Raymond Riles, the Nation’s Longest Serving Death-Row Prisoner, is Resentenced to Life

Raymond Riles (pic­tured), the nation’s longest serv­ing death-row pris­on­er, has been resen­tenced to life.

On June 9, 2021, Harris County, Texas District Judge Ana Martinez imposed the life sen­tence via a Zoom tele­con­fer­ence after coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors deter­mined that Riles was incom­pe­tent to par­tic­i­pate in a cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ing tri­al and, if again sen­tenced to death, would nev­er be men­tal­ly com­pe­tent to be executed. 

The 71-year-old Riles was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death on December 11, 1975, fol­low­ing his con­vic­tion for the 1974 mur­der of John Thomas Henry at a Houston car lot. He then endured a retri­al and resen­tenc­ing in 1978, a near-exe­cu­tion in 1986, and 35 years of legal lim­bo because of his men­tal incom­pe­ten­cy, until the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals again over­turned his death sen­tence in April 2021. 

The court unan­i­mous­ly ruled that Riles’s ​“death sen­tence can no longer stand” because the cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing statute in effect in Texas in 1978 uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly lim­it­ed the jury’s abil­i­ty to con­sid­er and give mit­i­gat­ing effect to evi­dence of Riles’s men­tal ill­ness. Riles’s men­tal health evi­dence, the court said, was a ​“kind of ​‘two-edged’ mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence” that required the jury to be instruct­ed to inde­pen­dent­ly con­sid­er its mit­i­gat­ing val­ue. “[Riles’s] jury did not receive any such instruc­tion,” the court said.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg explained her deci­sion to forego anoth­er cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ing tri­al, say­ing ​“Riles is incom­pe­tent and there­fore can’t be exe­cut­ed.” In a state­ment, she said ​“We will nev­er for­get John Henry, who was mur­dered so many years ago by Riles, and we believe jus­tice would best be served by Riles spend­ing the remain­der of his life in cus­tody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.”

Riles appeared at the vir­tu­al hear­ing via Zoom because of con­cerns that his severe men­tal ill­ness, heart dis­ease, and weak­ened immu­ni­ty from prostate can­cer treat­ment placed him at height­ened risk of con­tract­ing COVID-19. His lawyer, Jim Marcus of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law said, ​“Mr. Riles is too phys­i­cal­ly frail to with­stand the rig­ors of a cap­i­tal tri­al, and his men­tal ill­ness legal­ly pre­cludes his exe­cu­tion.” The resen­tenc­ing, he said, ​“is an appro­pri­ate res­o­lu­tion of this case and con­cludes the more than three decades Mr. Riles has spent stuck in legal limbo.”

During the 1978 retri­al, Riles’s lawyers pre­sent­ed expert men­tal health tes­ti­mo­ny that Riles was psy­chot­ic and suf­fered from schiz­o­phre­nia, lay tes­ti­mo­ny from fam­i­ly mem­bers about Riles’s his­to­ry of odd and vio­lent behav­ior, and evi­dence that Riles’ fam­i­ly had a his­to­ry of com­mit­ments to psy­chi­atric insti­tu­tions. However, Texas law at that time lim­it­ed the jury’s con­sid­er­a­tion of that evi­dence only to whether he would pose a con­tin­u­ing threat to soci­ety if his life was spared. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such a lim­i­ta­tion vio­lat­ed the fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tion, and in 2007 it issued a series of addi­tion­al rul­ings reaf­firm­ing the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Texas’s approach to mitigation. 

Several hun­dred pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed under that uncon­sti­tu­tion­al statute and, in 1986, Texas issued a war­rant for Riles’s exe­cu­tion. However, his exe­cu­tion was stayed because of ques­tions regard­ing his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy. Even with con­tin­u­ous treat­ment with heavy antipsy­chot­ic med­ica­tions, Riles nev­er regained competency.

Texas law at the time of Riles’s con­vic­tion pro­vid­ed for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole from a life sen­tence after 40 years, and his resen­tenc­ing made him eli­gi­ble to be con­sid­ered for parole. ​“Mr. Riles is in very poor health,” Marcus said, ​“but, if the Board of Pardons and Paroles sees fit to grant parole, he has fam­i­ly with the capac­i­ty to care for him.”

Ogg and Henry’s fam­i­ly have indi­cat­ed they will oppose any appli­ca­tion for parole. Riles’s co-defen­dant, Herbert Washington, also ini­tial­ly received a death sen­tence. After he was grant­ed a new tri­al, he plead­ed guilty to less­er charges and was paroled in 1983.