A Matter Of Life And Death

Obel Cruz-Garcia, a 46-year-old Dominican guy who didn’t talk English, sat in a Houston court docket on a Friday in July 2013. He confronted a jury that may come to a decision whether or not to condemn him to loss of life for the ugly killing of 6-year-old Angelo Garcia — against the law he has maintained he didn’t devote. His existence, rather actually, depended at the end result of the case.

Like the general public who finally end up on loss of life row, Cruz-Garcia may now not come up with the money for to rent a legal professional for the resource-intensive means of a capital trial, and Harris County, Texas, doesn’t be offering public defenders in loss of life penalty instances. Instead, he used to be appointed a personal protection legal professional named R.P. “Skip” Cornelius, who made a dwelling billing the county to constitute greater than 100 indigent shoppers a yr. Cornelius used to be paid a flat commission to constitute Cruz-Garcia, without reference to how a lot time he spent running at the case.

The state’s case towards Cruz-Garcia had vital holes. It relied virtually solely on witnesses with converting tales, and on shaky DNA proof that, at maximum, attached Cruz-Garcia to the scene of the crime however now not the crime itself. Even if the state may persuade jurors of Cruz-Garcia’s guilt, there used to be a lot of proof that he used to be now not the “worst-of-the-worst” felony — the type of particular person the loss of life penalty is supposedly reserved for.

But Cornelius used to be not able to influence jurors that Cruz-Garcia used to be blameless and even deserved to not be done. The first time a member of his felony staff visited Cruz-Garcia in prison used to be in May 2012, greater than 8 months after Cornelius used to be appointed to the case. Cornelius best visited his consumer in prison two times. He declined to rent a DNA skilled to testify at trial, in spite of how pivotal that proof used to be to the state’s case. He additionally ignored key alternatives to discredit the state’s witnesses, in keeping with legal professionals now managing Cruz-Garcia’s attraction. After his consumer used to be convicted, Cornelius discovered simply 3 witnesses who knew Cruz-Garcia to inform jurors why he deserved to are living. A fourth protection witness, who knew Cruz-Garcia from prison, heard concerning the trial and confirmed up on his personal to assist his pal.

Throughout Cruz-Garcia’s seven-week trial, Cornelius billed Harris County greater than $33,000 for paintings on different instances — just about the bottom flat charge presented to protection legal professionals for his or her paintings on a complete loss of life penalty case on the time. Cornelius “failed to perform basic tasks necessary for a competent representation,” Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote final yr in a 255-page petition for writ of habeas corpus, asking a federal courtroom to vacate his loss of life sentence.

The jury reached its verdict after at some point of deliberations: Cruz-Garcia used to be sentenced to loss of life.

Cornelius again and again blamed Cruz-Garcia for the result, claiming he didn’t do sufficient to help in his personal protection. “He refused to give us any understanding of the facts,” Cornelius wrote in an e-mail to HuffPost. “In 50 years I have never had that happen before or after.”

Cornelius is pleased with his file protecting indigent shoppers, he stated in an interview. He doesn’t know the way many loss of life penalty instances he has labored on, however in 38 years of loss of life penalty litigation, he’s had 10 shoppers despatched to loss of life row, he stated. He believes that his many years of enjoy, willingness to paintings lengthy hours, and the help of his spouse, who could also be a legal professional, have enabled him to control his heavy caseload. He firmly rejected the concept that he used to be ever stretched too skinny. Cornelius, who has been approved to apply regulation in Texas since 1972, has no public disciplinary history.

Sixty years in the past, the Supreme Court ruled that any one accused of a legal had a assured proper to a legal professional, even supposing they may now not come up with the money for to rent one. But with public protection ceaselessly underfunded, there is not any ensure that your legal professional could have sufficient time to commit for your case. And in Harris County, which has executed more people than another county within the U.S., the indigent protection gadget has made it exceedingly most probably that deficient other folks dealing with the loss of life penalty will obtain shoddy illustration.

The somewhat new Harris County Public Defender’s Office isn’t funded to deal with loss of life penalty instances. Instead, the pass judgement on in a given case will appoint protection recommend from a cadre of personal legal professionals.

Defense legal professionals vying for indigent appointments continuously donate to trial judges’ election campaigns, making a gadget that felony students have described as “judicial pay to play.” Those judges most often come to a decision whether or not to grant legal professionals’ requests to rent investigators and mavens.

At the time of Cruz-Garcia’s arrest, appointed protection legal professionals may choose to obtain a flat commission for every loss of life penalty case, reasonably than billing hourly. This incentivized a prime caseload over efficient illustration — extra instances, now not extra felony paintings in line with se, used to be the right way to maximize source of revenue. This setup additionally benefited judges, who continuously ran for reelection touting the choice of instances they cleared all the way through their earlier time period. And as it’s politically advisable for judges to stay their dockets shifting temporarily, there used to be an unstated working out that legal professionals who asked further sources risked falling out of style with judges and dropping out on long term appointments.

Today, legal professionals on capital instances are paid hourly, even though the removing of the flat-fee choice has now not stopped some private lawyers from taking caseloads that exceed state and federal guidelines, in keeping with the Texas Indigent Defense Commission’s caseload dashboard. Although there are non-public legal professionals who supply superb felony illustration to their indigent shoppers, some use the indigent protection gadget as a money cow, temporarily churning thru instances and dedicating minimum consideration to every consumer.

A HuffPost investigation in line with interviews with Cruz-Garcia, his present legal professionals, Cornelius, Harris County public officers and a couple of capital protection legal professionals, in addition to hundreds of pages of courtroom information and an research of marketing campaign finance information and public caseload reviews, suggests that after accused, Cruz-Garcia by no means had an even probability of staying off of loss of life row.

