The State of Texas is scheduled to put Robert Pruett to death tomorrow, Thursday, October 12, 2017, the murder of Corrections Office Daniel Nagel in the McConnell Unit in Beeville, Texas in 1999. Pruett has steadfastly maintained his innocence. No physical evidence connects him with the crime, and recent DNA analysis of the murder weapon revealed a DNA profile belonging neither to Pruett nor to Officer Nagle. Pruett has faced six execution dates in the past five years.
Earlier this month, both the Court of Criminal Appeals and the United States Supreme Court declined to review Pruett’s appeals. As reported in the Texas Tribune, Pruett’s attorneys have filed in federal court “claiming recent refusals by the trial court and prosecution to proceed with further DNA testing violates his due process rights.”
Mother Jones recently interviewed Kristin Houlé, the executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, about flaws within Pruett’s case:
The state relied on the testimony of Lisa Baylor, a forensic analyst who testified, using a now-debunked scientific method called “physical matching,” that the tape came from the craft shop. “In a lot of cases where there’s no physical evidence that directly ties the defendant to the crime scene, [the prosecution] will find experts who fit their theory of the crime,” Houlé says. And although the expert testified that the tape is a match, there’s nothing to match Pruett to the tape.
Read the full articles from the Texas Tribune and Mother Jones.
To take action against the execution of Robert Pruett, please click here.