Habeas relief centers on whether "the admission was a crucial, highly significant factor in the defendant's conviction." Well I better stay speechless because whats going through my head would get me banned. In Beck, "the jury [was] given the choice of either convicting the defendant of the capital crime, in which case it is required to impose the death penalty, or acquitting him, thus allowing him to escape all penalties for his alleged participation in the crime." 28 at 768-69. 2001); Wheat v. Johnson, 238 F.3d 357, 361-62 (5th Cir. WebOn June 24th 1993 a pair of teenage girls were walking through a public park in Houston,Texas when they were viciously assaulted by a local youth gang. As Cantu's trial counsel Donald Davis concluded his closing argument, he begged the jury not to return a sentence that would result in his client's death: Tr. 21 at 323-24. PRO. Vol. But if something like this cant spark it, what can? Tr. O'Brien was videotaped smiling at the scene of the crime. Thank you for doing this write up. Cantu claims that the prosecution limited the jury's consideration of that evidence in much the same way as the Fifth Circuit's now-discredited constitutional relevancy test. In support of this claim, Cantu notes that he gave two statements to the police. WebHUNTSVILLE, Texas (CBS/AP/KHOU) Tonight, Peter Anthony Cantu will be executed for two of the most notorious deaths in Houston history, the 1993 rapes and murders of 16-year The AEDPA prevents appellate review of a habeas petition unless the district or circuit courts certify specific issues for appeal. Venancio received a 40-year prison sentence. In light of those conclusions, the state habeas court held that Cantu "fail[ed] to show that trial counsel are ineffective based on the lack of objection to the State's cited punishment[.]" 1992), aff'd 506 U.S. 461 (1993), outlined a "constitutional-relevancy test" that it would apply to all capital trials where the jury received no directive to consider mitigating evidence. Gang members fought Villareal in turn. Entry No. Aguilar v. Dretke, 428 F.3d 526, 531 (5th Cir. The case was also notable in that the state of Texas rejected attempts by the International Court of Justice to halt the executions of several of the perpetrators. (Doc. "The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result." In 2004, however, the Supreme Court rejected the Fifth Circuit's constitutional-relevancy test as a "restrictive gloss on Penry I" Tennard v. Dretke, 542 U.S. 274, 283 (2004). The jury instructions followed Texas law and cautioned the jury not to speculate on parole during deliberations. These scum deserve to be treated as they treated those young girls. Does it justify it? Jester Park on Saturday for a memorial service for the girls who were slain, The parents of the murder victims successfully advocated for the State of Texas allowing relatives of victims to have permission to witness executions. One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." Ertman could have easily run to escape at this point, but ran to help her friend. Medelln said in a sworn statement that he learned that the Mexican consulate could assist him in 1997. The Fifth Circuit concluded: Also, the Court of Criminal Appeals noted that the prosecution's statement was merely a "suggestion," and did not tell "the jury that they must find a nexus between the offense and the evidence offered as mitigation[.]" All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the 487K views 2 years ago. The details in this description of the girls last moments are brutal. See Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 211 (1987) ("[J]uries are presumed to follow their instructions[.]"). The medical examiner corroborated that the cause of death was strangulation. 2003) ("Nothing in the AEDPA suggests that it is appropriate to issue writs of habeas corpus even though any error of federal law that may have occurred did not affect the outcome."). 1994); Kinnamon v. Scott, 40 F.3d 731, 733 (5th Cir. WebThe Ertmans and Penas gathered friends and neighbors to help them pass out a huge stack of fliers with the girls' pictures all over the Houston area, even giving them to newspaper Tr. The trial court reviewed the other photographs, found that they were essential to explain the medical examiner testimony, and discussed with the prosecution how to best present the photographs without shocking the jury. WebJennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pea were two best friends who, in 1993, were raped and murdered by a gang as they walked home from a pool party. The state court records consist of a Clerk's Record that contains pretrial motions, trial court orders, jury instructions, and other pleadings, cited as "Clerk's Record at "; a 32-volume Statement of Facts, including hearings on pretrial motions, jury voir dire, the guilt/innocence phase, and the penalty phase, cited as "Tr. As Ertman was murdered, Pea was forced to watch her friend's death as other gang members held a ligature around her own neck. 