Since his 2013 conviction, Cruz-Garcia has been represented through a number of legal professionals as he’s labored his manner in the course of the appeals procedure and habeas lawsuits — the mechanism wherein a person can problem the legality in their imprisonment. These legal professionals have accrued hundreds of pages of skilled reviews, public information and affidavits from members of the family, buddies and co-workers. Much of the information in those paperwork used to be to be had at trial. Together, they provide an excessively other tale than the only jurors heard. Although they don’t definitively end up Cruz-Garcia’s innocence, they forged severe doubt on his guilt.

Cruz-Garcia’s case isn’t a horrific anomaly. Rather, it’s an instance of ways Harris County, the execution capital of the U.S., constructed a gadget to disclaim deficient other folks dealing with the loss of life penalty an even shot at trial — and has steadfastly resisted reform.

Because Cruz-Garcia remains to be in search of assessment of his case in federal courtroom, his legal professionals, whom the Texas Department of Criminal Justice does now not permit to wait media interviews, recommended him now not to reply to any questions concerning the crime. I agreed to an interview underneath those stipulations as a result of this tale isn’t an effort to end up his innocence. I used to be basically enthusiastic about finding out about his courtroom battle and whether or not he felt Cornelius had executed the entirety he may to avoid wasting his existence. Scheduling a discuss with used to be a problem since the TDCJ best lets in media interviews on the Polunsky Unit, the place males on loss of life row are imprisoned, on Wednesdays. The state’s final 4 executions of 2022 have been on a Wednesday, and the TDCJ doesn’t permit each at the identical day.

The males on loss of life row spend maximum in their lives in solitary confinement, which is identified through the United Nations as a type of torture, as they trudge thru an appeals procedure designed to uphold loss of life sentences in maximum instances. Cruz-Garcia is so remoted that in spite of being on Texas’ loss of life row for almost a decade, he has been not able to be informed English, and so we communicated thru an interpreter.

When I arrived at Polunsky in November, Cruz-Garcia sat in a small cage provided with a telephone he used to be in contact thru a thick pane of glass. Although the elements that day used to be delightful, the temperature throughout the reformatory used to be frigid. Cruz-Garcia wore a white turtleneck underneath his prison-issued smock with the letters “DR” stamped on his again. He assists in keeping his garments impeccably white through hand-washing them in his mobile. Now 55 years outdated, he has a salt-and-pepper goatee that frames a very simple smile.

For a person dwelling underneath the gradual, lingering risk of execution for against the law he says he didn’t devote, Cruz-Garcia gave the impression remarkably at peace along with his instances. He spoke matter-of-factly concerning the enjoy of going thru a loss of life penalty trial with what he stated used to be minimum felony help, however didn’t appear envious towards Cornelius. He even has a nickname for his outdated legal professional: “Súper Abogado,” or tremendous legal professional, a joking connection with the choice of instances Cornelius juggled at a time.

Deeply spiritual, Cruz-Garcia speaks with the lightness of somebody who has absolutely surrendered keep watch over of his destiny.

Perhaps this is a coping mechanism, however he insists he isn’t lonely: “God’s with me.”

He doesn’t concern loss of life: “I know, for myself, I’m going to go to God someday.”

But he hasn’t given up: “I still feel like it’s going to work out.”

In the autumn of 1992, Diana Garcia and her spouse, Arturo Rodriguez, instructed police that two masked males had damaged into their condominium, overwhelmed Rodriguez, raped Garcia and abducted her 6-year-old son Angelo. Garcia (who isn’t associated with Cruz-Garcia) ultimately admitted to police that she and her spouse offered medicine. They stated Cruz-Garcia used to be their drug provider however they didn’t determine him as one of the most intruders.

Law enforcement processed a sexual attack proof package, a chopping from Garcia’s undies and a cigar from the condominium. They saved the proof on the Houston Police Department’s crime lab. A frame present in a dust flat a few month later used to be recognized thru dental information as Angelo. But police may now not determine the culprit or find Cruz-Garcia and the case went chilly.

Shortly after Angelo disappeared, Cruz-Garcia returned to Puerto Rico, the place he had lived sooner than coming to Houston. He traveled from side to side between Puerto Rico and his house nation, the Dominican Republic. In 2001, he used to be arrested for kidnapping two other folks in Puerto Rico and sentenced to 16 years in reformatory.

“My life was a disaster,” Cruz-Garcia instructed me.

During his incarceration in Puerto Rico, Cruz-Garcia had a religious enjoy. While in his mobile, he heard the phrase of God. “It was transformative,” he stated.

Back in Texas, the Houston Police Department created a chilly case unit in 2004 to reexamine unsolved homicides. HPD Sgt. Eric Mehl combed thru outdated instances, paying shut consideration to people who required DNA research to transport ahead.

By then, the DNA phase of HPD’s crime lab were close down after a 2002 state audit revealed that DNA technicians misinterpreted information, have been badly skilled, saved deficient information, and again and again used all the DNA proof, making it unattainable for any other skilled to test their paintings. A next report through an impartial investigator discovered that proof associated with rape and murder instances used to be water-damaged all the way through a hurricane and staff had no sense of which instances have been affected. Retesting of the lab’s DNA research has ended in multiple exonerations.

DNA proof from Angelo’s case used to be saved, treated and processed through the HPD crime lab technicians, however they have been not able to attach the proof to a suspect on the time of the crime. When Mehl got here around the case, he despatched the proof to a third-party lab known as Orchid Cellmark. Once regulation enforcement discovered that Cruz-Garcia used to be incarcerated in Puerto Rico, FBI brokers went to the reformatory to assemble a DNA pattern, which used to be additionally despatched to Orchid Cellmark.

In 2008, Orchid Cellmark related Cruz-Garcia’s DNA to the cigar, undies chopping and vaginal swabs from the sexual attack package. It didn’t end up he had killed Angelo, but it surely used to be sufficient for the state to transport ahead. That identical yr, 16 years after the crime, Cruz-Garcia used to be charged with homicide and transferred to the Houston prison to wait for trial.

