Originally posted by: Triumph
Originally posted by: rubix
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/herreraleonellast.htm
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/fiveRs3.html
"I am an innocent man."
Leonel Torres Herrera was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1982 murders of two police officers. New evidence was brought forward which proved that Herrera's brother committed the murders. By Texas law, which states that any new evidence must be presented within 30 days of the conviction, this new revelation was irrelevant. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Texas ruling, arguing that Herrera's claim of "actual innocence" was in itself not a constitutional claim for which judicial relief could be granted. Thus, though the court agreed he was innocent, Leonel was executed on May 12, 1993.
Without getting into the case at hand, that policy does seem pretty f-ed up. You only have 30 days to exonerate yourself? If a video of the killing arises, with the killer clearly represented in high definition TV, with the killer's grandmother in the film identifying the killer by name, and 3 witnesses to the crime of 3 different races are present, if that video surfaces on the 31st day after the conviction, it doesn't matter? That is F'ed up.
That would be F'ed up if true... but alas it is not.
Herrera was suspect in the killing of two officers within a single hour in seperate incidents. The first officer was dead at the scene, but the second officer survived long enough to ID Herrara as his killer. The second officer's partner also was able to ID Herrera as the killer, as well as provide the plate number for the vehicle driven by the shooter-- which turned out to be a car owned by Herrara's girlfriend.
Herrera's Social Security card was found at the scene of the first shooting. His pants, shirt, and wallet he was carrying when arrested had blood on them-- Type A blood-- the same blood type as the first officer that was shot.
And, oh yeah... let's not forget the fact he plead GUILTY in the murder of the first officer.
So if you are at all a little suspicious that after his older brother dies suddenly Herrera and his family are insistent that his dead brother was the true killer in both murders, that's because you should be suspicious.