Categories
El Paso forensic science

Petition for Rigoberto Avila, Jr. Seeks Evidentiary Hearing Based on New Science

*Update 09/11/13*: State District Judge Anna Perez has withdrawn the January 2014 execution date for Robert Avila in light of his new petition for an evidentiary hearing.  Read more from […]

Categories
incompetency Panetti severe mental illness U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit

5th Circuit Deems Scott Panetti Competent for Execution

This week, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti is competent to be executed.  Panetti was convicted and sentenced to death for […]

Categories
execution international law

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Accepts Petition from Robert Garza

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has accepted a petition alleging serious human rights issues in the case of Texas death row inmate Robert Garza.  Mr. Garza is scheduled to […]

Categories
Dallas execution

State of Texas Executes Douglas Feldman

Last night, July 31, 2013, the State of Texas executed Douglas Feldman for the 1998 road-rage slayings of truck drivers Nicholas Velasquez, 62, and Robert Everett, 36, in two separate incidents. […]

Categories
jury rejection Life in prison without parole mental illness

Austin County Jurors Reject Death Penalty

On July 11, 2013, an Austin County jury determined that Maron Thomas should spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2010 capital murders of his brother and […]

Categories
death sentences Harris County

New Death Sentence Imposed in Harris County

On Friday, July  19, 2013, the jury in the capital murder trial of Obel Cruz-Garcia determined that he should be put to death for kidnapping and killing six-year old Angelo […]

Categories
death penalty execution

State of Texas Executes John Manuel Quintanilla Jr.

On July 16, 2013, the State of Texas put John Manuel Quintanilla Jr. to death for the 2002 murder of Victor Billings, a former Jackson County chief deputy, during a robbery […]

Categories
Duane Buck racial bias

Case Updates: Kimberly McCarthy, Rigoberto Avila, and Duane Buck

It’s been an eventful week for Texas death penalty cases.  On Tuesday, June 20, Kimberly McCarthy’s attorney filed an appeal to the Dallas trial court and the Texas Court of […]