Those of you who read the preceeding post know by now that WE WON!!! Following a change of venue to Montgomery Co., we had a two week competency trial in April and a four week punishment trial commencing in June and concluding July 3rd (we called nearly 45 witnesses). Six juries have now rejected Penry's claims and in this trial the judge and the jury specifically found that Penry was NOT mentally retarded. I'm proud to have been a part of this effort but our success was absolutely dependent upon the contributions of many others, some of whom I would like to publically acknowledge here:

The Moseley and Carpenter families who've been there since the beginning of this ordeal and were so supportive of us throughout;

Gina Bunn and Ed Marshall with the Capital Litigation Division of the A.G.'s office;

Chuck Rosenthal and his staff in Harris Co.;

Bill Turner and his staff in Brazos Co.;

Mike McDougal and his staff at the Montgomery Co. D.A.'s office;

David Walker and his staff at the Montgomery Co. County Attorney's office;

Montgomery Co. District Judges Fred Edwards and Suzanne Stovall plus a whole host of other good people at the Montgomery Co. Courthouse who were so kind to us and put up with us for over 3 months;

Montgomery Co. Sheriff Guy Williams and his staff;

Employees and officers at the TDCJ Ellis and Polunsky Units who were so helpful and cooperative;

Cynthia Milne and others in the TDCJ-ID general counsel's office;

Dan Glotzer and others in Governor Rick Perry's office who helped us in procuring our grant;

Our testifying experts: Dr. Roger Saunders of Conroe, Dr. Ed Gripon from Beaumont, Dr. Gary Mears at UT-Tyler, and Dr. Bill Walker of Austin;

A.P. Merillot, who testified on future dangerousness;

Maj. Austin McComb of the Estelle High Security Unit who did a great job testifying about the new classification system and other TDCJ policy and security matters;

All of our lay witnesses (many from TDCJ-ID, DPS and local law enforcement);

All the other prosecutors around the state and around the country (specifically those in California, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Florida) who helped us get information regarding the defense experts; and last, but certainly not least;

Our JURY! These people were great and I cannot say enough kind things about the people of Montgomery County.

I'd also be remiss if I failed to mention the rest of our prosecution team: Trinity Co. D.A. Joe Price, my boss--Polk Co. D.A. John Holleman, Trinity Co. Investigator Ron Dunnahoe, and my investigator Bill Willis. How we made it through this I'll never know, but we did, we won, and we're all still friends!

I'm sure I've left out many names and I hope those folks will forgive me and please understand that I'm kind of tuckered out at this point, but I'm smiling.

Thanks everyone!!!!
Lee Hon
Asst. Criminal D.A.
Polk County