Texas Seven prison escapee’s conviction, death sentence should be tossed, judge says

Texas Seven prison escapee Randy Halprin’s conviction and death sentence should be thrown out because the judge in his 2003 capital murder trial harbored anti-Semitic views, a state district judge recommended Monday. Judge Lela Mays’ recommendation comes about three years after the state’s highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, halted Halprin’s scheduled execution and asked Mays to review the case. Halprin, who is Jewish, has argued he didn’t receive a fair trial because former State District Judge Vickers Cunningham was prejudiced against him. The state’s Court of Criminal Appeals will make the final decision. There is no timetable for the high court to rule.

Halprin is one of seven inmates, known as the Texas Seven, who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy in December 2000 and fatally shot Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins during a robbery that Christmas Eve. All members of the Texas Seven were later convicted and sentenced to death except for Larry Harper, who killed himself before being captured. Four were executed. Only Patrick Murphy remains on death row with Halprin. Halprin has denied being one of the men who shot Hawkins. Before escaping prison in 2000, he was serving a 30-year sentence for beating a child in Tarrant County. Mays has previously suggested Halprin get a new trial, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled it needed to hear more evidence before a final decision. Tarrant County prosecutors are handling Halprin’s appeal after Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot recused his office because Cunningham’s daughter works for him. Following a three-day hearing in August to determine whether Cunningham was prejudiced, District Attorney Sharen Wilson and prosecutor Anne Grady also agreed Halprin’s right to a fair trial was violated.