[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

November 14



TEXAS----impending execution

Death Watch: Robert Ramos----Mexican national set for execution Wednesday night


Robert Ramos, the Mexican national convicted for the 1992 murder of his wife 
and 2 young children, is set to be executed Wednesday night, Nov. 14, despite 
pleas to Hidalgo County prosecutors to not set an execution date, unless the 
U.S. Supreme Court grants a stay.

According to Ramos’ lawyer Danalynn Recer, as of Tuesday midnight, the Texas 
Court of Criminal Appeals denied Ramos’ request to reconsider its 
post-conviction opinion and his stay request; the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals 
denied Ramos’ motion to recall its former ruling and his stay request, and the 
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his petition for commutation to a 
lesser sentence along with his request for a 180-day reprieve.

Ramos has been fighting since 1993, arguing that he received inadequate trial 
counsel and, as a Mexican national, had a right to consult with Mexico's 
consulate for legal advice and representation under the Vienna Convention. Like 
Ruben Cárdenas, who was executed last November, Ramos wasn’t notified of that 
right. Still, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Ramos’ last appeal in May 2017.

His latest filings in the 5th Circuit asked the court to recall its 16-year-old 
mandate denying his certificate of appealability, because the court is 
“empowered” to do so in an effort to prevent “injustice.” It argues that Ramos 
received inadequate legal assistance from his appeals attorney Kyle Welch, who 
is quoted in the motion admitting he “did not have the experience, training, 
assistance, resources or time to do what [was] necessary” and was “not 
equipped” to handle Ramos’ case.

Welch, who is accused of representing Ramos with conflicting interests (he 
withdrew to take a position with the Office of the Federal Defender), failed to 
do any additional investigating into Ramos’ case and presented the courts with 
arguments already denied in direct appeal. The filing suggests that if Ramos’ 
appeals went through the system today — in light of the Trevino v. Thaler 
SCOTUS ruling that “procedural default” couldn’t bar a federal court from 
hearing a claim of ineffective trial counsel – he would’ve been granted 
substitute counsel and another chance at the appeals process. The 5th Circuit 
denied the motion, stating that inmates hoping to receive the “miscarriage of 
justice exception” must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that “no 
reasonable juror would have found him eligible for the death penalty,” and that 
SCOTUS has “held that ‘additional mitigating evidence [can]not meet the 
miscarriage of justice standard.’”

Likewise, the CCA denied his appeal because he failed to meet that court’s 
requirements, though Judge Elsa Alcala filed a 10-page dissenting opinion. 
Recer, on Tuesday night, emphasized that Ramos is “now the only Texas death row 
inmate whose initial state post-conviction petition contained no extra-record 
claims and [who] has never been given another chance to raise them.” But, 
unless SCOTUS steps in, Ramos will be the eleventh inmate executed this year.

Elsewhere on death row, the CCA – for the 2nd time – has sent Houston man Eric 
Cathey’s case back to a lower court to consider his latest appeal: that he is 
intellectually disabled and therefore unfit for execution. The latest order, 
issued on Nov. 7, stems from last year’s SCOTUS decision regarding Bobby Moore, 
when the high court ordered Texas to update its outdated and nonmedical 
standards regarding how the state evaluates intellectual functioning. Cathey, 
who was sentenced to death for a murder he maintains he did not commit, was 1 
of 7 inmates who made headlines in 1998 for a Thanksgiving prison escape.

(source: Austin Chronicle)