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Jose Rivera Texas Death Row

Jose Rivera was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a three year old. According to court documents Jose Rivera would lead the three year old boy away who would be sexually assaulted and murdered. Jose Rivera would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Jose Rivera 2022 Information

SID Number: 03027883

TDCJ Number: 00999102

Name: RIVERA,JOSE ALFREDO

Race: H

Gender: M

Age: 59

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Jose Rivera More News

The victim, a three-year-old child, was last seen alive on July 9, 1993, with Veronica Zavala. The next day, the child’s naked body was found floating in a reservoir. Dr. Marguerite DeWitt, a pathologist, testified that the child had been in the water for eighteen to thirty-six hours but did not drown. Instead, the cause of death was ligature strangulation. DeWitt further testified to observing two tears in the child’s anus. She concluded that these tears were due to an external penetration by something larger than the anal opening and were consistent with an adult’s finger penetrating the anus. That same day (July 10th), Zavala confessed to being involved in the murder and implicated appellant.

On July 11th appellant gave a videotaped oral confession, in which he admitted to strangling the child and to penetrating the child’s rectum with a finger. In addition to the strangulation and the damage to the child’s anus, several other details of appellant’s confession were corroborated by independent evidence:

the child’s underwear had been cut off and tied around his neck with a single knot; the time of death was consistent with the time stated by appellant; the child had been wearing shorts and tennis shoes when he disappeared; and the child’s body was found near a bridge.3

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-criminal-appeals/1338620.html

Britt Ripkowski Texas Death Row

Britt Ripkowski was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a double murder. According to court documents Britt Ripkowski would murder the mother of a two year old girl who he would kidnap and then later murder days later. Britt Ripkowski would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Britt Ripkowski 2022 Information

SID Number: 06288663

TDCJ Number: 00999325

Name: RIPKOWSKI,BRITT ALLEN

Race: W

Gender: M

Age: 50

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Britt Ripkowski More News

Monica Allen and Britt Ripkowski dated for awhile but had a stormy relationship. Allen had a two-year-old daughter, Dominique Frome, from a prior relationship. Appellant had lived with Allen at various times in Salt Lake City, Utah and in Houston, Texas. At the time of the events giving rise to this prosecution, they were living apart, with appellant in Houston and Allen in Salt Lake City. On December 22, 1997, a young woman’s body was found by the side of a roadway near Monticello, Utah. The body was not identified at that time. On December 30th, a missing persons report was filed on Allen and her daughter. The FBI and the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) began an investigation of the disappearances. Detective Kelly Kent of the SLCPD was one of the officers assigned to investigate. On January 15, 1998, the body found in Utah was identified as Allen’s.

The following day, Special Agent Gary Steger, with the Houston Division of the FBI, contacted appellant at his apartment in Houston. Steger and another FBI agent introduced themselves and told appellant that they were investigating the disappearance of Allen and her child. They talked with appellant, received his permission to search the apartment, and conducted a search that revealed nothing of importance to the investigation. Special Agent Steger did see a crack pipe in the apartment. That same day, appellant called Detective Kent, with whom he had past dealings. Britt Ripkowski told Kent that he, Allen, and Dominique had left Salt Lake City together but parted ways at St. George, Utah on December 21st. Britt Ripkowski called Kent again on January 19th. This time he told her that he had taken Dominique to Houston and that a friend had taken her to Mexico.

On January 20th, Britt Ripkowski called Kent and told her that he had been in contact with the FBI and he believed that they were following him. That same day, the FBI searched appellant’s apartment pursuant to a federal search warrant. Appellant told Special Agent Steger the revised story of taking Dominique to Houston and a friend taking her to Mexico. Britt Ripkowski said that he had used Allen’s van to drive from Salt Lake City to Houston, and he told FBI agents where the van was located. The van was seized by the FBI and Special Agent Steger returned appellant to his apartment.

On January 22nd, appellant was arrested by federal agents. Special Agent Eric Johnson read appellant his Miranda warnings and transported him to the Houston FBI office. Johnson testified that he did not threaten appellant or make any promises. Johnson denied that appellant was disoriented during this time period. During a pat-down search of appellant, Johnson discovered some phone cords and a necktie. During transit, appellant told officers that he should have made them kill him.

Britt Ripkowski was turned over to Special Agent Steger at the Houston FBI office. Steger noticed that appellant had some scratches on his face and an injury to his wrist. The wrist injury consisted of a one-sixth of an inch deep slash across the wrist. Appellant told Steger that he had tried to slit his wrists the night before. Steger took appellant to a nurse for medical treatment. Afterwards, appellant was placed in an interrogation room for questioning. Also present in the interrogation room were Special Agent Steger, Detective Kent, and Charles Oliver, a homicide investigator for SLCPD. Steger read the Miranda warnings. Oliver testified that Steger read each warning individually, and after each one, Steger asked appellant if he understood his rights. Appellant appeared to understand his rights and appeared to knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive the rights. Oliver further testified that appellant did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. When asked questions, appellant responded coherently and appropriately. After warnings were read and rights waived, Detective Kent interviewed appellant.

Kent also testified that Britt Ripkowski appeared to understand the warnings. Kent observed that appellant read the waiver of rights form aloud and that appellant appeared to voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waive his rights. No promises, threats, or abuse of any kind occurred before or during the interrogation. According to Kent, appellant did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he appeared to understand what was going on, and when asked questions, he responded appropriately. This first interview by Kent was not electronically recorded. During the interview appellant admitted to killing both Allen and Dominique. Britt Ripkowski related that, on December 24 th, he killed Dominique, put her body in a suitcase, and buried the suitcase in an undeveloped area near the Sheldon Reservoir in northeast Harris County.

Appellant agreed to help locate Dominique’s body. He went with law enforcement agents to the area he described and they attempted to find the victim’s body. But the terrain was swampy and covered with underbrush, and appellant exhibited confusion about the body’s location. Several law enforcement agents testified that they believed appellant was honestly trying to help locate the body but was unsuccessful. Appellant informed officers that the body could be further up the same road about a half mile.

After this failed attempt to find the child’s body, Steger took appellant to the homicide division of the Houston Police Department. Appellant was placed in an interview room with Detective Kent and Houston Police Officer Robert King. King testified that he read appellant the required warnings and appellant nodded his head after each individual warning was read. Both King and Kent testified that appellant appeared to understand his rights and appeared to waive those rights voluntarily. Kent then conducted a videotaped interrogation of appellant. Kent and King both testified that appellant did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the interrogation and that appellant responded appropriately to questions. During the interrogation appellant again described how he killed Allen and Dominique and again described how he disposed of Dominique’s body. Appellant also stated that he had used cocaine extensively up to and just prior to arrest, that he had recently attempted suicide by trying to slit his wrists, and that he had tried to kill himself by taking an overdose of pills shortly before his arrest. After the taping ended, appellant was shown a map, and he pointed out the area on the map where Dominique’s body was located.

On January 23rd, armed with this information, law enforcement agents found Dominique’s body. That same day, appellant submitted physical samples for toxicological testing, which later revealed the presence of cocaine in appellant’s system.

At a hearing on appellant’s motion to suppress evidence, appellant presented expert testimony from Dr. Paula Lundberg Love that a combination of stressful conditions, bipolar mental disorder, and cocaine binging rendered appellant incompetent to understand and waive his rights.

After hearing the evidence, the trial court found that appellant had knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived his rights. The trial court held the complained-of statements to be admissible.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-criminal-appeals/1483441.html

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