HOUSTON (AP) — Two convicted killers have won reversals of their death sentences and a third inmate has narrowly lost an appeal.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that punishment testimony from a prison expert was wrong at the 2008 Cameron County trial of Manuel Velez. Velez was convicted of killing a year-old boy.
In the second case, the court unanimously agreed Guy Alexander should get a new punishment hearing because jurors had no way in 1989 to properly consider evidence of his physical abnormalities and limited intellectual ability. He was convicted of killing a 75-year-old Houston woman during a robbery.
And the court has affirmed the death sentence for Arthur Lee Williams for killing a Houston police officer despite his attorney's acknowledgement that he was deficient at Williams' trial.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.