[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

March 23



TEXAS:

Honduran man on Texas death row loses federal appeal


A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a Honduran man on Texas 
death row for beating and strangling a Houston woman during a robbery at her 
home more than 20 years ago.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Tuesday ruled against 46-year-old 
Carlos Ayestas.

His attorneys argued that his trial lawyers in 1997 were deficient for failing 
to bring his relatives from Honduras to testify for him. They also argued 
lawyers missed a memo in the prosecution file they considered improper that 
said prosecutors should use the fact Ayestas was not a U.S. citizen as a reason 
for seeking the death penalty against him.

A Harris County jury took 12 minutes to decide Ayestas should die for murdering 
67-year-old Santiaga Pareque in the September 1995 robbery.

(source: Associated Press)