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Rodney Reed Texas Death Row

Rodney Reed was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the kidnapping , sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Rodney Reed would kidnap Stacey Stites who was later sexually assaulted and murdered. Rodney Reed would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. There is a lot of doubt regarding whether or not Rodney Reed is responsible for this barbaric crime.

Rodney Reed 2022 Information

SID Number: 03536236

TDCJ Number: 00999271

Name: REED,RODNEY

Race: B

Gender: M

Age: 54

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Rodney Reed More News

More than two decades after Rodney Reed was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites, doubts about his guilt and the role race might have played in his 1998 conviction continue to haunt this Central Texas town.

On Monday, a judge appointed to reexamine the case slammed the door on Reed’s best chance to avoid execution, releasing his findings that newly presented evidence is not enough to grant Reed a new trial.

The ruling by retired state District Judge J.D. Langley is a dramatic setback for efforts to win Reed’s freedom in a case that has spawned international attention and outrage, often cited by Reed’s supporters as an example of a Black man railroaded by an American criminal justice system.

Langley’s recommendation, issued two weeks after he heard attorneys’ final arguments at the Bastrop County courthouse, now goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the final say in the matter.

It is an explosive turn after nearly a quarter-century of court battles over the 1996 Bastrop County killing. Reed, now 53, and his supporters have long proclaimed his innocence, pointing blame at Stites’ fiance, Jimmy Fennell. Stites’ family and state attorneys remain convinced of Reed’s guilt.

Reed, a Black man, was found guilty of murdering Stites, a white woman, and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. Fennell, a white man, is a former Giddings police officer.

“The Court of Criminal Appeals has repeatedly considered [Reed’s] allegations of innocence … and found them wanting,” Langley wrote in his findings.

Langley’s rejection of a new trial comes nearly two years after Reed’s impending execution was halted among deafening calls for further review of his conviction from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, numerous A-list celebrities and millions of people who signed online petitions. After years of appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, ordered the trial court in 2019 to weigh whether Reed is innocent of Stites’ murder.

But the high court can still rule against Langley and grant Reed a new trial. It’s unclear when the court will make a decision.

Reed’s family was hopeful that, after spending more than 23 years on death row, Reed might finally win a new trial, his brother said last month. Langley presided over a nearly two-week hearing this summer to review claims of Reed’s innocence, and examine whether Bastrop County prosecutors withheld evidence or put false evidence before jurors.

“That’s all we ask for is a fair trial,” Rodrick Reed said outside of a Bastrop County courtroom after Langley heard closing arguments in the case. “My brother never had that from the beginning. It was a Jim Crow trial straight out of the gate.”

Reed’s attorneys said Monday that they look forward to presenting Reed’s case to Texas’ high criminal court.

“If a new jury heard the overwhelming evidence of Rodney Reed’s innocence, it would have reasonable doubts. Convicted by an all-white jury, Mr. Reed has spent 23 years on death row for a crime he did not commit,” said Jane Pucher with the Innocence Project. “We hope the Court of Criminal Appeals recognizes that he should be given a new trial.”

The two decades since Rodney Reed’s conviction have seen a simmering mix of emotion, uncertainty and accusations of racism as his appeals have wound their way through the courts.

Stites was engaged to Fennell, but Reed said he and Stites were also romantically involved.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/01/rodney-reed-texas-death-penalty/

Charles Raby Texas Death Row

Charles Raby was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the attempted sexual assault and murder of an elderly woman. According to court documents Charles Raby attempted to rape the 72 year old woman before he stabbed her to death with a knife. Charles Raby would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Charles Raby 2022 Information

SID Number: 04129425

TDCJ Number: 00999109

Name: RABY,CHARLES DOUGLAS

Race: W

Gender: M

Age: 51

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Charles Raby More News

A federal appeals court this week rejected the case of a Houston man who’s long professed his innocence in the 1992 stabbing death of an elderly woman.

More than 25 years after the killing that put him on death row, Charles Raby could be one step closer to an execution date after Wednesday’s ruling from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We’re disappointed,” said attorney Sarah Frazier, highlighting concerns about the unscientific expert testimony used in his case and laying out plans for more appeals moving forward.

Now 48, Raby was a young parolee with a violent history when he was sentenced to die in 1994 for the murder of Edna Franklin – his friends’ grandmother.

On the night of her killing, the 72-year-old’s two grandsons found her dead on the living room floor, according to court records. She’d been beaten and stabbed, then left half-naked with her throat slit. Her purse was emptied out in the bedroom, and it looked like the killer had come in through a window.

