A prisoner in Texas faces execution on Thursday over a deadly theft 33 years in the past – regardless of his attorneys arguing his sentence relies on false professional testimony.
Brent Ray Brewer, 53, was condemned to dying for the April 1990 homicide of Robert Laminack, 66, who was giving Brewer and his girlfriend a carry to a Salvation Army location.
However, Brewer’s attorneys have requested the US Supreme Court for the execution to be halted, claiming prosecutors relied on discredited testimony from professional Richard Coons in a resentencing trial in 2009.
On Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed an enchantment with out reviewing the argument, saying the declare ought to have been raised beforehand, to the frustration of Brewer’s workforce.
“We are deeply disturbed that the [appeals court] refuses to address the injustice of allowing Brent Brewer to be executed without an opportunity to challenge Dr Coon’s false and unscientific testimony,” Shawn Nolan, certainly one of Brewer’s attorneys, mentioned.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 towards commuting Brewer’s dying sentence to a lesser penalty, with members additionally rejecting a six-month reprieve.
Brewer and his girlfriend had first approached Mr Laminack exterior his retailer in Amarillo, Texas, earlier than attacking him, prosecutors mentioned, including he was stabbed within the neck and robbed of $140 (£114).
Brewer, who was 19 on the time of the theft, was convicted of capital homicide and sentenced to dying in 1991, however the US Supreme Court overturned his sentence in 2007 after ruling the jury didn’t have correct directions.
It discovered jurors weren’t allowed to present enough weight to elements that may trigger them to impose a life sentence moderately than dying.
They made the identical ruling in two different circumstances involving Texas inmates.
Brewer was abused as a toddler and suffered from psychological sickness, elements jurors weren’t allowed to think about, his attorneys argued, however he was once more sentenced to dying in 2009.
Why is there nonetheless a requirement to cease the execution?
Brewer’s attorneys allege that on the resentencing trial, Dr Coons lied and declared, with out scientific foundation, that Brewer had no conscience and could be a future hazard.
They argued Brewer didn’t have a historical past of violence whereas in jail.
Dr Coon’s testimony about future dangerousness was described as “insufficiently reliable” by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in a separate case involving a dying row prisoner in 2010.
The courtroom dominated he mustn’t have been allowed to testify.
Robert Love, a Randall County district legal professional whose workplace prosecuted Brewer, denied prosecutors offered false testimony and steered Dr Coon’s testimony “was not material to the jury’s verdict”.
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But final week one of many jurors at Brewer’s 2009 resentencing trial, Michele Douglas, wrote within the Houston Chronicle {that a} deceptive instruction made her mistakenly vote for execution.
State Representative Joe Moody, who has tried to cross laws towards the deceptive instruction cited by Ms Douglas, mentioned it was “morally wrong” for Brewer to be executed below these circumstances.
Remorse and apology
Meanwhile, Brewer has mentioned he has been a mannequin prisoner with no historical past of violence and has tried to turn into a greater particular person by collaborating in a faith-based program for dying row inmates.
Brewer has expressed regret and a need to apologise to Mr Laminack’s household.
“I will never be able to repay or replace the hurt [and] worry [and] pain I caused you,” he wrote in a letter to the household.
“I come to you in true humility and honest heart and ask for your forgiveness.”
Mr Laminack’s son, Robert Laminack Junior, mentioned his household wouldn’t remark.
Source: information.sky.com”