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Post by bryan on Sept 15, 2005 16:19:04 GMT -6
LIVINGSTON, Texas -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday stopped the scheduled execution next week of convicted killer Michael Riley so a hearing can be held on claims that he's mentally retarded. Riley, 47, was set for lethal injection Sept. 22 for the robbery and fatal stabbing of a convenience store clerk in Wood County in far northeast Texas more than 19 years ago. The U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of mentally retarded people. The appeals court order asks the trial court in Wood County to conduct an evidentiary hearing to investigate the claims filed by Riley's lawyer. Riley was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 but the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1991 overturned the conviction because a potential juror was dismissed improperly. He was tried again in 1995, pleading guilty to the slaying of Wynona Harris, a clerk at a store in Quitman. His lawyers urged jurors to sentence him to life but prosecutors won a death sentence again. At his first trial, Riley's lawyer submitted into evidence a 1973 evaluation from the Terrell State Hospital where Riley, then a teenager, was found to have an IQ of 67. An IQ of 70 is considered the threshold for mental retardation. Riley, who did construction work, blamed the loss of money at a dice game for his February 1986 attack on Harris, 23. She was stabbed 23 times and robbed of $970 she was counting as he walked by. He turned himself in to police a few hours after the slaying. "I have no hate," he told The Associated Press last week from death row outside Livingston. "I was wrong for what I did.... I'm going to die by execution or die by life sentence. If a choice, I'd take execution. Here, it gets kind of old. "I wouldn't want a life sentence but you just have to deal with it." When arrested for the Harris killing, Riley was on probation for forgery and for writing a bad check. He had a nine-year prison term in 1980 for burglary but was paroled three years later. He had an earlier prison stint for burglary, plus arrests and jail time in Wood County for burglary, public intoxication, assault and theft. Texas has executed 13 convicted killers this year, including Frances Newton, whose lethal injection Wednesday for the slayings of her husband and two young children 18 years ago made her only the third woman executed in the state since capital punishment resumed in Texas in 1982. Three Texas inmates have execution dates in October. Another six are scheduled to die in November. www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3856735www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=1160www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/deathrow/drowlist/riley.jpg
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Post by Tozzie on Sept 15, 2005 23:54:28 GMT -6
LIVINGSTON, Texas -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday stopped the scheduled execution next week of convicted killer Michael Riley so a hearing can be held on claims that he's mentally retarded. Seems this is latest EXCUSE for committing a vicious murder
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2005 6:29:07 GMT -6
He freely admits he was wrong so clearly he can take responsibility for his crime. He wants to die also. Whos filing these appeals if he says he'd rather be executed than face life sentence?
This case has dragged on so badly for the murder victims family. And now another stay? Will justice ever reach these needy people?
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Post by Felix2 on Sept 16, 2005 9:12:35 GMT -6
He freely admits he was wrong so clearly he can take responsibility for his crime. He wants to die also. Whos filing these appeals if he says he'd rather be executed than face life sentence? This case has dragged on so badly for the murder victims family. And now another stay? Will justice ever reach these needy people? Perhaps you "needy people" need to stop linking their justice to Rileys demise? Just a helpful suggestion!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2005 10:11:21 GMT -6
Without Rileys demise there would be no justice. Every morsel of food and cubic millimetre or air he consumes could have been breathed or eaten by someone worth of the gift of life, say for example, Wynona Harris.
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Post by jeffries on Sept 20, 2005 16:18:00 GMT -6
Inmate's with 90 + IQ's are filing mental retardation claims and it's absolutely ridiculous. Riley is not retarded. If you want to know what can stop an inmate from proceeding with an execution that he wants to go through this is it
1.)Either the lawyer will file an appeal against the inmate's wish 2.)Riley's family members can file a "next friend" petition on his behalf for the courts to stop the execution (that's if his appeals weren't completed yet) 3.)An inmate may be deemed mentally incompetent and not sane enough to know what he is doing in voluntarily dropping appeals volunteering for execution (sounds stupid but it's true)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2005 17:27:16 GMT -6
Agreed! Atkins is one of the stupidest decisions the SC ever made, not only for its foolish Eurolove basis, ie, "we're not barbaric enouugh to execute retards, pat us on the back please, Eurotr*sh", but also because it has bogged down the system with endless frivolous retardation claims, ie Riley's case.
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Post by jeffries on Sept 21, 2005 17:35:07 GMT -6
Agreed! Atkins is one of the stupidest decisions the SC ever made, not only for its foolish Eurolove basis, ie, "we're not barbaric enouugh to execute retards, pat us on the back please, Eurotr*sh", but also because it has bogged down the system with endless frivolous retardation claims, ie Riley's case. right on the money my friend. That's why I stand fully behind Justices Like Scalia,Thomas and the no longer serving Rehnquist because they voted YES to executing the mentally retarded and juveniles... Simply put, it's not like mentally retarded individuals cannot control there own actions or don't know killing is wrong. Whether your retarded or not, you have a brain and you can control your own destiny. Obviously if a Retard knows how to load a gun and use it, they know murdering someone is wrong as well... Duh, they have brains..
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Post by Elric of Melnibone on Sept 22, 2005 7:26:34 GMT -6
The ironic thing is that Virginia has ruled that Atkins is not retarded or mental...
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