Days later, Raby confessed while high and no physical evidence ever linked him to the crime. But, his current legal team argued, it was early bad lawyering that landed him on death row.

“The record is replete with trial counsel’s errors — lack of preparation, fundamental
misunderstanding of the law and facts, and fundamental incompetence,” his attorneys wrote last year. “His ineffectiveness all but ensured the outcome in the punishment phase.”

The defense neglected to put together any mitigation evidence to show Raby could have deserved a life sentence, and instead called a highly damaging witness – former prison psychiatrist Dr. Walter Quijano – who dubbed Raby a psychopath.

Last year, Quijano’s racially charged testimony in another case was at the center of a Supreme Court decision that led to the overturning of death row inmate Duane Buck’s death sentence. Although race wasn’t at issue in Raby’s case, Frazier expressed concerns about the unscientific methods used in both cases.

“Walter Quijano’s methods are unsound whether he is making conclusions based on race or making other unscientific conclusions,” she said.

After Raby’s trial counsel apparently hurt his case by putting Quijano on the stand, another set of attorneys failed to launch appeals about the earlier ineffective counsel, thus compounding bad lawyering with more bad lawyering, according to court filings.

Despite all that, Raby was later able to convince the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2005 to allow for more DNA testing on certain evidence, including underwear, a bloody nightshirt, and fingernail scrapings. Although the lab turned up DNA material, none of it was Raby’s.

While the courts sorted out the new testing results, prosecutors asked for a delay – then filed an expert report casting doubt on a Houston police crime lab worker’s findings presented at trial more than a decade earlier. At the time, the lab worker had described results from testing on the fingernail scrapings as “inconclusive” – but, in fact, testing showed conclusively that it wasn’t Raby’s DNA under the slain woman’s fingers, which meant that the lab worker’s trial testimony was false.

With claims of a coerced confession, concerns about inconsistencies and allegations of withheld evidence, Raby’s attorneys hoped the new revelations would win him a new trial. But – citing other evidence against him – the courts didn’t agree to that.

Now that a federal court has rejected his bad lawyering claims as well, Frazier said she plans to take the case up to the Supreme Court. At the same time, Raby’s defense is working on another federal appeal raising broader concerns surrounding the DNA evidence.

Raby does not currently have an execution date. So far, the Lone Star State has executed 10 men this year, and another six are scheduled to die in the coming months.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Federal-appeals-court-turns-down-Houston-death-13354545.php

Syed Rabbani Texas Death Row

Syed Rabbani was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a man during a robbery. According to court documents Syed Rabbani would go to a store where his roommate worked and forced the victim to kneel before fatally shooting him and then robbing the store. Syed Rabbani would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Syed Rabbani 2022 Information

SID Number: 03641873

TDCJ Number: 00000910

Name: RABBANI,SYED MOHMED

Race: O

Gender: M

Age: 56

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: JESTER IV

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: CALL

Syed Rabbani More News

The victim, Mohammed Jakir Hasan, worked at a Quick-n-Easy convenience store as a clerk. Testimony revealed the victim was hardworking, frugal, and saving money in an effort to someday own a convenience store. On the evening of October 31, 1987, Hasan planned to work at the Quick-n-Easy till closing and then spend the night at Sajedul Chowdhury’s apartment, which Hasan often did because of the apartment’s proximity to the convenience store. Chowdhury testified Hasan never came to his home that evening, and after several inquiries as to Hasan’s whereabouts, Chowdhury took a taxicab to the convenience store at 7:00 a.m. the following morning (November 1st). Upon arriving at the store, Chowdhury found Hasan’s car in the store parking lot, the store was locked and the lights were on, all of which alarmed him. Chowdhury and the cab driver entered the store[2] and found the safe under the counter was open with only a few coins and Chowdhury’s gun, a Colt .38 special revolver, laying inside. The cab driver discovered Hasan’s body, in the fetal position, lying in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor in the back of the store. The last entry on the cash register tape was made at 1:03 a.m. on November 1, 1987. The manager of the Quick-n-Easy store testified that approximately $630.00 was missing from the store’s safe. The medical examiner testified Hasan died from three close range gunshot wounds, two to the head (which were through and through) and one to the chest.