Cruz-Garcia’s circle of relatives fundraised thru their church to rent non-public legal professionals who visited him steadily and saved him apprised in their technique and traits within the case, he stated. But when the state later determined to hunt the loss of life penalty, the ones legal professionals withdrew. The cash Cruz-Garcia’s circle of relatives raised used to be now not sufficient to rent a brand new legal professional who may tackle a loss of life penalty case. In August 2011, Cornelius used to be appointed as first chair, with any other non-public legal professional named Mario Madrid, who spoke Spanish, serving as moment chair. As first chair, Cornelius used to be answerable for directing the method of the case.

“It was a fascinating case,” Cornelius stated in a telephone interview. “I thought it was really a fun case.”

When Cornelius, 74, graduated from Baylor University’s regulation faculty, everybody instructed him one of the simplest ways to get trial enjoy used to be to paintings within the district legal professional’s place of business in a big town. He grew up in Houston, so he implemented for the Harris County DA’s place of business, were given employed, and used to be within the court docket the next week.

In his 30s, Cornelius transitioned into felony protection paintings, focusing on capital homicide litigation. “I just loved being in trial,” he stated. “It’s hard to put into words. I don’t know, I loved everything. I loved preparing for trial. I loved the legal issues. I loved the appellate process.”

He discovered he most well-liked protection paintings to being a prosecutor. “I really like helping people,” he stated. “I found that if you really worked hard for your client, especially as I was getting the more serious cases — those people had been around the block and they knew what it was like to have a lawyer that actually worked for them.

“They frankly really appreciated it. And it made me appreciate them,” he stated.

Over time, indigent instances become the majority of Cornelius’ caseload. Wealthy shoppers, with their nation membership dues, a couple of vehicles and faculty tuition, have been continuously the slowest to pay, and he hated bugging other folks for cash, he stated. “I liked representing people that couldn’t pay me and saw how hard I worked for them. I got paid a reasonable fee. And that was a reward.”

“I got paid plenty of money being a court-appointed lawyer, to be honest.”

By the time Cornelius used to be appointed to constitute Cruz-Garcia, his caseload had already attracted vital consideration.

The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals recommends a cap of 150 legal instances a yr, a guiding principle the Harris County Public Defender’s Office continues to apply. A 2013 evaluation of the place of business through the Council of State Governments Justice Center when compared identical instances and located that Harris County public defenders “outperformed appointed attorneys with every measure as they achieved a greater proportion of dismissals, deferred sentences, and acquittals, and a smaller proportion of clients found guilty.”

Although the Harris County place of business hasn’t ever taken loss of life penalty instances, any other public defender’s place of business in Texas that makes a speciality of capital instances used to be advised to cap caseloads at 5 energetic instances in line with legal professional — and not using a further noncapital instances. A 2016 assessment of that place of business discovered that even expanding the cap from 5 to 6 capital instances “appears to be too high to comply with the [American Bar Association] Guidelines.”

Cornelius’ caseload continuously exceeded each the ideas for capital and noncapital instances concurrently. In 2009, he used to be one of the most legal professionals featured in a KHOU story about Harris County’s indigent protection gadget, described through one skilled as “among the most flawed” within the nation belonging to a big metropolitan space. According to KHOU, Cornelius made about $1.9 million in 8 years — a mean of $237,500 a yr — representing individuals who have been too deficient to rent a legal professional.

“I’ve never seen an attorney capable of handling that entire workload and giving effective representation in every single case,” David Carroll, then the analysis director for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, instructed KHOU on the time.

Cornelius rejected the concept that his caseload compromised his talent to successfully constitute his shoppers. “You can do all the statistics you want but it depends on how hard the lawyer’s willing to work,” he instructed KHOU. “You can check with the people that clean this building. I am the last one to leave every night.”

Cornelius instructed HuffPost that his many years of enjoy enabled him to successfully constitute his shoppers with out adhering to the ideas. “Those guidelines? They’re probably very useful for somebody who’s a new lawyer,” Cornelius stated. “If you’ve handled 100 or 1,000 less-than-a-gram cocaine cases, you really don’t need to spend 10 hours on the next one you get.”

He stated in an e-mail that legal professionals who paintings on instances post-conviction “like to cut and paste graphs and charts of guidelines of how many hours a lawyer should spend” on every case and “take the total number of cases the attorney has handled for a year or month, or whatever looks better for the Writ and conclude that the lawyer did not have enough time to properly do their work.”

At the time Cornelius used to be appointed to Cruz-Garcia’s case, loss of life penalty instances in Harris County carried a base flat commission of $35,000 for the primary chair and $30,000 for the second one chair. But Cornelius and Madrid secured $65,000 and $60,000, respectively, justifying the upper commission through pointing to the complexity of the case. Madrid, who didn’t reply to a couple of requests for an interview, has no public disciplinary historical past.

In an e-mail, Cornelius equated the flat commission construction to a wage. “Let me point out to you what should be obvious especially if you are paid a flat fee, like a salary. All of the Judges work for a flat fee, all of the DA’s work for a flat fee, all of the Public Defenders work for a flat fee, all of the court personnel work for a flat fee, all of the police officers work for a flat fee, for all I know the writ writers work for a flat fee; do you get my drift?” he wrote, relating to other folks whose annually source of revenue does now not trade in line with the choice of instances they paintings.

Cruz-Garcia’s case targeted on questionable DNA proof and meant eyewitness testimony from other folks whose tales modified over the years. Many of Cruz-Garcia’s pals on the time of the crime offered medicine and had reason why to concern getting concerned. Most of his family and friends, who may talk to his personality and tough youth — either one of which might be key in figuring out his punishment if convicted — lived in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic and didn’t talk English. Both proving his innocence and, if that failed, proving that he didn’t should die, will require dogged investigative paintings.

But Cornelius failed to research key parts of Cruz-Garcia’s case, in keeping with Cruz-Garcia and his present legal professionals.

“I didn’t even meet anyone [from the legal team] until eight months” after Cornelius used to be appointed, Cruz-Garcia stated once I spoke with him. “Really, I just kind of saw him pass by. And now I know why,” he endured, relating to Cornelius’ caseload.

