[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, WYO., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 25



TEXAS----stay of impending execution

Stay in Execution Granted to Texas Inmate on Death Row


Human Rights First today praised the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for 
granting a stay of execution in the case of Bernardo Aban Tercero to allow for 
additional investigation of legal claims. Tercero was scheduled to be executed 
tomorrow by the state of Texas.

"The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did the right thing by staying Mr. 
Tercero's execution." said Human Rights First's Melissa Hooper. "Many questions 
remain in this case, and now the court will allow at least some of them to 
finally be investigated. We are hopeful that this stay is the 1st step in 
providing Mr. Tercero with some measure of due process that until now he has 
not received."

This comes following last week's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 
(IACHR) preliminary report finding that the United States violated Bernardo 
Aban Tercero's rights to due process and a fair trial that are enshrined in the 
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. The IACHR report 
recognized repeated failures on the part of Tercero's court-appointed counsel 
at every stage of his proceedings, including pre-trial, trial, appeal, and 
post-conviction review. The IACHR also stated that Texas failed to ensure 
adequate representation, violating Tercero's rights to due process and to a 
fair trial.

(source: Human Rights First)

**********************

Appeals court stays execution of Houston killer after witness says she lied


The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday stayed the execution of 
convicted Houston killer Bernardo Tercero after a prosecution witness in his 
2000 trial said he had testified falsely.

Tercero, 39, was convicted in the March 1997 murder of Reagan High School 
English teacher Robert Berger during a robbery of a southwest Houston dry 
cleaning shop.

In an affidavit submitted to the court by Tercero's Austin attorney Walter 
Long, witness Sylvia Cotera said that she falsely testified that Tercero told 
her that he had shot his victim because the man had no money. "He never talked 
to me about the amount of money he robbed nor that he was angry because the man 
did not have very much money," she said in the statement. "What I said about 
these things in my testimony wasn't the truth."

Cotera, who has an8th-grade education and speaks no English, also recanted her 
testimony that Tercero had shot Berger because the teacher's 3-year-old 
daughter, present at the time of the crime, had seen him.

In her trial testimony, Cotera told jurors she had not gone to the police 
because Tercero threatened to burn her apartment while it was occupied by her 3 
young children. In reality, she said in her affidavit, Tercero threatened to 
burn her apartment because she could not send him money, a comment she took as 
a joke.

In a 2000 statement to a trial investigator, Cotera said she testified as she 
did because she feared the law. In the recent petition filed to the Texas Court 
of Criminal Appeals, Long said he had no evidence that prosecutors were aware 
Cotera's trial testimony was false.

The appeals court issued its Tuesday stay so that the case's trial court could 
consider the merits of the new appeal.

(source: dailynews724.com)

*******************

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----10

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----528

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

11---------September 29-------------Perry Williams--------529

12---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------530

13---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------531

14---------October 28---------------Christopher Wilkins---532

15---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------533

16---------November 18--------------Raphael Holiday-------534

17---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------535

18---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------536

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






WYOMING:

Life, not death: Prosecutor says he won't seek death penalty in at least 1 
defendant's case


Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric says he's seeking a sentence of 
life in prison - and not the death penalty - for a woman charged with 
participating in a plot to murder her boyfriend in 2014.

On Friday, Skoric filed a 1-sentence notice in Sandra Garcia's case stating 
"that the state does not intend to seek the death penalty for this particular 
defendant."

Garcia, 27, is 1 of 3 people charged in connection with the murder and 
subsequent decapitation and mutilation of Juan Antonio Guerra-Torres in January 
2014.

Sandra Garcia is alleged to have asked her brother, 29-year-old Pedro Garcia 
Jr., to find someone to kill Guerra-Torres, her longtime boyfriend. Pedro 
Garcia Jr. allegedly recruited/hired John L. Marquez, 51, to commit the murder.

On Monday, Skoric declined to elaborate on his decision in Sandra Garcia's case 
and declined to say whether he's made a decision about what punishment he'll 
pursue for her 2 co-defendants.

The Garcia siblings are each charged with felony counts of aiding and abetting 
1st-degree murder and conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder.

Marquez is charged with 1st-degree murder and conspiracy to commit 1st-degree 
murder. He's alleged to have fatally shot and then dismembered Guerra-Torres.

The allegations and charges are largely based on an account of the crime that 
Pedro Garcia gave to law enforcement this past March; attorneys for Sandra 
Garcia and John Marquez have questioned Pedro Garcia's credibility.

All 3 defendants have pleaded not guilty and are presumed to be innocent.

At the request of Sandra Garcia's defense team, District Court Judge Steven 
Cranfill had effectively given Skoric a Friday deadline to decide whether he 
was going to pursue the death penalty in that case.

The defense attorneys representing Pedro Garcia and Marquez haven't made that 
request, so Skoric has no current deadline in those cases.

The death penalty is extremely rare in Wyoming; the state has executed 1 person 
since 1965.

(source: Powell Tribune)






USA:

Prosecutors May Seek Death Penalty in Roadside Shooting


Federal prosecutors may seek the death penalty for an 18-year-old man charged 
in the deaths of a husband and wife who authorities say stopped to offer him 
help on the side of the road on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation.

A new grand jury indictment filed Friday includes death as a possible 
punishment if Jesus Deniz Mendoza of Worland, Wyoming, is convicted of 2 counts 
of 1st-degree murder and carjacking that resulted in death.

The original indictment filed Aug. 6 sought life in prison for the shooting 
deaths of 51-year-old Jason Shane 47-year-old Tana Shane in the town of Pryor. 
Their daughter, Jorah Shane, was wounded in the July 26 shooting.

Investigators say the family stopped to help a man who claimed to be having car 
trouble. They say Deniz demanded money and opened fire after they said they had 
none.

(source: Associated Press)