Hasanur Rahman, who knew both Syed Rabbani and his cohort in the alleged offense, Shibli Khan, testified that Khan regularly borrowed the keys to his apartment while Rahman was at work in order to watch television and drink beer. Syed Rabbani was always with Khan during these visits. Rahman also testified it was not uncommon for Khan to come over to his home in the middle of the night “because [Khan] doesn’t sleep much in the night.” On November 1st, Rahman was awakened at 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. by Khan’s unusually loud knocking on his apartment door and his calling Rahman’s name, but Rahman was too tired to answer. Khan left about five minutes later.[3]

Several days later, after learning of the victim’s death, Rahman asked Syed Rabbani and Khan if they knew anything regarding the murder. Rahman testified that appellant appeared nervous and told Rahman “[you] don’t want to get involved.” Later that same week, Rahman again discussed *557 the murder with appellant and Khan, but this time the two cohorts had imbibed many beers. In response to Rahman’s question as to whether appellant was involved in the murder, appellant eventually told Rahman that he and Khan were present at the convenience store and involved in the murder. Appellant explained they decided to kill Hasan when they learned he was saving money to open his own convenience store. He also told Rahman that Hasan “suspected something (sic) going to happen to him[,]” and that he attempted to press the security button near the store counter. Syed Rabbani and Khan chased Hasan into the cooler where they shot him, according to Rahman’s testimony. On cross-examination, Rahman admitted he testified before the grand jury that appellant told him this murder occurred between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. Rahman also stated that Khan told him three or four hundred dollars was taken during the robbery.

Out of fear for his own safety, Rahman never called the police. He did, however, transport Syed Rabbani and Khan to Louisiana on November 9th, and eventually to a Greyhound Bus station where appellant and Khan purchased tickets to New York. Mohamed Abdul Salam testified that he lived in Brooklyn, New York, and on November 23, 1987, he saw appellant and Khan in possession of two pistols, similar to the trial exhibits; however, the last time Salam saw appellant, he did not have a gun but Khan still possessed one. Later that same day, Salam discovered a gun in his previously empty briefcase[4], which he turned over to Frank Ciccone of the New York City Housing Police Department. Ciccone, in turn, sent the briefcase and its contents to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Syed Rabbani and Khan were next seen in Houston on November 26th when they went to Rahman’s apartment. Subsequently, appellant and Khan went to Chowdhury’s home where they stayed for a few nights. Chowdhury suspected appellant of committing Hasan’s murder, so he telephoned Officer Phillips with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, on December 1st, to inform him appellant was staying in his apartment. Later that day Officer Phillips called Chowdhury at home and told him he was coming over to discuss Hasan’s murder. When Chowdhury relayed that information to appellant and Khan, they jumped from the couch, grabbed their clothes, and fled. The police, however, were waiting for them, and immediately arrested appellant and Khan as they attempted to flee in a car with New York license plates.

Phillips questioned Syed Rabbani upon his arrest about the weapon used to kill Hasan. Appellant admitted he and Khan had two very similar weapons, and so he did not know if the weapon shown to him, which was the gun from New York, was the one used to kill Hasan. Appellant explained that at Khan’s instruction he had thrown the second gun into a convenience store dumpster on November 30th. He assisted the police in drawing a map to the convenience store, and the police recovered from the dumpster a .38 caliber Rohm revolver and a pair of gloves.

At the crime scene, on November 1st, police found two apparent bullet holes in the walls of the bathroom where they found the deceased, and also found a small bullet fragment on the floor underneath the bathroom sink. This fragment was placed in an evidence locker at the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, but was missing from the locker the following day and was never found. After hollowing out the area behind the sheetrock of the bathroom walls, police failed to recover any bullets. Roughly six weeks later, the police returned to the crime scene, instituted another search of the wall area, and this time recovered a bullet. Officer Bockel testified that at the time he removed the bullet there appeared to be hair and blood on the sheetrock.

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/court-of-criminal-appeals/1992/70455-4.html

Louis Perez Texas Death Row

Louis Perez was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a triple murder. According to court documents Louis Perez would go to the home of the victims where he would beat to death two women and a nine year old girl. Louis Perez would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Louis Perez 2022 Information

SID Number: 05191421

TDCJ Number: 00999328

Name: PEREZ,LOUIS

Race: H

Gender: M

Age: 60

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Louis Perez More News

There are questions surrounding nearly 1,000 criminal convictions in Travis County.

Delia Perez Meyer says her brother, Louis Castro Perez, is among the death row inmates who received a Brady notice stating his case could be compromised due to new DNA information. Meyer hopes reanalysis will prove her brother’s innocence.

“That picture’s been sitting there for 18 years,” Meyer says while pointing to the center of her kitchen table, where you’ll find the center of her world. “It’s 99.9 percent of my life.”

Meyer said defending her brother’s innocence has become her life’s work.

