While Saldano remains pending in the Fifth Circuit,Collin County has also retried the punishment stages of two other death penalty cases reversed as a result of it. Both cases, Alba and Garcia, have already been affirmed on direct appeal and the state writs are pending. Apparently, Dr. Quijano's testimony--at least alone--did not compel the juries to return death sentences in any of the questioned cases.

Can we supplement the record in Saldano to point out to the 5th Circuit that any error (though not preserved for appellate review) was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and point out the retrials? Just kidding. I imagine that approach might irritate them.

John Bradley
District Attorney
Williamson County, Texas

For what it is worth, despite a new state attorney general and the subsequent replacement of the staff in the solicitor general's office, General Abbott has followed the lead of John Cornyn. The office's latest response (filed this week) to our appeal on intervention could have been written a year ago.

John, I take it the AG did not seek review of Judge Schell's decision by the 5th Circuit and that they are opposed to your seeking to do so? What a bad attitude.

Here is the latest 5th Circuit opinion on Saldano -- the DA is trumped by the AG.

John Bradley
District Attorney
Williamson County, Texas

quote:

---

The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, does not alone express the will of the State;. . . the Attorney General is the proper official to speak for the State. * * *
'[d]eference is due the states, as governmental units, not their courts, their executives, or their legislatures, save as these bodies represent the state itself.

---

Saldano and Dretke v. Roach ___ F.3d ___, fn. 12 (5th Cir. 2004)

Looks like we now know to whom Mr. Coleman was referring when he said his office would seek "clarification". Why did the Supreme Court refer the case back to the Court of Criminal Appeals if its decision was to be entitled to no deference by the all-powerful AG?

Yet again a jury returned a verdict requiring the trial judge to impose the death penalty. In the last hour, the jury did what two others in Collin County had already done in Garcia and Alba -- capital cases that fell with Saldano. Credit to Gail Leyko and Mary Scanlon, and not to forget Jeff Garon from appellate, for all their hard work.

[This message was edited by John Stride on 11-17-04 at .]

Alls well that ends well. (I guess) Sometimes the path to seeing that justice is done is a long one (and filled with hard work and dedication). You all deserve a few pats on the back!

As one of the prosecutors in this retrial, I definitely want to recognize and thank A.P. MERILLAT for his invaluable testimony. Of course, the jury loved him and he couldn't have been more accomodating to us. A truly honorable man.

And, today, the CCA affirmed the resentence of death for Saldano. Turns out he did not behave well while awaiting retrial on punishment but wanted to blame all that on the prosecutors. To read the opinion, click here.

Congratulations, again, to excellent work by the trial prosecutors and appellate team.

The SCOTUS denied cert on the Saldano case, taking yet another step in establishing that he got a fair trial and will be executed.

Did you read page 175 of the March 8 State Bar Journal yet? How about an award for the trial prosecutors who brought the evil man to justice, not once but twice!!!!! And let's not forget the victims and their families for whom justice has been delayed, and the waste of resources caused by a completely unnecessary confession of error.

JAS

[This message was edited by JAS on 03-04-08 at .]

Wow, did you know that Saldano's case "involved the conviction of an Argentine national, in part, because of his race"?!?

No, really. He wasn't just sentenced to death, he was found guilty because of his race. I read it in the Texas Bar Journal, so it must be true.

I also did NOT read anywhere in the article that Saldano had been resentenced to death in another hearing. Nor did I read anything about what he actually did. So neither of those things must have happened either.

Jury selection for the penalty phase of a retrial is set for April 1 of a man whose death sentence was overturned because an expert witness testified the defendant's ethnicity was one indicator that he was a future danger to society.

Michael Dean "Spider" Gonzales was convicted in 1995 of the April 21, 1994 slayings of Manuel Aguirre, 73, and his wife Merced, 65, during a break-in at their Odessa home.

He is among a half-dozen Texas death row inmates to receive a new punishment trial because of testimony by Walter Quijano, former chief psychologist for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In those cases, Quijano cited race and ethnicity as among several reasons a defendant was a future danger to society. A jury must decide if a convicted murderer is a future threat to impose the death sentence.

Details.