The Supreme Court on Monday revived the claims of a Texas inmate who has the rare support of the state attorney’s office that put him on death row.
The judges threw out a Texas appeals court ruling that refused to grant inmate Areli Escobar a new trial. The state appeals court overturned a trial judge who documented flaws in the forensic evidence used to convict Escobar.
The high court’s action sends the case back to the appeals court.
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Escobar was convicted and sentenced to death in May 2009 for the fatal stabbing and sexual assault of Bianca Maldonado, a 17-year-old high school student in Austin. They lived in the same apartment complex.
The focus of the prosecution’s case against Escobar was evidence from the Austin Police Department’s DNA lab.
But a subsequent audit revealed problems at the lab that led Travis County District Court Judge David Wahlberg to conclude that Escobar’s trial was unfair.
“The State’s use of unreliable, false or misleading DNA evidence to secure (Escobar’s) conviction violated fundamental concepts of justice,” Wahlberg wrote.
The Supreme Court on Monday revived a case of a Texas inmate on death row who is seeking a new trial.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
When the case returned to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Travis County prosecutors were no longer defending the conviction. Voters had elected a new district attorney, José Garza, who ran on a promise to hold police accountable in Austin, the state capital and county seat.
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But the appeals court refused to agree, saying it had conducted its own review justifying upholding the conviction and sentence, and did not mention the change in the prosecution’s position. Even after Garza’s office said it no longer supported the conviction, the appeals court upheld its ruling.
In its Supreme Court filing, Garza’s office wrote that prosecutors have a duty to deliver justice and that the appeals court “undermines the historic role of the District Attorney in the criminal justice system.”
Unsurprisingly, Escobar’s lawyers agreed, telling the court that his case is so clear that judges could overturn the appeal ruling without hearing arguments.
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“If ever there was a case that required a summary revocation, it is this capital case. Denying the petition would be a serious judicial error,” they wrote.
