"Officer's killer gets 40 years in plea deal," is the title of Brian Rogers' report in today's Houston Chronicle.
Sergio Robles, a diagnosed schizophrenic with a lifetime of mental illness, had two words Thursday for the family of the Pasadena police officer he killed in an August 2009 shootout: "I'm sorry."
Amy Hamilton, Jesse Hamilton's widow and the mother of the couple's two young daughters, had something more emphatic to say to Robles: "I hope your life is so miserable that you look forward to death."
Amy Hamilton's words were read by her slain husband's brother, Chance Hamilton, after Robles pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence in a Houston courtroom Thursday.
Hamilton, 29, was killed after being shot in the head answering a mental health call from Robles' mother. Robles also was shot and carries the bullet lodged in his head.
The 26-year-old, who could have faced the death penalty, apologized while being sentenced by state District Judge Kevin Fine in a courtroom packed with more than 70 Pasadena officers. He will have to serve at least half of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
And:
The plea agreement was the result of two years of investigation and three mental evaluations to determine Robles' state of mind.
Two doctors said he was insane during the shooting and one said he was sane, a split that could have put dueling experts in front of jurors.
"The risk of going to trial was too great for either side," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Bill Hawkins. "It wasn't an easy decision for either side, but it was a fair decision for both sides."
A career prosecutor, Hawkins said he hopes Robles dies behind bars.
"On his medication, he's a safe person," he said. "Off of his medication, he's a time bomb."
Katherine Scardino, Robles' attorney, credited Hawkins with looking at years of medical records before deciding against seeking the death penalty for the intentional killing of a peace officer.
"In any death penalty-eligible case, prosecutors want to look at mitigating evidence," Scardino said. "It this case, you have strong mitigation evidence, including mental health records indicating a severe mental disability for many years."
She said Thursday's plea was a just result.
Related posts are in the mental illness and mitigation indexes.
This is a good time to post out Colleen McCain Nelson's post, "Meet 'The Mitigator'," at the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog.
The current issue of The New Yorker features a lengthy profile of Danalynn Recer, a Houston lawyer credited with helping to stem the tide of death penalty cases in Harris County. While Harris County once eclipsed other Texas counties -- and every other state for that matter -- with its steady stream of death penalty cases, the number has dropped significantly in recent years.
Only two people were sent to death row in Harris County in 2010. Prosecutors and juries in capital cases now are opting to impose a sentence of life without parole more frequently. In The New Yorker , writer Jeffrey Toobin suggests that Recer, a mitigation strategist, has played a role in the decline of death sentences.
Recer, the executive director of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, seeks to tell a defendant's life story, laying out mitigating factors that might convince a jury to lock someone up instead of sentencing him to death. As 'the mitigator,' Recer is not dealing with questions of guilt or innocence, but she's looking at what in a defendant's background might have led that person to commit this crime. Is he mentally ill? Was he abused growing up? Does he have a criminal record, or was this a single, irrational act? Recer tries to humanize the defendant and show the jury that this is a person with redeeming qualities -- not just a one-dimensional monster.
And:
She not only has had success in court, convincing juries to opt for life sentences, but she also has taken the bold step of providing prosecutors with mitigation evidence before a case ever goes to trial. As a result, the DA's office sometimes has chosen to pursue life without parole instead of a death sentence. As Recer says in the article, "The best way to avoid the death penalty is never to have it charged in the first place."
Recer and a couple other attorneys met with members of our editorial board this week. Together, they painted a disquieting picture of the Texas' approach to criminal justice over the years.
Jeffrey Toobin's New Yorker profile is noted at the link.
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