Cornelius stated in an e-mail that he most probably would have spoken privately with Cruz-Garcia every time he gave the impression in courtroom, which used to be “infinitely better than a jail visit.” He added that trial preparation will have been not on time through looking ahead to discovery, issue discovering a mitigation skilled, running on different trials and “defendant’s reluctance or refusal to participate in his own defense.”

Ahead of the trial, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office invited Cornelius to check its complete case dossier. The DA’s open-file coverage is designed to insulate the place of business from accusations that it did not divulge “Brady material,” or proof this is exculpatory for the protection. Reviewing a prosecutor’s complete dossier as an alternative of simply the Brady subject material they voluntarily divulge can clearly be helpful for the protection, but it surely’s additionally time-consuming and Cornelius indicated he didn’t intend to sift thru hundreds of pages of paperwork.

“I don’t have a responsibility to go through your file,” he instructed Assistant District Attorney Natalie Tise at trial.

Years later, when Cruz-Garcia first raised useless help of recommend claims in state habeas lawsuits, Cornelius wrote in a 2016 affidavit that he did see the state’s dossier “many times” when prosecutors introduced it to courtroom. However, it’s unclear from the affidavit if he’s claiming to have reviewed all of the dossier, and whether or not he would have had time to check such a lot bureaucracy in courtroom.

“In truth I took the position,” Cornelius wrote in an e-mail to HuffPost, “which was the law, that the prosecution has to give the defense all the discovery they are entitled to and if this is not done the prosecutor is proceeding at their own risk.”

“You ask did I see the entire file,” he endured. “How would I ever know. I ultimately saw whatever they brought to court saying it was their entire file.”

Jury variety started on June 3, 2013, and lasted 11 days. Cornelius billed a minimum of 2 1/2 hours to different instances on 10 of the ones days, infrequently as many as seven or 8 hours an afternoon, in keeping with Cruz-Garcia’s habeas petition. During jury variety, he additionally claimed 19 charges for showing in courtroom for different instances, for which he used to be paid a complete of $3,450.

According to the state’s concept of the crime, Cruz-Garcia and two pals named Carmelo Rudy Martinez Santana and Roger Aviles-Barroso abducted Angelo from his mom’s condominium and drove him about half-hour east to Baytown. There, in keeping with prosecutors, Cruz-Garcia directed Aviles-Barroso to stab Angelo to loss of life. Next, prosecutors stated, they put Angelo’s frame again within the automotive, drove a brief distance, and Cruz-Garcia urged the opposite two males to offload the boy’s frame into the water.

Aviles-Barroso, who additionally maintained his innocence, used to be convicted of capital homicide, however prosecutors by no means sought the loss of life penalty. Santana, who testified towards each Cruz-Garcia and Aviles-Barroso, used to be by no means charged with against the law in reference to the abduction and homicide.

Angelo’s mom, Diana Garcia, and her spouse, Arturo Rodriguez, each testified at Cruz-Garcia’s trial concerning the attack and kidnapping however stated that they may now not determine the masked perpetrators.

The state’s case towards Cruz-Garcia hinged on DNA proof, which used to be the one forensic proof tying him to the crime. “On the DNA alone, you could convict the defendant,” Tise instructed jurors at trial.

Steven Shellist, the protection legal professional Cruz-Garcia to begin with employed, identified that DNA research can be a a very powerful a part of the case. Before retreating, Shellist contacted a forensic scientist and DNA analyst, with the aim of getting her assessment the DNA checking out that had already been executed and probably have the DNA retested, Shellist wrote in a 2015 affidavit.

When Shellist stepped again from the case, he presented to percentage ideas about Cruz-Garcia’s protection however Cornelius declined, Shellist wrote.

The state depended on Orchid Cellmark’s manager of forensics to assist persuade jurors that DNA discovered at the cigar, Diana Garcia’s undies and a vaginal swab from the rape package implicated Cruz-Garcia within the killing. There used to be no skilled problem to that narrative as a result of Cornelius selected to not rent a DNA specialist, who prefer as an alternative to problem the proof on his personal.

Asked how he comes to a decision when to rent out of doors mavens, Cornelius stated in an interview, “On DNA, I’m probably not in need of a DNA expert.”

“DNA evidence, it’s not very complicated,” he endured. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been baffled about DNA evidence. They either get it or they don’t.”

“A lot of these people that are the experts, I know them, I know they’re not liars. I know they wouldn’t make up a result on the DNA test.”

Even if Cornelius did know so much about DNA, he admitted that he had no aim of reviewing all the proof. “I’m not going to go through 20 boxes of DNA records,” he instructed Tise at trial all the way through a confrontation associated with Cornelius’ preparedness to cross-examine one of the most state’s witnesses.

Cornelius attempted to get one of the crucial DNA proof suppressed, mentioning the well-documented issues of the HPD crime lab. But he used to be not able to “prove this specific evidence was contaminated,” he said all the way through pretrial lawsuits.

Cornelius later wrote within the 2016 affidavit that he used to be unsuccessful in suppressing the DNA proof since the state “clearly showed that, even though the crime lab had been in shambles, this evidence, which was tested and re-tested, had been sufficiently preserved.”

In a up to date e-mail, Cornelius clarified that he didn’t trust the pass judgement on’s ruling at the admissibility of the DNA proof. But as soon as she made her resolution, he wrote, he attempted to downplay the DNA proof as it “does not time stamp or disprove a consensual relationship.”

But there in fact used to be proof that the DNA used to be questionable. Daniel Hellwig, a DNA skilled employed through Cruz-Garcia’s post-conviction legal professionals, identified in August 2015 “significant concerns regarding the reliability of the evidence tested and some of the conclusions drawn regarding this evidence.”

