Rick Halperin
Tue Aug 16 12:14:12 2005
June 25 TEXAS----impending juvenile execution Texas court rejects death row appeal Even though the U.S. Supreme Court plans to review whether teen-age killers should be subject to the death penalty, Texas' top criminal court on Thursday rejected a Tarrant County man's plea for a stay of execution on grounds that he was 17 at the time of his crime. The 6-3 ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals means that Mauro Morris Barraza, now 32, will face execution Tuesday in Huntsville unless the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Rick Perry steps in. "We are furiously preparing paperwork to overnight to the Supreme Court to get this execution stayed," said Scott Schutte, a Chicago lawyer representing the condemned man. "It seems to me that it would have made sense for the Texas court to have stopped it, but then, I'm not a Texas lawyer." In a concurring opinion, Judge Cathy Cochran noted that early this year, the Supreme Court halted the execution of a Missouri man who killed at age 17 while the justices decide whether subjecting a young killer to the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. But Cochran said the Texas court does have authority to stop the execution based on how the high court might rule in the Missouri case. "It is, therefore, appropriate that [Barraza] file his request for stay of execution with the United States Supreme Court," Cochran wrote. "I agree that we do not have statutory jurisdiction over [Barraza's future appeals], and therefore, we do not have authority to grant his request for a stay of execution." In statements to police after his arrest, Barraza admitted that on June 14, 1989, he hit 73-year-old Vilorie Nelson of Haltom City with shrubbery shears and beat her with his legs so he and an accomplice could steal her jewelry at her home on Higgins Lane in southwest Haltom City. Barraza also said he covered his victim's body with a tablecloth and drank a soft drink from her refrigerator before leaving her home. During his trial, prosecutors used DNA testing to show that Barraza had also sexually assaulted Nelson. Schutte said he expects the high court to stop Barraza's execution because several other teen-age killers have won stays while the justices review the matter. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)