2006); but see Smith v. Quarterman, 515 F.3d 392, 412 (5th Cir. Entry No. Boyde v. California, 494 U.S. 370, 380 (1990); see also Waddington v. Sarausad, ___ U.S. ___, ___ S. Ct. ___, 2009 WL 129033, at *8 (Jan. 21, 2009) (reaffirming the Boyde standard and noting the "especially heavy burden on a defendant who . Tr. Id. The gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to watch". http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908103/posts, Bush, Texas at Odds Over Death Case Even if the jury somehow believed only the story from his first statement, Cantu's second statement was not the only evidence showing that he participated in the murders. Memorials to Ertman and Pea in TC Jester Park: In the background is the railroad bridge where the two were initially attacked. See Wheat, 238 F.3d at 361 (finding any extension of Simmons to violate Teague); Clark v. Johnson, 227 F.3d 273, 282 (5th Cir. 3. Tr. This was clearly a job for a lynch mob. 1988). Christina Cantu questioned why Villarreal was bleeding and Prez had a bloody shirt. The trial court held a suppression hearing. 22 at 569-72. O'Brien, 156 F. App'x at 736. I believe only non violent offenders are capable of and deserving of rehabilitation. Peter Anthony Cantu ("Cantu"), a Texas inmate, seeks federal habeas corpus relief. Tr. 1996) (quotation omitted). Tr. WebPeter Anthony Cantu is shown in this undated Texas Department of Criminal Justice handout photo. He didn't fuck with me because his cousin was my good friend. Cantu read and signed the second statement, again in the presence of two other officers. Simmons, however, only applies to a capital sentencing scheme that provides for life without the possibility of parole. Jose Medellin discontinued his narrative to bathe. Seventeen years after the crimes, Peter Anthony Cantu was executed on August 17, 2010. Dowthitt, 230 F.3d at 757 (quotation omitted). Rule 403 of the Texas Rules of Criminal Evidence governs the admissibility of allegedly inflammatory photographs. Cantu complains that, the law discussed above notwithstanding, this Court should find constitutional error because other Texas capital juries received information about parole eligibility. Because his first statement to the police did not discuss the death of the two girls, Cantu argues that the jury could have viewed the evidence in a manner that exculpated him of capital murder. 1995); Montoya v. Collins, 955 F.2d 279, 286 (5th Cir. Medelln gave both written and taped confessions. 2001). See Buchanan v. Angelone, 522 U.S. 269, 276 (1998); Boyde v. California, 494 U.S. 370, 377 (1990). Robertson, 324 F.3d at 304 (quoting Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 629 (1993)); see also Aleman v. Sternes, 320 F.3d 687, 690-91 (7th Cir. 2. 23 at 698-99. If you can live in this country for years illegally and then remember you did not get to talk to the Mexican Council general, it should be to damn bad. Insect activity, animal degradation, and the sweltering heat left the corpses unrecognizable. 22 at 460-61. Cantu emphasizes that the State must afford the jury a vehicle to consider "any aspect of the defendant's character proffered as a basis for the imposition of a sentence less than death." The question is whether Texas' definition of mitigating evidence inhibits mitigation review. This had not previously been done in Texas courts and now is done as a matter of routine. Peter Cantu probably would've. Under the appropriate standard, Cantu has not shown that this Court should certify any issue for appellate consideration. Later, Houston Police Department Officer Roy Swainson compared Cantu's initial statement to his interview of Fransisco Sandoval and the statement taken from O'Brien. Jos Medelln was executed at 9:57 pm on August 5, 2008, after his last-minute appeals were rejected by the Supreme Court. Tr. 21 at 327. Tam International phn phi cc sn phm cht lng cao trong lnh vc Chm sc Sc khe Lm p v chi tr em. Jennifer Ertman's dad, Randy Ertman, was about to give an interview regarding the missing girls to a local television reporter when the call came over a cameraman's police scanner that two bodies had been found. 28 at 787 (emphasis added). I can only hope that Pres. Peter Cantu, far left, glances back at Randy Ertman, far right, as Ertman, father of Cantu's murder victim, Jennifer, 14, shouts. Accordingly, he cast his claims in the form of ineffective-assistance arguments. Tr. Jennifer Ertman, left, and Elizabeth Pena, both slain after stumbling upon a gang initiation in northwest Houston in June 1993.. Houston Chronicle. Nothing in Penry I signaled a wholesale rejection of Texas' special issues, yet the Supreme Court failed to articulate how to determine what evidence evaded Texas' sentencing review. 1997). 2001) (citing Simmons, 512 U.S. at 168 n. 8). 