer with Julius Tennon.
Tuesday's 1st episode will feature Darin Routier relating the events of June 6,
1996, as police conducted their investigation.
The murders of Damon and Devon occurred 22 years ago this past week, but
Routier's mother, Kee, still has hope that she will one day see her daughter a
free woman.
"The upcoming 4-part series (devoted to the Routier case) will expose the
mistakes and how, now, she (Darlie) is still 100 % innocent," Kee stated when
contacted this week.
Attorney Richard A. Smith of Dallas, who has been involved in the defense since
2002, said he is looking forward to the docu-series. He said he was interviewed
for it.
He said he believes Darin, although divorced from Darlie, still supports her
claim of innocence, and he reported that Drake, the 18-month old in the
upstairs bedroom that night, is now an adult who was treated for leukemia. The
disease is now in remission, he said.
A flawed trial?
While the investigation quickly led to an arrest, much of the story of the
Routier case lies with what has happened since.
According to the defense lawyers in their federal filing, Routier did not have
proper legal representation, and the defense did not counter scientific
evidence that allegedly linked Routier to the crime, due to a her lawyer's
conflict of interest.
In addition, the prosecution used "character assassination" to turn the jury
against Routier, the prosecutor's opening statement said, contending: "The real
Darlie Routier is, in fact, a self-centered woman, a materialistic woman, and a
woman cold enough, in fact, to murder her own 2 children."
The prosecution presented a friend who stated Routier had a temper, and had
become materialistic over the years as her husband's computer business allowed
the couple to live in an expensive home and purchase a boat and a Jaguar.
The couple's extensive buying coupled with a business downtown led to money
troubles the Routiers were experiencing at the time of the killings.
The prosecution presented the jury with video of Darlie shooting silly string
and laughing during a graveside celebration of Devon's 7th birthday just prior
to her arrest.
What the jury never found out was that a sister organized the graveside party
and brought the silly string, and that there was an ensuing prayer service
followed by a quiet family gathering, the defense claims.
She was criticized for going to a woman's night out at a Dallas nightclub on
Mother's Day eve.
A doctor and 2 nurses who treated Routier while in the Baylor Hospital were
allowed to testify that Routier did not act typically for a woman who had just
lost 2 children.
The doctor said she did not become hysterical but had a "flat effect."
A nurse supervisor said she was withdrawn and didn't cry very often and told
the jury this was "not the emotions that you usually see with a mother."
A nurse testified that Routier did not display the emotions she had witnessed
in people who had lost loved ones or close relatives.
This impermissible character evidence and "expert testimony" from the medical
personnel "so infected Ms. Routier's trial as to undermine the confidence in
the verdict," her lawyers stated.
Lawyers replaced
In the beginning, Routier was represented by attorneys Douglas Parks and Wayne
Huff, who retained 2 forensic scientists and who were prepared to counter
prosecution theories about how the blood spatter, broken wine glasses, a bread
knife found at the scene and an overturned sweeper rebutted Routier's story
that an intruder had murdered the children.
The forensic scientists, Terry Labor and Barton Epstein, disagreed that blood
on the back of Routier's nightgown came from the knife spatter as she allegedly
raised and lowered her arm while stabbing the children.
They noted only "minimal areas of spatter" on the nightgown - which had never
been tested.
However, the 2 court-appointed attorneys were eventually replaced by attorney
Douglas Mulder and several others, who, according to the federal appeal, did
not use the forensic scientists to counter the scientific evidence presented by
the prosecution.
Mulder, it is contended, also agreed not to attempt to implicate Darin as a
suspect in the murders of the 2 children. The present defense team pointed out
that Mulder had represented Darin in the past and thus was conflicted in his
representation of Darlie.
Another issue the defense raises is the fact that the court reporter for the
case had personal problems during the trial and that an investigation found
30,000 errors in the transcripts that had to be corrected.
The defense in its quest to overturn Routier's verdict summed up its case in
its federal petition, stating that the jury that convicted Darlie for Damon's
murder "never heard substantial evidence that undermines the state's
circumstantial case against her and supports her claim of innocence.
"And the jury never heard a key alternate explanation for the crimes because
Mulder had agreed as a condition of retention by Darlie's counsel to protect a
more plausible suspect, her husband, at the expense of Darlie's own defense.
The defense wants the verdict overturned "because no court can have confidence
in such a fundamentally tainted verdict," it concluded.
Appeal moving slowly through the courts
Over the years, Routier's challenges in the courts have moved glacially slow,
awaiting the outcome of DNA tests on the blood evidence from the rugs,
Routier's nightgown, on a pair of socks found 70 yards away in the
neighborhood, and several mysterious, unidentified fingerprints.
Routier's federal challenge filed in the U.S. District Court for West Texas in
San Antonio begins, "Darlie Lynn Routier sits on Texas death row for a crime
she did not commit."
That filing has been on hold for more than a decade, pending the outcome of her
state post-conviction challenge.
The federal court requires that a status update on the DNA testing be submitted
every 6 months.
The status report submitted just a year ago, on June 19, 2017, made it clear
the Routier case falls low on the state's priority list. It read:
"In May 2017, counsel in the Dallas County District Attorney (office) learned
the materials that were supposed to have been transported to the Department of
Public Safety for DNA testing, as the state trial court's testing order had
required, had never been transported to DPS."
That error has since been rectified, and according to defense attorney Smith,
the DNA testing is in its last stage.
He said he didn't want to discuss results so far but said the testing is
important in the overall picture and will enable the defense to determine its
strategy during the pending state court hearings.
(source: Altoona Mirror)
INDIANA:
Federal gun charges sought in deaths of Deputy Jacob Pickett, Officer Rob Pitts
Federal authorities will hold a news conference Monday regarding the deaths of
Boone County Deputy Jacob Pickett and Terre Haute Officer Rob Pitts.
According to a news release from the Department of Justice, United States
Attorney Josh Minkler will announce federal charges against 3 individuals who
are alleged to have illegally purchased firearms that were used to kill both
Pickett and Pitts.
Officials from the Boone County Sheriff's Department, Terre Haute Police
Department, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, United States
Marshal's Service and ATF will join Minkler for the announcement.
Pickett was shot and killed on March 2 following a pursuit in Boone County.
Pitts was killed in a shootout in May while investigating a homicide.
The Boone County prosecutor plans to seek the death penalty against 21-year-old
Anthony Baumgardt, who's charged in Pickett's death. Christopher Wolfe, who
fatally shot Pitts, was killed after exchanging gunfire with officers in May.
According to the FBI, 93 officers were killed in the line of duty last year. Of
those deaths, 47 were attributed to accidents, such as car crashes, while 46
were due to an intentional act, such as an officer being shot.
(source: cbs4indy.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