Much of the proof used to be unsealed when Orchid Cellmark won it from the HPD crime lab 15 years after the crime, elevating considerations about its integrity, Hellwig wrote. He additionally discovered that Orchid Cellmark’s statistical conclusions concerning the DNA pattern at the vaginal swabs have been “problematic and against best scientific practices.” Orchid Cellmark didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Asked about Hellwig’s findings, Cornelius wrote in an e-mail, “I never heard the expert you spoke of testify, if he did, and you have not told me that Obel was eliminated as a suspect.”

In November 2015, not up to every week after Cruz-Garcia misplaced his direct attraction, the state issued an amended lab report to reflect an FBI update to data utilized in DNA calculations. The amended file “recanted much of the DNA evidence it relied on to tie him to the offense,” Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote within the habeas petition. According to the state’s amended file, a mix of DNA from a minimum of 3 folks used to be discovered at the vaginal swab, however analysts have been not able to attract conclusions concerning the identification of the ones folks. The amended file related Cruz-Garcia and a minimum of one different unidentifiable particular person to the DNA combination discovered at the undies.

“As corrected, the DNA evidence therefore does not conclusively establish Mr. Cruz-Garcia’s identity as the assailant … and leaves open the possibility of an unknown assailant,” Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote.

Cornelius wrote in e-mail, “I am not seeing this as much of an impact and of course I would have had to have a clairvoyant expert to even use this at the trial I tried.”

Friends of Cruz-Garcia and Diana Garcia would later tell Cruz-Garcia’s state habeas staff that the 2 had a consensual sexual dating, which might give an explanation for why his DNA used to be on her undies. Cruz-Garcia stated in an interview that he instructed his trial legal professionals to talk with a type of buddies, a person named Cesar Rios, as a result of Rios “was with us all the time” and “saw whatever was going on.”

Rios used to be additionally indexed as a identified affiliate of Garcia’s at the 1992 police file documenting the crime. But the jury by no means heard from Rios concerning the consensual dating as a result of Cornelius by no means introduced him in to testify. Cornelius disputed in an e-mail that Cruz-Garcia instructed him or a member of his staff to talk to Rios.

“Obel Cruz-Garcia did not tell me jack shit about the facts of this case or give me any witnesses to contact. In 50 years I have never seen or heard of a client giving less effort,” Cornelius wrote in an e-mail. “You can take the word of a life long criminal or my word and that of the entire defense team.”

J.J. Gradoni, the lead investigator on Cornelius’ staff, stated in a 2016 affidavit that he attempted to get in contact with Rios after seeing his call at the police file however used to be not able to make touch. In his personal affidavit, Cornelius stated he attempted to boost the possibility of a consensual sexual dating with Cruz-Garcia however may now not be offering evidence of it.

“We wanted him to admit that he had a relationship with this woman,” Cornelius instructed HuffPost. “If he had explained that away with a consensual relationship — he’s a nice-looking guy, actually. Not that nice-looking guys can have sex with whoever they want to. But a jury wouldn’t be repulsed by the way he looked and say no other Hispanic person would ever want to have sex with him in their lives. Or any other kind of person.”

“But he would not discuss it,” Cornelius endured. “What are you gonna do?”

Garcia used to be now not requested at trial concerning the life of a consensual sexual dating. Neither she nor Rodriguez might be reached for remark.

Earning a consumer’s agree with and convincing them to help in their very own illustration is a key a part of a protection legal professional’s task. The Texas State Bar’s guidelines for legal professionals running on capital instances calls for them to “make every appropriate effort to establish a relationship of trust with the client” and “maintain close contact with the client.”

The pointers “do not contemplate a one-way street where counsel parachutes in for a couple of visits with their client before trial and the client immediately provides counsel everything needed to win the case,” Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote within the habeas petition.

In the Nineteen Eighties, Cruz-Garcia began relationship Angelita Rodriguez, whom he met in Puerto Rico. They quickly married and adopted Rodriguez’s cousin, Carmelo Rudy Martinez Santana, to Houston, the place Santana and Cruz-Garcia offered medicine for a dwelling. There, they become pleasant with Diana Garcia and Arturo Rodriguez (no relation to Angelita Rodriguez).

For just about twenty years after Angelo’s loss of life, Santana insisted he didn’t know the rest concerning the kidnapping or instances of the boy’s killing. He stated as a lot to regulation enforcement all the way through two separate interviews in 1992 and once more in 2009 after the case used to be reopened.

But in 2011, Santana modified his tale.

By then, he used to be in reformatory for an unrelated conviction. In the lead-up to that conviction, Santana’s legal professional had indicated that he will not be mentally competent to face trial, however he ended up accepting a to blame plea. Then, in April 2011, Santana informed the court that he deliberate to dossier a movement to have his to blame plea put aside, in line with “a plethora of medical records that illustrate my undeniable incompetence to accept a guilty plea.”

The subsequent month, Santana met with FBI agent William Ebersole. At first, Santana instructed Ebersole he didn’t know if he used to be with Cruz-Garcia at the night time of the crime, however quickly after, he claimed they have been in combination for a part of the day.

Ebersole instructed Santana that Cruz-Garcia had already been charged with the homicide, in keeping with the FBI agent’s contemporaneous notes documenting the interview. Cruz-Garcia would “go to trial for the murder of ANGELO with or without the assistance of [Santana],” Ebersole stated — however that “his assistance would make for a better case against [Cruz-Garcia], who is not a good person.” He additionally instructed Santana that “any cooperation he gave would be made known to the prosecutor and the presiding judge.”

Ebersole then claimed “there was scientific evidence” proving that Cruz-Garcia had damaged into Diana Garcia’s house and raped her however stated he wanted Santana “to complete the picture of what happened to the little boy ANGELO.”

Santana instructed the FBI agent that he had “lost his whole life,” together with his sons, his mom and his marriage. He blamed Cruz-Garcia for that loss, in keeping with Ebersole’s notes.

