The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Texas death row inmate Randy Halprin, a Jewish man who is seeking a new trial over claims of anti-Semitic bias by his trial judge.
And for the 2nd time in 2020, Justice Sonia Sotomayor took the unusual step of issuing a statement accompanying the denial of a Texas death penalty case.
Sotomayor wrote Monday that although Halprin’s lawyers raised “potent arguments” and the case presented “deeply disturbing” claims, she agreed with the decision to reject Halprin’s appeal, saying it was not yet ready for the high court’s review.
Halprin was days from lethal injection when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals interceded in October and ordered a District Court in Dallas County to investigate allegations that anti-Semitism infected his trial.
With no current execution date and with that review underway, Halprin’s case before the Supreme Court could be rendered moot if the Texas courts agreed to grant a new trial, Sotomayor wrote.
The justice also bluntly reminded Texas judges that the Constitution requires a fair trial before a judge with no actual bias against a defendant.
“I trust that the Texas courts considering Halprin’s case are more than capable of guarding this fundamental guarantee,” Sotomayor wrote.
The statement followed a similar notice given in February, when Sotomayor urged Texas courts to conduct a “full and fair” examination of evidence that raised questions about the guilt of death row inmate Rodney Reed of Bastrop.
Reed’s lawyers had presented substantial evidence that, if true, casts doubt on his conviction in the 1996 strangulation murder of Stacey Stites, Sotomayor wrote, adding that no Texas court has conducted a concerted review of that evidence.
“In my view, there is no escaping the pall of uncertainty over Reed’s conviction,” she wrote. “Misgivings this ponderous should not be brushed aside.”
The Supreme Court typically rejects cases without comment, and Sotomayor was the only justice to publish a statement in the decisions involving Halprin and Reed.
Halprin, part of a group of escaped prisoners known as the Texas 7, was sentenced to death for his role in the slaying of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins during a holdup of an Irving sporting goods store by escapees in 2000.
Defense lawyers are seeking a new trial for Halprin, 42, arguing that the judge at his 2003 trial, Vickers Cunningham, privately disparaged Halprin with anti-Semitic slurs and reveled in sentencing Jews and people of color to death or harsh punishments.
Cunningham, who is no longer a judge, has denied the allegations.
In her statement, Sotomayor — who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in 2009 — said Monday’s denial of Halprin’s case carried “no implication whatever” about the court’s views of the merits of his arguments.
If he’s unhappy with the way the Texas courts ultimately rule, Halprin could still bring his claims to the Supreme Court, she said.
Source: Austin American-Statesman, Staff, April 7, 2020
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