jennifer ertman autopsy photos
Cantu asserts that the Due Process Clause (claim one), the Eighth Amendment protection against Cruel and Unusual Punishment (claim two), and the Sixth Amendment's Compulsory Process Clause (claim three) required Texas to inform its capital juries about the operation of Texas' parole law. While Cantu mentions several constitutional bases for these claims, he does not elaborate on each constitutional theory. Does it justify it? The police, previously unable to find the young girls, used that information to find their bodies. See Howell v. Mississippi, 543 U.S. 440, 445 (2005) (finding that similar reasoning by the Mississippi Supreme Court "finds some support in [Supreme Court] cases"); Hopkins v. Reeves, 524 U.S. 88, 98-99 (1998) (distinguishing Beck from those cases where the jury "did not have to consider the dilemma faced by Beck's jury; its alternative to death was not setting respondent free, but rather sentencing him to life imprisonment"); Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 646 (1991) ("Our fundamental concern in Beck was that a jury . Clerk's Record at 278. 2 at 30.) 21 at 320-21, Vol. While were at it maybe some pads for Jorge Sr. for his meets with Bubba. PROC. See 28 U.S.C. CRIM. 1996) (quotation omitted). "[I]t is not enough that an item of evidence viewed alone and unweighed against all the evidence supports" a lesser-included-offense instruction. 24 at 860. The rapes and murders of Jennifer Lee Ertman and Elizabeth Christine Pea, two teenage girls from Houston, Texas, aged 14 and 16, respectively, occurred on June 24, 1993.The murder of the two girls made headlines in Texas newspapers due to the nature of the crime and the new law resulting from the murder that allows families of the victims to Very well done. Turns out the friend I was with was a serial rapist. This Court, therefore, applies general summary judgment standards only insofar as they do not conflict with the language and intent of the AEDPA. Vol. 21 at 223-24. In ordinary civil cases, a district court considering a motion for summary judgment must construe disputed facts in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party. The trial court did not allow any voir dire discussion of potential parole eligibility. 2254(d)(1). Did one of the culprits confess with that much detail? 2001)); see also Jackson v. Dretke, 181 F. App'x 400, 412 (5th Cir. at 825. Well said, I can't bear the bleeding heart arguments for rehabilitation or any of that crap. The whole purpose of punishing these people should be to make them suffer. Structural Error in Texas' Mitigation Special Issue. United States v. Branch, 91 F.3d 699, 713 (5th Cir. "In order to ensure `reliability in the determination that death is the appropriate punishment in a specific case,'" Penry I held that "the jury must be able to consider and give effect to any mitigating evidence relevant to a defendant's background and character or the circumstances of the crime." Cantu additionally complains that, because other capital inmates including some of his co-perpetrators have had trials wherein the jury received information about parole eligibility, various constitutional theories including the Equal Protection Clause entitled him to that information also (claims four through six). Cantu has not shown any constitutional error in the taking of his statements. WebJennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena, ages 14 and 15, were walking home from a party, taking a shortcut to make it home by their 11 p.m. curfew on June 24, 1993. Nearby, Mary had just rented a new house but the problem was that dang alarm. Cantu has not yet requested that this Court grant him a Certificate of Appealability ("COA"), though this Court can consider the issue sua sponte. Trial counsel sought a favorable answer to the future dangerousness special issue by showing that: (1) Cantu would not be dangerous while incarcerated; (2) with the passage of time he would mature and become less violent; and (3) when he became eligible for parole after 35 years he would not pose a threat to society. As the others described the rapes, Cantu "is just agreeing with them" with "a grin on his face." She was then forced to remove her underwear. Marsh, 548 U.S. at 174. In Penry v. Johnson, 532 U.S. 782, 804 (2001) (" Penry II"), the Supreme Court found that the supplemental mitigating instructions given before 1991 amounted to an "ineffective and illogical" mechanism for giving effect to mitigating evidence. 2253(c)(2); see also Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000). The state habeas court concluded that the allegedly inflammatory statements were not made in error because they "properly summarized the evidence of the circumstances of the offense, made a reasonable inference that the jury would likely never forget those images, and properly presented a plea for law enforcement by urging the jury to `think about the two children in here that all you got left of them is right here.'" Tr. CODE CRIM. Vol. There's no mitigation you could provide that will ever make me believe anyone who is fit to breathe clean air could or would commits this crime. Cantu's motion alleged that his statements were not voluntary because they were "the result of the promises and other coercive actions of law enforcement officers," taken without proper warnings or an adequate arrest warrant, and after Cantu exerted his right to remain silent. Cantu, who had been taking Venancio Medellin home, then returned and distributed money and jewelry he stole from the girls. 512 U.S. at 168. I do agree with the father though that it wasn't nearly painful or drawn out enough. Cantu raises two claims related to the jury's consideration of his mitigation defense. Clerk's Record at 286 ("During your deliberations, you are not to consider or discuss any possible action of the Board of Pardons and Paroles division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or of the Governor, or how long the defendant would be required to serve to satisfy a sentence of life imprisonment."). Woods v. Johnson, 75 F.3d 1017, 1037 (5th Cir. Medelln gave both written and taped confessions. 