Willie Washington was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of two employees during a grocery store robbery. According to court documents Willie Washington would enter the grocery store where he was given money and food stamps before pulling out a gun and shooting two employees who would die from their injuries. Willie Washington would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Willie Washington 2022 Information
SID Number: 02200874
TDCJ Number: 00000856
Name: WASHINGTON,WILLIE TERION
Race: B
Gender: M
Age: 63
Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW
Current Facility: POLUNSKY
Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW
Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW
Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES
Willie Washington More News
A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with Texas death row inmate Willie Washington, bouncing the decades-old case back to a lower court in light of ongoing claims of bad lawyering.
The Harris County man was out on parole in 1985 when he was arrested for a double shooting in a Houston grocery store, where he gunned down Kiflemariam Tareh and wounded Yemane Kidane.
The then-36-year-old was arrested after returning to the scene with stolen money still in his pocket, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.
Since his death sentence in 1986, Washington has been fighting his case, most recently by alleging deficient legal representation earlier in the judicial process.
“We see at least a debatable merit in these claims,” the court wrote this week. One of Washington’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims dings his trial lawyers for failing to challenge the selection of an all-white jury, despite notes about race on prosecutors’ jury questionnaires.
He also faulted his trial lawyers for failing to uncover potentially mitigating evidence that could have warded off a death sentence – and he faulted his later appeals attorneys for not noticing the trial lawyers’ apparent oversights.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Washington’s claims at least merited another look, vacating the lower court’s ruling and sending the case back for further discovery and an evidentiary hearing.
