Death Penalty News

After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Texas' method for determining intellectual disability in Moore's death penalty case last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided on Wednesday to change its standards but said Moore still didn't qualify. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the death sentence of Bobby Moore in a case over the definition of intellectual disability — despite pleas from both Moore and the prosecution to change his sentence to life in prison. More than a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down Texas’ method of determining intellectual disability for death-sentenced inmates in Moore's case, ruling the state used outdated medical standards and rules invented by elected judges without any authority. In a 5-3 ruling on Wednesday, the all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal Appeals accepted the use of current medical standards to determine intellectual disability but said Moore still fails to qualify — making him eligible...

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller narrowly won the Republican primary Tuesday night, overcoming a challenger who knocked her for her multiple ethical controversies. The presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals took a step closer to securing another 6 years on the bench after narrowly winning Tuesday's Republican primary election. Incumbent Sharon Keller, 64, beat David Bridges in the primary with about 52 % of the vote with 88 % of precincts reporting, according to the Texas secretary of state's office. Keller was first elected to the state's highest criminal appellate court in 1994, and she has held the lead role as presiding judge since 2001. She and the 8 other judges on the court handle all death penalty reviews and serve as the last resort for all criminal appeals in the state. Bridges, 62, challenged Keller largely based on her multiple ethical controversies over the years, which include a $25,000 fine in 20...

Sharon Keller, the longtime presiding judge of Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals, has tried to move on from several past ethical controversies — including blocking the last-minute appeal of a 2007 execution. A primary challenger hopes voters will reconsider them. It’s been more than a decade since Sharon Keller became an international figure in the death penalty debate. On the afternoon of Sept. 25, 2007, when attorneys for death row inmate Michael Richard asked if they could file an appeal at the court a few minutes past their deadline, Keller, the presiding judge of the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals since 2000, famously insisted “we close at five.” Richard was executed hours later. The incident earned Keller questions from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and widespread criticism from Texas legislators, ethics experts and the impassioned authors of sharonkiller.com , a website sparked by the incident. Keller says the controversy is behind her. David...

Hector Medina was sentenced to death in 2008 after killing his two young children. Now, he's getting a new sentencing trial because his lawyer refused to present evidence to persuade jurors to opt for the lesser sentence of life without parole. The lawyer of a man sentenced to death for killing his two young children predicted that the case would be back in court 10 years later. She was off by a year. Nine years ago, Hector Medina was convicted of capital murder in Dallas County after he fatally shot his 8-month-old daughter and 3-year-old son in March 2007.  On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted him a new sentencing hearing, where he will fight for the alternative to a death sentence — life without parole. The court ruled Medina didn’t get a fair trial in 2008 because his lawyer refused to present a defense at the punishment phase, the part of the trial after a capital murder conviction where jurors weigh factors that will lead either to a de...

An Irving father sentenced to death for the revenge killing of his children after their mother left him has been granted a new punishment trial. Hector Rolando Medina, 38, shot 3-year-old Javier and 8-month-old Diana in the head and the neck after his girlfriend left him in March 2007. He then shot himself in the neck outside his Irving home. Medina was convicted of capital murder in 2008 and sent to death row, after defense attorney Donna Winfield didn't call a single witness or present closing arguments during the punishment phase of the trial. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that Medina should be granted a new punishment trial because of his defense attorney's "deficient performance." The Dallas County district attorney's office will decide whether to again seek the death penalty against Medina. The automatic sentence for capital murder in Texas is life without the possibility of parole. "These c...

We welcome Judge Elsa Alcala's frank - and courageous - assessment of the Texas death penalty , not for what people wish the state's capital punishment system to be, but for what it is: Discriminatory, inefficient and immoral. That assessment coming from an experienced judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - the state's highest court in criminal matters - is not easily dismissed. It's true that many Texans support the death penalty as a tough, fair and painless way to punish those convicted of certain heinous crimes. That category includes crimes in which more than one person was murdered, a law enforcement officer was killed, or circumstances that involve murder and another aggravated felony. An example of the latter would be fatally shooting a store clerk during the course of a robbery, or killing someone during a sexual assault or kidnapping. To be sure, those are horrible crimes that warrant the toughest punishment on the books. The problem wit...