He stated that at the night time of Angelo’s loss of life, he waited within the automotive whilst Cruz-Garcia and any other guy named “Rogelio” went inside of Diana Garcia’s condominium, Ebersole wrote. According to Santana, when the 2 males emerged, Cruz-Garcia used to be wearing Angelo, pronouncing “the little boy saw me” and “I fucked Diana.”

Cruz-Garcia then drove the crowd to a space the place that they had offered medicine, pulled over, and instructed Rogelio in Spanish, “You know what you have to do,” Santana stated. After Rogelio fatally stabbed Angelo, Santana claimed, the crowd drove to a frame of water, the place Cruz-Garcia urged Santana and Rogelio to offload Angelo’s frame.

Santana, who may now not be reached for remark, become the state’s star witness and used to be by no means charged with against the law in reference to the abduction or killing of Angelo. His graphic testimony of the boy’s loss of life may now not be substantiated through the post-mortem, because the frame had deteriorated within the water. All the jury needed to pass on used to be his phrase — and jurors by no means discovered that Santana modified his tale to corroborate the state’s concept simply weeks after indicating his plea deal will have to be tossed as a result of he used to be too mentally unwell to have entered into the settlement.

Cornelius stated in an e-mail he didn’t be mindful any questions on Santana’s competency or pondering he appeared incompetent. “This is really weak,” he wrote.

Jurors additionally by no means discovered that across the time of Angelo’s loss of life, Santana used to be convicted of assaulting a tender lady, in keeping with the habeas petition. Under Texas regulation, crimes towards girls and women are thought to be crimes of “moral turpitude.” This is vital as a result of in Texas, crimes of ethical turpitude can in most cases be used to question a witness, or assault the credibility in their testimony at trial.

Billing information show that Cornelius’ investigator attempted to “Obtain Offense Report Regarding State Witness Prior Conviction” on June 20, 2013 — whilst the trial used to be already underway. On July 11, Cornelius indicated in courtroom that he wasn’t positive whether or not Santana’s prior convictions have been grounds for impeachment. “I’ve got some conflicting information from my own investigators and so, I’m going to accept pretty much whatever the State tells me or what [Santana] tells me,” Cornelius told the pass judgement on.

Cornelius proceeded to query Santana about his previous convictions with out the jury provide to be able to resolve what he may convey up in entrance of jurors. Santana instructed Cornelius that he pleaded to blame to assaulting a boy, however that he used to be blameless. Cornelius attempted to get permission to convey up that conviction in entrance of jurors, however the pass judgement on denied the request.

“Had trial counsel performed an adequate investigation, they could have seriously undermined the credibility of the State’s star witness,” Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote in his habeas petition.

“Given how crucial Mr. Santana’s testimony was to establishing Mr. Cruz-Garcia’s guilt, there is a reasonable probability that at least one juror would have voted not to convict Mr. Cruz-Garcia had trial counsel not performed deficiently,” the legal professionals endured.

Cornelius stated in an e-mail that he didn’t be mindful those main points however that “it sounds so trivial in comparison to the facts of this case.”

The state’s different key witness used to be Angelita Rodriguez, Cruz-Garcia’s spouse on the time of the crime. Like her cousin Santana, Rodriguez initially told law enforcement that she didn’t know the rest about Angelo’s disappearance or loss of life. In 2008, 16 years later, Rodriguez instructed Mehl, the HPD sergeant, a somewhat other tale. She stated that once finding out about Angelo’s disappearance, she requested Cruz-Garcia if he had abducted the boy, in keeping with notes Mehl took documenting the dialog.

“She said Obel would not answer the question,” Mehl wrote. “She said he just looked at her and remained silent.” 

Rodriguez instructed the police sergeant that Cruz-Garcia left impulsively for Puerto Rico after Angelo’s disappearance after which went to the Dominican Republic. She stated that she didn’t see Cruz-Garcia once more till she went to fulfill him within the Dominican Republic to invite for a divorce. He replied, she stated, through threatening to kill her. 

Then at trial, Rodriguez offered shocking testimony. She repeated her declare that she didn’t see Cruz-Garcia till she went to invite him for a divorce on the finish of 1992, about two months after Angelo used to be killed. She stated that he refused and threatened to hurt her circle of relatives, however she didn’t testify that he threatened to kill her, as she had prior to now instructed regulation enforcement.

She stated that after she instructed Cruz-Garcia she sought after a divorce, she requested once more about Angelo. Cruz-Garcia instructed her “that he had killed him,” Rodriguez testified. When the assistant district legal professional requested Rodriguez what else Cruz-Garcia had stated concerning the alleged crime, she stated she couldn’t be mindful.

Rodriguez testified that her tale had modified as a result of she used to be prior to now afraid to inform the reality. But there are indicators that her testimony won’t had been correct. Contrary to Rodriguez’s claims about now not seeing Cruz-Garcia after Angelo’s disappearance till she requested for a divorce on the finish of 1992, Cruz-Garcia told a psychologist in 2019 that the couple moved again to the Dominican Republic in combination someday in 1992 and lived along with her circle of relatives.

A February 1993 FBI memo seems to partly corroborate Cruz-Garcia’s recollection, even though with what seems to be a complicated typo. “RODRIGUEZ is the common law wife of GARCIA and is currently residing with RODRIGUEZ in the Dominican Republic at her mother’s house,” the memo reads. It is not going that the writer of the memo meant to write down that Rodriguez lived with herself at her mom’s space.

Asked if he used to be acutely aware of the memo and ever sought explanation, Cornelius stated he didn’t be mindful. The FBI didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Several years after the trial, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office equipped Rodriguez’s legal professional with a letter in give a boost to of her immigration case, pointing out that she had “served as a very important witness in the 2013 trial of a capital murder case” in spite of “credible threats to her safety.” Rodriguez may now not be reached for remark.

Josh Reiss, the manager of the post-conviction writ department of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, instructed HuffPost that Rodriguez used to be now not presented immigration help in alternate for her testimony. “Skip Cornelius is an outstanding lawyer who has the admiration and respect of the entire Harris County criminal bar — prosecution and defense,” the prosecutor added.