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. The Supreme Court's subsequent decision in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), prohibited executions for crimes committed prior to a defendant's 18th birthday. Cantu, like his co-defendant, offers no persuasive showing that constitutional error crept into the jury instructions or somehow prevented consideration of his mitigation evidence. Cantu alleges that the prosecutors comments were unconstitutional because "the prosecuting attorney made reference to the photographs in his closing only to emphasize the horror of death and decay[.]" 2006); Thacker, 396 F.3d at 617; Rudd, 256 F.3d at 320-21; and the Equal Protection Clause, Tigner, 264 F.3d at 525-26; Collier, 300 F.3d at 585-86; Green v. Johnson, 160 F.3d 1029, 1044 (5th Cir. Joe Cantu asked the group, who was giggling and laughing, what happened. Still, the Court's task is not to substitute its judgment for that of the Texas state courts. The police were sent to the scene and searched the park without finding anything. 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 . While flesh remained elsewhere, no skin remained on either girl's skull by the time the police recovered the bodies. 21 at 294. After a separate punishment hearing, the jury answered Texas' special issue questions in a manner requiring the imposition of a death sentence. See Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 211 (1987) ("[J]uries are presumed to follow their instructions[.]"). 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. Maybe other people can email to other hosts as well. He raped Jennifer and was later sentenced to 40 years for aggravated sexual assault, which was the maximum sentence for a juvenile. 21 at 116-11. In Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302 (1989) ( "Penry I"), the Supreme Court found that some elements of that defendant's mental retardation and child abuse evidence evaded the jury's specific inquiry under the special issues, particularly when that evidence (1) had a mitigating thrust that went beyond the deliberateness question and (2) became a "two-edged sword because the future dangerousness question only gave it aggravating effect." The break in solving the case came from, of course, the 911 call. 1997). The families of both Ertman and Pea strongly favored the execution(s). You are right about Bush, however I believe further that we have been duped by the GOP. The next morning, the girls parents began to frantically look for them, paging them on their pagers, calling their friends to see if they knew where they were, to no avail. Its only task is to determine whether the petitioner meets the extremely stringent standards for federal habeas corpus relief. 2000); Hughes v. Johnson, 191 F.3d 607, 617 (5th Cir. Id. R. EVID. Cantu himself stated: "The bitch wouldn't die so I stomped on her neck." At trial, Officer Swainson testified that, "[b]ased on the statements that [they] had obtained, it appeared as if maybe there was a possibility [Cantu] didn't reveal his total involvement." 2 at 12.) Vol. . Congress, through the AEDPA, has constricted both the nature and availability of habeas review. Tex. The murder of the two girls made headlines in Texas newspapers due to the nature of the crime and the new law resulting from the murder that allows families of the victims to view the 2002); Rudd v. Johnson, 256 F.3d 317, 320 (5th Cir. refuse a lesser-included offense instruction `if the jury could rationally acquit on the capital crime and convict for the noncapital crime. 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. 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. Although better practice would have been to strike the prosecutor's comment, federal precedent shows that it did not violate Cantu's constitutional rights. Medellin was 14 at the time of the killings and has served 27 years of his 40-year sentence, the maximum punishment allowed for a juvenile. Two brothers who had been with them but testified that they were not in the gang left first and passed Jenny and Elizabeth, who were unknowingly walking towards their deaths. 24 at 868-69, 902, 920-21. This action comes before the Court on Respondent Nathaniel Quarterman's answer and motion for summary judgment. 12.) The prosecution supported this testimony with photographs (SX 48, 50-57) and a videotape (SX 49) depicting the crime scene and the victims' bodies. The trial court initially prevented the defense only from claiming that "if [Cantu] receives a life sentence he will spend the rest of his life in prison and never be released on parole." The Payne Court explicitly stated that the "State has a legitimate interest in counteracting the mitigating evidence which the defendant is entitled to put in, by reminding the sentencer that just as the murderer should be considered as an individual, so too the victim is an individual whose death represents a unique loss to society and in particular to this family." A review of relevant due process protections informs this Court's review of whether trial counsel should have made a trial objection on that basis. See, e.g, Brewer v. Quarterman, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S. Ct. 1706, 1713-14 (2007); Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S. Ct. 1654, 1664-75 (2007); Nelson v. Quarterman, 472 F.3d 287, 292-314 (5th Cir. Umeken t tr s ti Osaka v hai nh my ti Toyama trung tm ca ngnh cng nghip dc phm. Respondent has filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that Cantu's claims do not merit federal habeas corpus relief. Ries v. Quarterman, 522 F.3d 517, 530 (5th Cir. Before trial, Cantu wanted to discuss Texas parole law with potential jurors. 2 at 13.) Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun". It is not likely that, having denied Cantu's objection under the Texas more-probative-than-prejudicial standard, the trial court would find that the challenged material rendered the trial fundamentally unfair under the Due Process Clause. at 272-73. 28 at 787 (emphasis added). 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