Shortly after losing a long-shot bid for clemency, Houston-area death row prisoner Dexter Johnson won a stay some 48 hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the Huntsville execution chamber.
For more than a decade, the condemned killer lodged appeal after appeal based on allegations of brain damage and intellectual disability, but in the end it was the possibility of a conflicted attorney and ineffective lawyering that prompted a federal district judge to side with him.
The high school dropout with schizophrenia was originally sentenced to die for a 2006 carjacking that left 23-year-old Maria Aparece and 17-year-old Huy Ngo dead. That June, Johnson and 4 accomplices came across the young couple sitting in Aparece's Toyota, as they chatted outside Ngo's home. Johnson and 2 others threatened them with a pistol and a shotgun, according to testimony at trial.
Then, 3 of the attackers drove the pair around Houston in Aparece's car, stealing her cash and credit cards and trying to get money from her bank accounts. Behind them, 2 other accomplices followed in their own car.
Eventually, the violent crew pulled over and, according to trial testimony, Johnson raped Aparece in the backseat. Her boyfriend was forced to listen to it all on his knees as the other attackers taunted him.
Then, Johnson shot Ngo in the head before slaughtering Aparece. At trial, Johnson's defense team argued that it was someone else who walked the couple into the woods and fired the fatal shot.
According to prosecutors, the double-slaying was just one of many crimes that Johnson pulled off during a month-long spree of violence that spring and summer. Johnson has long maintained his innocence, but still a Harris County jury sentenced him to death. In December, a local judge gave the green light to the May 2 execution.
Shortly afterward, Johnson wrote to the federal court complaining about his attorney, Patrick McCann. Since McCann had been on the case for years, the court did not kick him off but instead appointed a second legal team, headed by federal defender Jeremy Schepers.
The North Texas attorney was tasked with figuring out whether McCann's earlier work was up to par. While McCann continued to work on Johnson's case, filing appeals based on claims of intellectual disability, Schepers investigated McCann's work and alleged that the Houston attorney "violated ethical and professional duties throughout his representation," according to court records.
In sealed federal filings, McCann disputed that characterization but the claims were enough for the the federal judge to grant Johnson a stay to allow Schepers more time to investigate and litigate his concerns. As of now, McCann is still on the case; the judge asked for a hearing to determine whether he should be removed.
Even after the last-minute win for the condemned man, the stay could have been overturned by a federal appeals court - but the Office of the Attorney General told defense counsel they have no plans to contest the order.
Neither Schepers nor McCann opted to weigh in on the record. Meanwhile, McCann's co-counsel - Houston-area attorney Mandy Miller - defended him Tuesday in an emailed statement.
"While we dispute the attack on Mr. McCann's prior representation, we are grateful for a stay – no matter why it was granted," she wrote. "We will continue to litigate the claim of intellectual disability that will prevent Mr. Johnson's execution, in the event the stay is lifted. Once our duty to Mr. Johnson is fulfilled, Mr. McCann will gladly answer to the federal court for any questions regarding the work he has put into this case for nearly a decade."
Though the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recently turned down the condemned man's intellectual disability claims, Miller and McCann on Tuesday filed a motion asking the court to reconsider, and are also working on an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office remained confident Johnson would get another execution date.
"His day of reckoning is inevitable," First Assistant District Attorney Tom Berg said. "The issue at hand has nothing to do with the district attorney's office and we anticipate a new execution date will be set shortly."
With Johnson's date likely called off, there just 2 others - including a Montgomery County man convicted of killing a college student - scheduled in Texas for the remainder of the year.
Source: Houston Chronicle, Keri Blakinger, May 1, 2019
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