below
>
>
> The CCA ruling in Ex Parte Briseno is at:
> http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/PDFOPINIONINFO2.ASP?OPINIONID=19763
> &FILENAME=AP-76,132.PDF
> - - - - -
> http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9G7UUMO1.html
> 06/09/2010 | via Dallas Morning News
>
> Condemned Texas man wins new punishment trial
> By MICHAEL GRACZYK | Associated Press
>
> The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday threw out the death
> sentence
> of a man condemned for fatally shooting a South Texas sheriff nearly
> 20 years
> ago.
>
> The court ruled jurors who decided Jose Briseno should be put to
> death didn't
> have enough information in their instructions from the trial judge
> to make
> their decision. At the time of Briseno's 1992 trial, the rules
> regarding
> instructions for capital murder juries were evolving to comply with
> U.S.
> Supreme Court decisions.
>
> His appeals attorneys said the jury didn't receive proper
> instructions about
> how to consider mitigating evidence of Briseno's unstable family,
> troubled
> background, limited intellectual ability and poverty.
>
> The case now returns to the court in Laredo where Briseno was
> convicted for a
> new punishment trial.
>
> Briseno, now 53, was convicted of gunning down Dimmit County Sheriff
> Ben "Doc"
> Murray in January 1991 at the 68-year-old sheriff's home in Carizzo
> Springs,
> about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio.
>
> Briseno got within a few days of his scheduled execution last April
> when the
> Court of Criminal Appeals stopped the punishment to look at the
> questions
> raised about the jury instructions.
>
> Briseno's attorney, Richard Burr, did not immediately respond to a
> message
> from The Associated Press.
>
> Briseno originally was scheduled to die in January 2009, but a state
> judge
> reset the date to April so a disabled friend from England could make
> arrangements to come to Texas and visit him on death row.
>
> In 2002, Burr argued Briseno was mentally impaired and ineligible
> for the
> death penalty under Supreme Court rules and won a reprieve for
> Briseno less
> than four hours before he could have been put to death.
>
> Murray, who had been sheriff for 20 years, had arrested Briseno in
> the past
> and authorities speculated the killing could have been out of
> revenge. At the
> time of the slaying, Briseno had been on parole almost a year.
>
> A visitor to the sheriff's home found his body the morning of Jan.
> 6, 1991.
> Murray had been shot with his own gun and a butcher knife was left
> buried in
> his chest. By that evening, Briseno and a companion, Albert
> Gonzales, were
> under arrest.
>
> Blood samples taken from the carpet at the sheriff's house matched
> Briseno's
> blood, and the sheriff's blood was found on Briseno's clothing.
>
> After his arrest, Briseno and two other inmates broke out of the
> Zavala County
> Jail in Crystal City and remained at large for a couple of days.
>
> Gonzales, who lived next door to the sheriff, received a life prison
> term.
> Briseno got the death penalty.
>
> / / / / /
> Steve Hall
> 512.879.1675 (o)
> 512.627.3011 (c)
> Skype: shall78711
> shall@standdown.org
> www.StandDown.org
>
>
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