New Trial Granted for Texas Death-Sentenced Prisoner Because of Trial Judge’s Antisemitic Bias

On November 6, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) voted 6-3 to grant death-sentenced prisoner Randy Halprin a new trial. The TCCA decided that the original trial judge, Vickers Cunningham, “was actually biased against him at the time of trial because Halprin is Jewish.” The Court wrote in its ruling that the “uncontradicted evidence,” including testimony from friends and family of Judge Cunningham regarding his use of derogatory and racial slurs both generally and specifically with regards to Mr. Halprin and his codefendants, “supports a finding that Cunningham formed an opinion about Halprin that derived from an extrajudicial factor — Cunningham’s poisonous antisemitism.”  

Mr. Halprin had previously been scheduled for an October 10, 2019 execution. The TCCA halted that execution, ordering the Dallas County court to review claims of bias. The TCCA’s latest decision affirms a December 2022 ruling by District Judge Lela Mays, who found that “Cunningham not only harbored antisemitic bias at the time of trial, but … he did not or could not curb the influence of that bias in his judicial decision-making.” In September 2022, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson, who was appointed after the disqualification of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the original case, had filed a memorandum in support of a new trial due to evidence of “actual bias” held by Judge Cunningham, who retired from the bench in 2005 and is now a private practice attorney. 

“Today, the Court of Criminal Appeals took a step towards broader trust in the criminal law by throwing out a hopelessly tainted death judgment handed down by a bigoted and biased judge. As the Criminal District Attorney for Tarrant County conceded over two years ago, and the court concluded today, the Constitution required this result,” said Tivon Schardl, attorney for Mr. Halprin, in a statement following the decision. “By upholding the Constitution’s requirement of fair and equal treatment, the Court of Criminal Appeals promoted faith in the criminal law. It also reminded Texans that religious bigotry has no place in our courts.” 

Mr. Halprin, age 47, was part of a group of escaped prisoners known as the “Texas 7” who committed a series of robberies, including one in December 2000 in which they fatally shot a responding police officer. Although Mr. Halprin maintained that he did not shoot at the officer, he was charged under the state’s “law of parties,” which holds accomplices equally culpable for the acts of all involved in the underlying felony. Of the seven escaped prisoners, one died by suicide before arrest, four have been executed, and two—Mr. Halprin and Patrick Murphy—remain on death row. 

“Shortly after Mr. Halprin and six other men escaped from prison in 2000, Texas prison officials concluded that Mr. Halprin was the least likely party to be involved in violence. Mr. Halprin has shown over his two decades on death row that he is a man of peace with a deep connection to God. He is member of the faith-based program on death row where he continues his spiritual and moral growth and supports his Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist brothers on their journeys,” said Mr. Schardl in a statement.