The state’s case towards Cruz-Garcia used to be stuffed with contradictions and unanswered questions. But all the way through the level of trial to resolve whether or not his consumer used to be to blame, Cornelius didn’t name a unmarried witness to supply jurors another concept of occasions. And on on a daily basis jurors heard proof, Cornelius billed a minimum of 4 hours for paintings on different instances, in keeping with the habeas petition.

Monday, July 8: 4 hours.

Tuesday, July 9: 5.5 hours and two courtroom look charges.

Wednesday, July 10: 4 hours and 3 courtroom look charges.

Thursday, July 11: 4 hours and any other courtroom look commission.

When it got here time to come to a decision whether or not the state had confirmed, past an inexpensive doubt, that Cruz-Garcia used to be answerable for Angelo Garcia’s loss of life, the jury reached its to blame verdict in a couple of hours. It can be as much as jurors to come to a decision subsequent whether or not he can be punished with existence imprisonment or the loss of life penalty.

Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, 68, nonetheless recollects driving the town bus house from faculty in center faculty, dressed in his scholar council badge, when some children began trashing the bus. The driving force pulled over and known as the police from a telephone sales space. When they arrived, the bus driving force, who used to be white, accused Ellis and different Black boys of destroying the bus.

“If you did this, we’re gonna get you one of those jackleg lawyers the judge appoints for you,” Ellis’ father instructed him when he were given house from the police station. “But if you’re innocent, we’ll hock this house and get you a real lawyer.”

It used to be an early lesson on Harris County’s indigent protection gadget for Harris, who would pass on to guide the battle for reform.

Texas has all the time had “this sort of anti-public defender culture,” Jim Marcus, a scientific professor on the University of Texas School of Law, stated in an interview. When Marcus graduated from regulation faculty in Houston in 1993, he knew he sought after to be a felony protection legal professional however he didn’t know the place to start out.

He requested round and used to be instructed, “Well, you go down to the courthouse and you make a few contributions to the judges’ campaigns and they start giving you cases,” Marcus stated. “People told me that with a straight face — that’s just the way it was done.”

Judges most often just like the gadget of appointing non-public protection legal professionals to indigent instances as it offers them extra keep watch over over how the case unfolds, Marcus stated. When protection legal professionals are depending on judges for source of revenue from appointments, there’s an incentive to forgo pricey and time-consuming investigative paintings and as an alternative stay instances shifting alongside temporarily, he endured. Judges, in flip, boast about how successfully they ship unhealthy criminals to reformatory when it’s time to run for reelection. This gadget works effectively for contributors of the protection bar, who could make loads of hundreds of bucks a yr through taking over hovering caseloads. And prosecutors, in fact, like dealing with much less opposition within the court docket.

“Everybody wins — except for the clients,” stated Marcus, who went directly to assist get started the nonprofit Texas Defender Service.

Cornelius stated in an interview that he by no means felt drive from judges to hurry instances or forgo sources for mavens or commute. The reason why some judges most well-liked flat charges, he stated, used to be to get rid of the bureaucracy related to hourly billing, which used to be executed through hand on the time.

The talent of the legal professional appointment gadget to offer truthful illustration has lengthy been the topic of withering complaint. In a seven-month duration in 1996, protection legal professional Gerard Guerinot saw four of his appointed clients go to death row — whilst dealing with 174 different legal instances that yr and dealing section time as a prosecutor in a distinct jurisdiction, in keeping with a courtroom submitting from one of the most shoppers on loss of life row. Guerinot, who didn’t reply to a request for remark, said in a 2002 affidavit that his caseload “did not hinder our preparation or investigation at all.”

In 1984, Calvin Burdine used to be sentenced to loss of life after his court-appointed legal professional, Joe Frank Cannon, slept thru a number of portions of the trial. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of judges for the fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Burdine’s verdict and sentence, arguing that “it is impossible to determine — only speculate — that counsel’s sleeping” harm Burdine’s case. The complete courtroom later reversed the panel’s ruling and Burdine used to be granted a new trial. Burdine pleaded guilty in alternate for 3 existence sentences.

Ellis used to be elected to the Texas Senate in 1990, representing portions of Harris County. In 1999, he controlled to move an indigent protection invoice out of the legislature — best to have it vetoed through then-Gov. George W. Bush.

That yr, Ellis become president professional tempore of the Texas Senate, hanging him moment in line for the governorship after then-Lt. Gov. Rick Perry. That additionally supposed he would function appearing governor when each Bush and Perry traveled out of state.

On considered one of Ellis’ first days within the appearing function, a person named Tyrone Fuller used to be scheduled to be done. Suddenly, it used to be as much as Ellis — who had spent the former decade teaching his colleagues about how other folks finally end up on loss of life row just because they may be able to’t come up with the money for a excellent legal professional — to come to a decision whether or not to let the state kill a type of other folks. He couldn’t halt the execution altogether, however he may grant a short lived lengthen.

Ellis declined and allowed Fuller to be done on time table.

“I made it clear that if I took an oath to obey the Constitution and the laws of the state of Texas, it wouldn’t just be the ones that I agree with,” Ellis stated in an interview.

In the next months, he allowed two extra executions to continue. Their faces haunted him “like a nightmare,” he stated.

The fourth execution scheduled on his watch gave him pause. It used to be for a person named Ricky McGinn, who used to be convicted of raping and killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter however who maintained his innocence. Ellis instructed Bush he felt “a real unease” executing McGinn with out carrying out DNA checking out first.

“Have you told the press?” Bush requested.

“No, sir, I have not,” Ellis stated.

“OK, keep your powder dry,” Bush stated.

By then, Bush had overseen 131 executions and had by no means granted a reprieve. But he used to be months clear of the November 2000 election and his unwavering protection of Texas’ outlier use of capital punishment used to be threatening to become a campaign issue.

