Texas’ highest criminal court tosses death sentence of Raymond Riles, state’s longest-serving death row inmate
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Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune
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Raymond Riles has been on Texas’ death row longer than anyone else, first sent there in 1976. Despite several execution dates being set, he has repeatedly been deemed mentally incompetent to be put to death, instead lingering on the row and the prison’s psychiatric units for more than 45 years. At one point, he set himself on fire and was hospitalized for months.
Raymond Riles was first sentenced to death in 1976, the year the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune
Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Raymond Riles has been on Texasâ death row longer than anyone else, first sent there in 1976. Despite several execution dates being set, he has repeatedly been deemed mentally incompetent to be put to death, instead lingering on the row and the prisonâs psychiatric units for more than 45 years. At one point, he set himself on fire and was hospitalized for months.
Court tosses death sentence of Texas longest-serving death row inmate
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April 14 (UPI) Raymond Riles has been on Texas death row longer than anyone else, first sent there in 1976. Despite several execution dates being set, he has repeatedly been deemed mentally incompetent to be put to death, instead lingering on the row and the prison s psychiatric units for more than 45 years. At one point, he set himself on fire and was hospitalized for months.
On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed his death sentence.
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The state court sent his case back to Harris County to again determine his punishment because the jury wasn t instructed to weigh his mental illness when deciding between a punishment of life in prison or death. The Harris County District Attorney s Office, which supported tossing the sentence, did not immediately respond to questions Wednesday as to whether the office would again seek the death penalty. His conviction of capital murd
Texas longest-serving death row inmate could get new shot at fair punishment
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Raymond RilesTexas DOCJ
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has asked Texas’ highest-ranking criminal judges to consider a new punishment for Raymond George Riles the state’s longest-serving inmate awaiting execution following the 1974 murder of a Houston man.
The former trucker, now 70, has been locked up for more than 40 years. But for decades, Riles convicted in 1976 of capital murder has been considered mentally ill and incompetent for execution and no date has recently been set. His lawyers and prosecutors now agree that the Court of Criminal Appeals should let Riles have a second chance at a punishment hearing.
Texas Death Sentences, Executions Drop to Historic Lows By Capital Tonight Staff Texas PUBLISHED 7:00 PM CT Dec. 16, 2020 PUBLISHED December 16, 2020 @7:00 PM
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AUSTIN, Texas The number of death sentences and executions in Texas dropped to historic lows this year as the pandemic ground most court proceedings to a halt.
The state executed three people this year, with two of those taking place before pandemic restrictions started. Juries handed out only two death sentences before March. That s the lowest number since the state began allowing capital punishment again in 1974, according to a new report from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.