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted an unprecedented number of execution stays in 2015, the 1st year on the court for 3 judges elected in 2014. "There's absolutely been a change, and we're still seeing where the splits are," said Scott Henson, author of Texas criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast . An analysis of data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and annual reports from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which tracks executions and stays, shows that Texas courts halted 14 executions this year. 2 of those were later rescheduled and carried out. That's nearly twice the number of stays granted most years. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, long known as one of the most conservative, tough-on-crime courts in the nation, gave 8 death row inmates more time to appeal their sentences in 2015. That is more than double the number of stays the court has granted in any year since at least 2007. Trial courts or prose...

David R. Dow Meet David R. Dow. I've written about him a handful of times on this very site, usually in a space describing laudable educators or men who have motivated me to get off the couch and make something of my life. He's a well-respected Texas death penalty lawyer, featured in a TedX speech that you can see here . He's the author of a handful of books, including a life-changing memoir called The Things I've Learned From Dying . He's written from the heart on the death penalty for a very long time, in book and brief form, challenging the Texas death machine along the way. As the representative of more than 100 Texas death row inmates, Dow's learned to celebrate the little successes. On a few occasions, he's saved the life of his clients. In his litany of positive outcomes was the Anthony Graves case. Dow was a part of the team that secured an exoneration for Graves, who in 2010 was set free from Texas's death row after spending 16 yea...

"My office closes at 5:00 p.m." - Sharon Keller , Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, refusing to keep the court room open past 5:00 p.m. to allow the late filing of a death sentence appeal by Michael Wayne Richard's attorneys and not informing the Judge assigned to deal with such an appeal. Michael Richard was put to death by lethal injection a few hours later at The Walls prison unit in Huntsville, Texas, on September 25, 2007.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller has been re-elected. Keller defeated defense attorney Keith Hampton, her Democratic challenger. The Republican had earned the nickname "Killer Keller" by death penalty opponents after she refused an after-hours appeal by a death-row inmate in 2007. Condemned killer Michael Richard was executed that night for the rape and slaying of a Houston-area nurse. Keller faced removal from the bench in 2010 over that case. But the state Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a "public warning" that later was tossed on appeal. Keller also was fined $100,000 for not disclosing more than $2 million in property and income on her personal financial statements. She has appealed that fine, the largest in the Texas Ethics Commission's history. Source : Associated Press, November 8, 2012

Dr. Richard Coons has testified in more than 150 death penalty cases on whether those found guilty would pose a significant future threat. In his decades working as a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Coons of Austin has testified at dozens of death penalty trials across Texas in which he opined about how defendants would behave in the future. In Travis County, prosecutors called him in the past year to testify during the sentencing trials of killers Milton Gobert and Paul Devoe. Coons pronounced that, in his expert opinion, both men would be a future danger. They both received the death penalty. Coons' paid testimony at those trials and others could get new scrutiny after the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled last week in a Waco death penalty case that Coons' methodology for predicting future dangerousness is not reliable. The court upheld Billy Wayne Coble's death sentence in the killings of his wife's mother, father and brother, ruling that other ev...

AUSTIN, Texas — A special court of review on Monday dismissed a public reprimand of Texas' top criminal courts judge, who closed her court at 5 p.m., preventing attorneys from filing a last-minute appeal hours before their client was executed. The disciplinary case against Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller came after she closed the court on Sept. 25, 2007, as attorneys for twice-convicted killer Michael Wayne Richard tried to submit their appeal. The state Commission on Judicial Conduct issued Keller a "public warning," but the judge appealed, claiming the commission exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution. In dismissing the reprimand, the court of review said the judicial conduct panel could dismiss the case against Keller, issue a public censure or recommend her removal from office or retirement. The public warning was a sanction not allowed by the state constitution and state law. The ruling also noted it was ...

HOUSTON – The Texas Supreme Court refused Monday to overturn a judicial conduct panel's reprimand of the state's highest criminal court judge for her handling of an execution-day appeal. Judge Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, had appealed the "public warning" the State Commission on Judicial Conduct gave her July 16. The warning was one of the least severe sanctions that panel could have imposed, but Keller's lawyer claimed the Texas Constitution didn't allow such a warning. The Supreme Court disagreed. The brief order from the court in Austin indicated only that Keller's petitions in the case were denied and Justice Nathan Hecht did not participate in the ruling. "Obviously, we're disappointed they didn't accept the case for review," said Keller's attorney, Chip Babcock. The reprimand stemmed from the 2007 execution of twice-convicted killer Michael Wayne Richard. His let...