The Austin American-Statesman reports, "Cop killer loses appeal." The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, in Adobe .pdf format, is here.
A man convicted and sentenced to death for killing an Austin police officer during a routine traffic stop 30 years ago will not get a fourth trial, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
The decision, issued Wednesday, paves the way for the execution of David Lee Powell, who fatally shot officer Ralph Ablanedo, a father of two young children who was working an overnight patrol shift in South Austin.
Attorneys for Powell, who is the sixth-longest-serving inmate on Texas' death row, have said he was high on drugs during the May 1978 shooting and is no longer dangerous.
Powell could still ask the court for a rarely granted rehearing or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which accepts a fraction of such cases. Either way, he is running out of opportunities to avoid execution.
And:
Powell was found guilty and sentenced to death soon after the shooting in the 900 block of Live Oak Street in South Austin. According to court documents, he shot Ablanedo 10 times with an AK-47 during a traffic stop before trying to kill other officers as they closed in on him.
Powell appealed his conviction, saying that he had talked to a psychiatrist without being warned of his rights, and got a new trial in 1991. Powell also appealed that guilty verdict and, after he said he had been improperly sentenced, was given a new sentencing trial in 1999. He was again given the death penalty.
Powell's lawyers appealed that decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
During the June hearing, they argued that Powell should have gotten a complete new third trial — not just one that determined whether he should be executed — and that his rights were violated when statements he made to an emergency room doctor were used in court.
The attorneys also said that prosecutors did not disclose information in a timely manner that could have helped Powell's defense, including documents from the parole file of Powell's girlfriend, Sheila Meinert. They said the records showed Meinert, who was driving the car Powell was in, fired shots at Ablanedo and that she had thrown a grenade at officers.
Meinert was later found guilty of being a party to attempted capital murder. She served four years of a 15-year sentence.
In its opinion, the 5th Circuit Court said some of the arguments were "complicated and confusing."
Earlier coverage is here.
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