After ​“Due Process Disaster,” Texas Death Row Prisoner Whose Appeal Was Lost is Resentenced and Eligible for Parole

A death-sen­tenced pris­on­er whose appeal was lost for thir­ty years was resen­tenced to life with parole on November 14, 2023, when the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s office said it is no longer pur­su­ing the death penal­ty. Syed Rabbani, a Bangladeshi nation­al, has been on death row since 1988 for a fatal Houston shoot­ing. Mr. Rabbani filed his appeal in 1994, but it remained pend­ing in the Harris County Court sys­tem until 2022, when the Harris County District Clerk’s Office redis­cov­ered the fil­ing among 100+ oth­er ​‘for­got­ten’ cas­es. Although severe­ly ill, he is now eli­gi­ble for parole due to the thir­ty-five years he has already served in prison. 

In September, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had over­turned Mr. Rabbani’s life sen­tence because the tri­al judge had failed to prop­er­ly instruct jurors regard­ing mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors, includ­ing evi­dence of Mr. Rabbani’s men­tal ill­ness. Mr. Rabbani has schiz­o­phre­nia and schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, and after more than three decades of con­fine­ment, his men­tal and phys­i­cal health has wors­ened. He now ​“also suf­fers from a vari­ety of oth­er med­ical issues that have left him in a veg­e­ta­tive state since ear­ly 2022,” accord­ing to his legal team, includ­ing untreat­ed seizures and poten­tial dia­betes. Post-Conviction Writ Division Chief Joshua Reiss told the court there are ​“some very seri­ous men­tal and phys­i­cal health issues affect­ing Mr. Rabbani some three decades after the cap­i­tal mur­der.” Mr. Weiss called Mr. Rabbani’s case a ​“due process dis­as­ter,” and told the court they ​“need to make sure this doesn’t hap­pen again.” Chief Reiss pre­vi­ous­ly told reporters that ​“we are all poor­ly served when poten­tial cas­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tion get lost by a court clerk for decades. And, unfor­tu­nate­ly, per­sons like Mr. Rabbani… are pow­er­less in the face of such incompetence.”

Mr. Rabbani’s coun­sel, Ben Wolff, pro­vid­ed the court with med­ical records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that indi­cate prison staff have repeat­ed­ly rec­om­mend­ed Mr. Rabbani’s trans­fer to hos­pice care. Mr. Rabbani was deemed inel­i­gi­ble for trans­fer because he was serv­ing a death sen­tence. Mr. Wolff, who was vis­i­bly emo­tion­al while detail­ing the cur­rent con­di­tion of his client, told the court that Mr. Rabbani ​“is con­fined to a prison bed in prob­a­bly the most dis­gust­ing prison cir­cum­stances [he’s] ever seen.” Mr. Wolff detailed the unsan­i­tary and haz­ardous envi­ron­ment to the court, telling Judge Lori Chambers Gray that ​“con­tin­ued con­fine­ment for Mr. Rabbani amounts to torture.”

Mr. Wolff has urged the court to con­sid­er trans­fer­ring his client to hos­pice care, grant­i­ng parole, and return­ing him to the care of his fam­i­ly in Bangladesh. Mr. Rabbani’s sib­lings lost touch with him fol­low­ing their father’s death in 1995 but recon­nect­ed in ear­ly 2023 after read­ing about Mr. Rabbani’s case in the Houston Landing. Syed Fasaini, Mr. Rabbani’s youngest broth­er, wrote to Judge Lori Chambers Gray from West Shikarpur, Bangladesh, detail­ing the affec­tion his fam­i­ly has for Mr. Rabbani and his desire to take care of his broth­er, despite his ill­ness. Co-coun­sel, Heather Richard, wrote to the court that the fam­i­ly is ​“aware the Mr. Rabbani has pro­nounced med­ical and psy­chi­atric issues, but, if giv­en the chance, they hope to take care of him for the rest of his life.” Judge Chambers Gray indi­cat­ed her will­ing­ness to con­sid­er hos­pice and will review the full case record before mak­ing a deci­sion regarding parole.