2000). The bodies were very badly decomposed, even for four days in Houston's brutal summer heat and humidity, particularly in the head, neck and genital areas. Tr. posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989), thus bars relief on these claims. The state habeas court concluded that the prosecutor's statements were not "extreme or manifestly improper or inject[ed] new and harmful facts into the trial, in light of the record as a whole." Tennard, 542 U.S. at 284-85. Next, Cassie goes over the most horrendous murder we've probably covered yet; the decapitation and murder of the Rubio siblings by the hand of their own parents in Brownsville. Marsh, 548 U.S. at 174. The other five were tried for capital murder in Harris County, Texas, convicted and sentenced to death. The Ertmans and Penas gathered friends and neighbors to help them pass out a huge stack of fliers with the girls' pictures all over the Houston area, even giving them to newspaper vendors on the roadside. vote for a capital conviction if the only alternative was to set the defendant free with no punishment at all"). When Peter Cantu saw Jenny and Elizabeth, he thought it was a man and a woman and told the other gang members that he wanted to jump him and beat him up. What a horrible crime. Four days after the murders, the girls' bodies were found in the park during hot weather conditions. Vol. Derrick O'Brien was the first to be executed, on July 11, 2006. With respect to those convictions between 1989 and 1991, the Supreme Court ultimately rejected Texas' stopgap instructions. At the time of Cantu's trial, a Texas capital defendant who received a life sentence would become eligible for parole after 35 years of incarceration. In 1972, the Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), condemned death penalty statutes that gave the sentencer open-ended discretion. Realizing that the girls would be capable of identifying them, Peter Cantu, the leader of the gang, ordered the members to kill the girls. Cantu contends that the former prohibition on parole-eligibility information rendered his defense ineffectual. Rule 22(b). The jury instructions in the guilt/innocence phase gave the jury only two options: convict Cantu of capital murder or acquit him. 2002); Collier v. Cockrell, 300 F.3d 577, 583 (5th Cir. Maybe other people can email to other hosts as well. In 2005, President George W. Bush ordered hearings to be held. She was thrown to the ground by gang members Peter Cantu and Derrick Sean O'Brien. In that case, the prosecutor allegedly imposed "deliberate, constant limitations" on the jury's consideration of mitigating evidence by repeatedly "telling the jury there must be a connection between mitigating evidence and the charged crime." Ries v. Quarterman, 522 F.3d 517, 530 (5th Cir. He told the call taker that the missing girls' bodies could be found near T.C. Vol. While Cantu, Jose Medellin, O'Brien, Perez, and Villareal all received death sentences, Perez and Villareal had their sentenced commuted to life imprisonment pursuant to Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), because they were minors when they participated in the killings. See 28 U.S.C. Vol. Tr. . The prosecutor gave a detailed recapitulation of Cantu's confession, mentioning each violent act Cantu committed against the two girls. A jury's consideration of mitigating evidence, while essential to fair sentencing, is not without bounds, limits, or demarcation. Trial counsel objected that the material violated TEX. Tr. Under Texas law, a defendant is entitled to a lesser-included-offense instruction only if the lesser crime is within the proof necessary to establish the charged offense. Entry No. Executing Cantu causes still further misgivings when viewed, not relative to his peers, but relative to his life prior to the unspeakable horror of this single evening. The Jurek Court recognized that, while the then-existent Texas capital sentencing statute did not directly address a defendant's mitigating evidence, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals interpreted the statute in a way that let a jury consider mitigating circumstances. Tr. The possibility of parole, not the timing thereof, exempted Texas from the Simmons requirement. I think about this case a lot, usually at random times it'll pop back into my head without warning. The prosecutors said that Medelln never told authorities that he was a Mexican citizen. Her case is full of police misconduct and possible suspects. He petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1998 regarding this issue; the appeal failed. Fortunately, they did manage to keep Randy from entering the woods and seeing his daughter's brutalized body and that of her friend Elizabeth, but they were unable to escape that fate themselves. However, the Supreme Court "has never held that jury discretion must be unlimited or unguided; [it has] never suggested that jury consideration of mitigating evidence must be undirected or unfocused; [it has] never concluded that States cannot channel jury discretion in an effort to achieve a more rational and equitable administration of justice." Cantu has not shown that this Court should certify any issue for appellate.... 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