Lawyers for Texas death-row pris­on­er TaiChin Preyor (pic­tured), whose pri­or fed­er­al habeas lawyer relied on research from Wikipedia and the guid­ance of a dis­barred lawyer, have filed motions in state and fed­er­al courts seek­ing to stay his sched­uled July 27 exe­cu­tion. His plead­ings allege that he was rep­re­sent­ed by a suc­ces­sion of inept coun­sel, includ­ing a penal­ty-phase lawyer who failed to inter­view key wit­ness or seek crit­i­cal men­tal health test­ing; a post-con­vic­tion lawyer who met him for the first and only time on the day of his state habeas evi­den­tiary hear­ing; and fed­er­al habeas coun­sel con­sist­ing of a dis­barred lawyer and a real estate lawyer who default­ed a sig­nif­i­cant con­sti­tu­tion­al claim of pri­or coun­sel’s inef­fec­tive­ness. Preyor was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2005. The pros­e­cu­tor told his sen­tenc­ing jury that Preyor came from a ​“won­der­ful fam­i­ly” full of ​“out­stand­ing peo­ple.” The new plead­ings, how­ev­er, set forth facts recent­ly dis­cov­ered when new coun­sel was pro­vid­ed fund­ing to inves­ti­gate his case: that Preyor endured a ​“har­row­ing” child­hood ​“marred by severe phys­i­cal and sex­u­al abuse,” and that he ​“turned to alco­hol and drugs at a young age to cope with this unre­lent­ing abuse.” Preyor repeat­ed­ly wit­nessed his moth­er being beat­en by numer­ous boyfriends and was threat­ened with a knife by one of them when the boy attempt­ed to inter­vene. While still in ele­men­tary school, he was repeat­ed­ly sodom­ized and dig­i­tal­ly pen­e­trat­ed by a close fam­i­ly mem­ber. While a teenag­er, he broke his ankles jump­ing off a 4th floor bal­cony to escape his moth­er, who was chas­ing him with a knife. The recent court fil­ings seek­ing to re-open his fed­er­al habeas pro­ceed­ings say this infor­ma­tion was nev­er pre­sent­ed to the fed­er­al court because his fed­er­al habeas coun­sel — a pro­bate and estate plan­ning lawyer with no death penal­ty expe­ri­ence — was ​“woe­ful­ly unqual­i­fied” and ​“relied on Wikipedia, of all things, to learn the com­plex ins and outs of Texas cap­i­tal-pun­ish­ment.” That lawyer, Brandy Estelle, so clear­ly lacked the nec­es­sary qual­i­fi­ca­tions that the Fifth Circuit refused to appoint her and a judi­cial clerk review­ing death-penal­ty cas­es con­tact­ed the Texas bar to seek replace­ment coun­sel. Further, the motions allege, Estelle was actu­al­ly a front who did no more than sign the doc­u­ments filed in court; Phillip Jefferson, a dis­barred lawyer who had mis­rep­re­sent­ed him­self as a lawyer to Preyor’s fam­i­ly actu­al­ly draft­ed the plead­ings. According to Preyor’s cur­rent coun­sel, Jefferson and Estelle col­lect­ed mon­ey from the fam­i­ly for their ser­vices, while Estelle also sub­mit­ted invoic­es for pay­ment to the fed­er­al courts. The motions ask the state and fed­er­al courts to stay Preyor’s exe­cu­tion while this ​“fraud upon the court,” the inef­fec­tive­ness of pri­or coun­sel, and the new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence can be reviewed and assessed by the courts. Preyor has also asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to com­mute his sen­tence, or alter­na­tive­ly, grant him a reprieve so that the legal issues in his case can be reviewed. Five Texas pris­on­ers have received stays of exe­cu­tion so far in 2017, from either the state or fed­er­al courts. Texas has car­ried out four exe­cu­tions in 2017.

(S. Marloff, ​“Death Watch: Represented by Wikipedia, TaiChin Preyor did not get the legal exper­tise he deserved,” The Austin Chronicle, July 21, 2017; K. Blakinger, ​“Court papers:‘Utterly unqual­i­fied’ attor­ney used Wikipedia to defend death penal­ty inmate,” Houston Chronicle, July 17, 2017.) Read Mr. Preyor’s new peti­tion for state habeas cor­pus relief and state court motion for stay of exe­cu­tion filed in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on July 18; his clemen­cy peti­tion; and his plead­ings to re-open his fed­er­al habeas cor­pus pro­ceed­ings and for a fed­er­al stay of exe­cu­tion.

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