“We’ve just been fighting.”

Perez is on Texas Death Row for the 1998 murders of 31-year-old Michelle Fulwiler, 38-year-old Cinda Barz and Barz’s 9-year-old daughter, Staci Mitchell. The women worked for the Travis County Juvenile Probation Department, and evidence indicated Louis fatally beat the women with a cast iron skillet and strangled the young girl in their Austin home.

“I have never thrown away one shred of evidence that I thought may help my brother someday,” Meyer says.

Now, some of the DNA evidence is under review. It was last fall when the Perez family and his attorney received a letter from the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, outlining issues the Texas Commission on Forensic Science found with the way DNA was analyzed. It could impact cases across the state, including those like Perez’s, where DPS analyzed the DNA evidence. Upon receiving the letter, Perez’s attorney says she immediately requested a re-analysis.

“Now, 18 years later, Louis’ case is not the only one that was possibly messed up.”

As KXAN reported two weeks ago, legal experts say it was a change in scientific standards that’s prompting the unprecedented statewide analysis. The issue is not with the actual testing of what are called DNA mixtures, but rather, with the probabilities scientists generate. Prosecutors often use these probabilities as evidence of the degree of the tests’ conclusiveness.

DNA mixtures are cases where evidence from a crime scene contains two or more persons DNA profiles.

“I think the science evolved in the area of how to calculate the frequency that certain DNA profiles appear at random in the population,” said Bob Wicoff, director of the Texas DNA Mixture Review Project.

Meyer says as she looks forward, she can’t help but flash back to where it all began: in court, the day her brother was given the death penalty.

Her last words to her brother were, “I know at some point the truth is going to come out.”

“And I think maybe we’re closer to the truth now than ever before,” says Meyer.

https://www.kxan.com/news/family-of-austin-man-on-death-row-hopes-new-dna-analysis-will-reopen-case/

Scott Panetti Texas Death Row

Scott Panetti was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murders of his wife’s parents. According to court documents Scott Panetti would murder his wife’s parents after the two had separated. Scott Panetti would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Scott Panetti execution has been delayed due to his mental state as he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Scott Panetti 2022 Information

SID Number: 02817040

TDCJ Number: 00999164

Name: PANETTI,SCOTT LOUIS

Race: W

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

Scott Panetti More News

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case of a Texas death row inmate with schizophrenia back to district court in a sharp opinion Tuesday. The lower court will have to take another look at whether Scott Panetti’s mental illness makes him ineligible for execution.

Panetti’s case is well known in Texas. He is often the poster child for advocates who argue against the death penalty for the mentally ill. Previously diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he waived his right to counsel during his original trial more than 20 years ago and attempted to call the pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ as witnesses.

At issue in the latest development in a long and winding legal saga is whether a federal court would grant Panetti a lawyer, experts and time to present evidence that he is incompetent for execution. His mental competency was last examined in 2007 — the year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his case that a death-sentenced person must understand that they’re about to executed and why.

The U.S. District Court for Texas’ Western District denied Panetti’s latest requests, stating that he “failed to show that his mental health had substantially changed” since the 2007 evaluation, according to the Tuesday opinion. But the appellate court rejected the argument and ordered the lower court to grant Panetti’s request and further review his competency.

“The reality is that a decade has now passed since the last determination of whether this concededly mentally ill petitioner is competent to be executed,” Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote in the three-judge circuit panel’s opinion. “We need not and do not treat the merits of Panetti’s claim that he is incompetent to be executed — that is for the district court after Panetti has been afforded the opportunity to develop his position.”

Panetti was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1992 murders of his wife’s parents in Fredericksburg. His mental illness has always been a key element in all of his legal proceedings since. His appeals have focused on his early diagnosis of schizophrenia in 1978 and stories of delusions that have persisted throughout his life.

According to the appellate court’s opinion, since his last mental evaluation, prison guards have noticed Panetti acting delusional and he has claimed to be the father of singer Selena Gomez and said CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer showed his stolen prison ID card on the news.

Panetti’s defense team said Tuesday they are confident the district court will find Panetti ineligible for execution after further review. The state of Texas has argued that Panetti’s case should be held in state courts based on procedural rules.

“We are grateful that the court found that Mr. Panetti’s nearly four decades of documented schizophrenia and severe mental illness provided a sufficient showing to obtain experts and resources to pursue the claim that he is currently incompetent for execution,” lawyers Greg Wiercioch and Kathryn Kase said in a statement.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/07/11/texas-death-row-inmate-scott-panetti-get-further-competency-review/