Entries tagged with “Judicial Bias”
Issues
Religion
,Jan 03, 2023
Court Recommends New Trial for Texas Death-Row Prisoner, Finding Rights Violated by Trial Judge’s Virulent Anti-Semitism
A Dallas County judge has recommended that the conviction and death sentence of a Jewish death-row prisoner be overturned because his trial was poisoned by the virulent anti-Semitic bigotry of the Texas judge who presided over his case. In a scathing 42-page set of fact findings issued on December 13, 2022, Judge Lela Lawrence May (pictured, left) recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) grant a new trial to Randy Halprin (pictured, right), finding that former Dallas County…
Issues
Religion
,Sep 29, 2022
Texas District Attorney Recommends New Trial for Jewish Death-Row Prisoner Tried Before Anti-Semitic Judge
A Texas district attorney has asked a Dallas judge to overturn the capital murder conviction of Jewish death-row prisoner Randy Halprin (pictured) because of the virulent anti-Semitism of the judge who presided over his trial and death sentence. On September 27, 2022, the second day of the Jewish high holy day of Rosh Hashanah, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson filed a legal memorandum with proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law that recommended Halprin be granted a new…
Issues
Aug 19, 2022
Second Texas County Indicts Clinton Young in 2001 Murder After Court Throws Out Related Conviction and Death Sentence for Prosecutorial Misconduct
Texas prosecutors have indicted former death-row prisoner Clinton Young for a 21-year-old murder in one county after his conviction and death sentence for another murder allegedly committed as part of the same criminal episode in another county was overturned because a lead prosecutor in that case also secretly acted as a paid law clerk to judges who presided over Young’s trial and state post-conviction appeals. On August 12, 2022, a special grand jury convened in Harrison County by the Texas…
Issues
Jan 25, 2022
Clinton Young Free Pending Retrial After 20 Years on Texas Death Row
Former Texas death-row prisoner Clinton Young has been released from custody nearly twenty years after being sentenced to death for a double murder he has consistently said he did not commit. Young, pictured with Clinton Young Foundation Legal Director Merel Pontier after his release, walked out of the Midland County Detention Center January 21, 2022, after the foundation posted bond to secure his freedom while prosecutors from neighboring Dawson County decide whether to retry Young on the…
Issues
Religion
,Oct 13, 2021
Texas Trial Court Recommends New Trial for Jewish Death-Row Prisoner Tried Before Racist and Anti-Semitic Judge
A Texas judge has recommended that the conviction and death sentence of death-row prisoner Randy Halprin (pictured), who is Jewish, be overturned because of the religious bigotry of the judge presiding over his trial. In a statement of findings released on October 11, 2021, Dallas Criminal District Court Judge Lela Mays wrote that “Judge Vickers Cunningham possessed anti-Semitic prejudice against Halprin which violated Halprin’s constitutional right to a trial in a fair tribunal, equal…
Issues
Sep 23, 2021
Texas Appeals Court Vacates Conviction of Death-Row Prisoner Clinton Young, Whose Prosecutor was Secretly on the Payroll of the Judge Who Tried Him
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has vacated the conviction of death-row prisoner Clinton Young, whose prosecutor was also on the payroll of the judge who presided over the trial and decided his trial court appeals. In an unsigned opinion and order with no dissents, the TCCA on September 22, 2021 granted Young’s petition for a new trial. “Judicial and prosecutorial misconduct — in the form of an undisclosed employment relationship between the trial judge and the prosecutor appearing…
Issues
May 04, 2021
Trial Court Recommends New Trial for Death-Row Prisoner Whose Prosecutor Secretly Also Served as the Court’s Law Clerk
Finding “brazen misconduct” by a prosecutor who withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and then secretly served as the trial judge’s law clerk in the case, a Midland County, Texas judge has recommended that death-row prisoner Clinton Young (pictured) be granted a new trial. In a 30-page factfinding order issued on April 26, 2021, Senior Judge Sid Harle excoriated former assistant district attorney Ralph Petty and the Midland County District Attorney’s office for “shocking prosecutorial…
Issues
Sep 09, 2020
Texas Death-Row Prisoner Seeks New Trial Citing Hidden Evidence that Prosecutor was Paid to Work for Trial Judge in Same Case
Texas death-row prisoner Clinton Young (pictured), who came within days of execution in October 2017 while prosecutors hid evidence of his innocence, has filed a claim for a new trial based upon previously undisclosed evidence that an assistant district attorney who prosecuted him was simultaneously employed by the trial judge to provide legal advice in his case. In an Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus Seeking Relief from a Judgment of Death, filed August 13, 2020 in Midland County…
State & Federal Info
Military
,Apr 17, 2019
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Two Years of Guantánamo Tribunal Decisions in USS Cole Case
A civilian federal appeals court has dealt another blow to the Guantánamo military commission death-penalty proceedings, striking more than two years of decisions in the USS Cole bombing prosecution of Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Al-Nashiri because of a military judge’s undisclosed conflict of interest. Al-Nashiri faces capital charges for his alleged role in the suicide bombing attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000 in which 17 U.S. Navy sailors were killed and another 39 were…
State & Federal Info
Military
,Aug 10, 2017
Federal Appeals Court Removes Military Judge From Case For Comments Prejudging 9/11 Detainee’s Guilt
A federal appeals court in Washington has ordered the recusal of a military judge from hearing an appeal in the Guantánamo military commission death penalty trial of five defendants accused of direct responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. A unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on August 8 that Judge Scott L. Silliman of the United States Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) was disqualified from participating in appeals…