R.I.P. Jesse Hernandez

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

On March 28, 2012, Texas executed Jesse Hernandez for the beating death of 10-month old Karlos Borjas in 2001.

Hernandez' current lawyers tried to establish that his trial lawyers and initial post-conviction lawyers were grossly ineffective -- unfortunately a far from unique claim in Texas. 

Neither trial counsel nor habeas counsel developed evidence which would have supported a claim that Hernandez did not directly cause the child's death.  Hernandez did not dispute that he beat Karlos, who was taken to the hospital, placed in a medically-induced coma and died after taken off life support.  New evidence based on expert review of the medical records suggests, however, that the hospital gave the child a lethal dose of the drug pentobarbital and that he was removed from life support prematurely.   Because the claim of trial counsel's unreasonable failure to obtain this evidence was not raised in the first instance by post-conviction counsel, current counsel has been precluded from having the evidence heard.

This is the 12th execution in the United States in 2012, the fourth in Texas.