Texas Execution Scheduled for Thursday

Texas is set to carry out its 12th execution of 2013, Thursday night.  It would be the 504th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982. Texas is responsible for more than 37% of the nation's  post-Furman executions.

"The Texas death chamber gets back into gear," is by Jordan Smith of the Austin Chronicle.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and its HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), Thursday evening.

Texas' death chamber will gear up to take the first of five lives before the end of 2013 with the execution of Robert Garza, scheduled for Sept. 19. Garza was convicted and sentenced to die as a party to the gang killing of four women in the Rio Grande Valley.

According to court records, Garza, a member of the Tri-City Bombers gang, allegedly rode with two others to carry out a hit on a group of women that was supposed to include two who'd previously testified against another TCB member serving time in prison for attempted murder. However, the group targeted the wrong group of women, and on Sept. 5, 2002, the botched hit claimed the lives of four innocent women just outside the town of Donna: Maria De La Luz Bazaldua Cobarubias, Danitzene Lizeth Vasquez Beltran, Celina Linares Sanchez, and Lourdes Yesenia Araujo Torres died in a hail of more than 60 bullets fired at a car in which they were riding home after a night spent working at a local bar. Two other women survived the attack.

And:

Among the issues raised on appeal were that Garza's lawyers were ineffective, not only for failing to protest that Garza's self-incriminating statements to police were obtained illegally, but also for failing to present any evidence that might mitigate his sentence. Indeed, there was plenty of information to be had: Garza grew up in a violent household and was virtually abandoned by each of his parents, among other allegations raised in his writ of habeas corpus.

Each of Garza's points of appeal were contested by the state and ultimately denied in both state and federal courts. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his case.

To date there have been 24 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,344 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, seven additional executions have been scheduled by Texas state district courts, including two in 2014.

More on the Texas Law of Parties is available through the category index.