Posted on 10/05/2004 5:43:46 PM PDT by mdittmar
A man convicted of murder in part because of evidence analyzed by Houston's embattled police crime lab headed to the death chamber Tuesday, despite calls by the police chief and two legislators for executions connected to the lab to be put on hold.
Edward Green III was convicted of killing two people in a 1992 robbery. His lawyers asked that the execution be delayed until authorities can review some 280 recently discovered boxes of evidence that had been mislabeled and improperly stored at the crime lab.
Defense attorneys said the boxes could contain something relevant to Green's case, but prosecutors said all evidence involving Green had been accounted for.
Last week, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said inmates whose convictions rested on evidence analyzed at the crime lab should not be executed until the work can be reviewed.
State Sens. John Whitmire and Rodney Ellis and former Gov. Mark White, all Houston Democrats, have since asked Republican Gov. Rick Perry to suspend executions in Harris County cases until the previously misplaced evidence is examined.
Perry refused to impose a blanket moratorium on Harris County executions and rejected a 30-day reprieve for Green.
"The main evidence leading to Green's conviction is his own confession to these brutal and senseless murders," the governor said.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles twice refused a clemency request from Green, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, refused to stay the execution. The inmate's lawyers took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Green, 30, said he was high after smoking marijuana and embalming fluid when he and a friend confronted Edward Haden, 72, and Helen O'Sullivan, 63, who were in Haden's car. When Green, brandishing a pistol, ordered Haden out of his Lincoln, the man tried to throw the car into reverse. Haden and O'Sullivan were shot.
Green's lawyers have questioned the reliability of ballistics evidence presented at his trial, but the controversy surrounding the Houston police lab for the past two years has centered on the reliability of its DNA testing procedures.
The lab's DNA section has been closed since a 2002 audit revealed possible contamination of evidence, inadequate training for analysts and insufficient documentation.
No DNA evidence was used in Green's case. DNA retesting has been ordered in about 400 other cases, including 17 of death-row inmates who have not been assigned execution dates.
He'll never know if the Astros go all the way.
Bwhahahaha!
Calling Susan Sarandin. Another loser for you to console while you throw a bucket of urine on the victim's family.
I sort of prefer 'Justice Chamber' to 'Death Chamber.'
Here in TEXAS we have the Death Penalty and we USE IT!
GETR DUN
Found in Senator Clinton's office?
It's a wonder the Jesse Jackass and the DNC aren't pushing to allow this piece of democrat to vote absentee since he won't be able to vote on election day.
Nahhhh Sandy Burglar...
Start mixing the chemicals. This compassionate conservative
believes that the murdering pond scum is breathing wasted
air.
He'll never know if the Astros go all the way.
Wonder if he got to make his proxy vote for Kerry?
You're mixing your comedians there, but I applaud the sentiment.
I'm sure the RATS already got him an absentee ballot. He's gonna need it.
Doh!
They were shot? What, the pistol just acted on its own? What the heck kind of wording is this? As for the CONVICTED defendant, SEE YA!
I've oft wanted to get a lottery started where folks could buy a lottery ticket for the honor of flipping the switch.
It'd defray the cost of prosecuting these freaks.
Funniest CD I have heard in a while.....Should have a warning to those with weak bladders..
Wow! Only 12 years from conviction to the chair. Aahh if only California could be so expedient.
This poor fellow is going to miss the Cheney/Edwards debate?
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