On Thursday, June 1, 2000, the day McGinn used to be scheduled to be killed, Bush made a shocking announcement whilst campaigning in Sacramento. “I have recommended and Sen. Ellis has accepted my recommendation to grant a 30-day reprieve in the case of Ricky McGinn,” Bush instructed newshounds. It used to be a call, Time mag wrote on the time, that “highlights the first part of compassionate conservative,” referencing a key Bush marketing campaign slogan.

McGinn used to be ultimately done 4 months later. The place of business of George W. Bush didn’t reply to a request for remark.

When Ellis ultimately become the top of the Senate Finance Committee, he controlled to push in the course of the Fair Defense Act, a more potent model of the invoice that Bush had vetoed. For the primary time, Texas would offer counties with state investment to reinforce their indigent protection programs.

At the time, simply seven of Texas’ 254 counties applied public defender places of work. “Part of the problem is that Texas, as a state, is trying to move from last place in indigent-defense quality of representation to the middle of the pack,” Bill Beardall, a felony activist who helped write the Fair Defense Act, instructed the Houston Chronicle in 2001.

Unlike non-public protection legal professionals, public defenders are paid a suite annually wage reasonably than hourly or in line with case — a construction that higher aligns their incentives with their shoppers’. Throughout the rustic, public defender offices are short-staffed and overburdened, with legal professionals juggling caseloads that a long way exceed advisable pointers. But they have a tendency to draw legal professionals pushed through “an intense outrage toward the injustices of the criminal legal system and fervent dedication to fighting for the people they represent,” Slate wrote earlier this year. “In the several decades following Gideon v. Wainwright — the 1963 Supreme Court decision establishing that any criminal defendant who could not afford an attorney had a right to have one appointed — the culture in public defenders’ offices broadly prized tireless, almost martyr-like dedication to the work.”

Progress used to be gradual in Texas’ maximum populous county. In order to keep away from a veto from Perry, who had succeeded Bush as governor, Ellis agreed to incorporate a compromise provision requiring counties to get approval from their judges sooner than converting their indigent protection gadget. And many Harris County judges insisted that issues have been simply nice the best way they have been.

In 2008, the American Bar Association identified Ellis for his paintings on indigent protection at a convention in Los Angeles. Ellis puzzled if he deserved the reward.

“I passed that bill in 2001 and Harris County hasn’t done a damn thing!” he instructed a chum on the time.

By the time he returned to Houston, he used to be intent on getting a public defender’s place of business in Harris County, on the time the most important jurisdiction within the nation that didn’t have one. He and Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, revealed an op-ed within the Houston Chronicle invoking the Constitution, Martin Luther King Jr. and Atticus Finch in calling for a public defender. Ellis helped line up state investment for the place of business and recruited a Baptist minister, an archbishop and a rabbi to unfold the phrase to their communities.

But the judges driven again. In a 2009 poll of the county’s 22 felony district judges, simply 5 expressed pastime in the usage of public defenders for trials — and the ones 5 envisioned the usage of public defenders just for low-level offenses.

“I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job than I am with my four contract attorneys,” Judge Michael McSpadden, who adversarial the introduction of a public defender’s place of business, told the Houston Chronicle in 2009. (McSpadden, who died in 2021, used to be formally reprimanded in 2019 for claiming that younger Black males don’t get excellent recommendation from their folks and as an alternative be told from Black Lives Matter to have contempt for the justice gadget.)

Some contributors of the protection bar who made their dwelling from indigent appointments have been much more vocal of their opposition: “I would hate for there to be a Public Defender’s Office because it could potentially cut into my business,” protection legal professional Murray Newman wrote on his weblog in 2009.

“The indigent defendant who gets an attorney appointed to him like, say, Skip Cornelius or Tyrone [Moncriffe], just hit the freaking mother lode when it comes to quality representation,” Newman wrote. “Skip and Tyrone won’t be headed to work for a government agency any time soon.”

It used to be transparent that the one manner Harris County would get a public defender’s place of business can be first of all one thing slender in scope, Jim Bethke, the top of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission on the time, stated in an interview. “As soon as death penalty cases would get thrown into the equation, it sucked the air out of the room,” Bethke recalled. “Because then you’re talking serious, serious money.”

In June 2010, Ellis, jet-lagged after an extended flight, used to be requested through a reporter why it used to be so tricky to get the county’s judges on board with a public defender’s place of business. Too exhausted to be diplomatic, he spoke back in truth.

“The status quo is an inherent conflict of interest,” Ellis instructed the reporter. “It is sleazy. It is old school.”

After Ellis’ off-the-cuff feedback landed in the Houston Chronicle, he were given a choice from a host he didn’t acknowledge. The caller offered himself as Mike Anderson and stated he objected to being known as sleazy, Ellis recalled.

Ellis didn’t know who Anderson used to be and he used to be nonetheless drained. “I didn’t say you were sleazy,” he instructed Anderson, who died in 2013. “I said the system is — now if the shoe fits, I’m sorry.”

Then he known as considered one of his colleagues. “Who in the hell is Mike Anderson?” he requested.

“You just went off on the chief criminal judge in the damn county,” the colleague replied. “I suggest you don’t get pulled over anytime soon.”

But Ellis had made his level. By the tip of that yr, Harris County hired its first actual public defender.

The Harris County Public Defender’s Office has now not come with reference to changing the former gadget. During its first decade, the proportion of misdemeanor, legal and juvenile instances appointed to the place of business remained in the single digits. Even lately, it handles best about 20% — and no loss of life penalty instances.

Instead, loss of life penalty instances — the ones with the very best stakes — proceed to function underneath the appointment gadget, the place the pass judgement on at the case in my view selects the protection legal professional.

A public database created through the Texas Indigent Defense Commission presentations that during 2014, the primary yr the database used to be in operation, Cornelius had six capital instances along with 141 legal instances. He used to be paid $393,708, making him the second-highest-paid legal professional indexed within the database. The highest-paid legal professional had 428 legal instances and used to be paid $397,013.

“Cornelius, as far as I’m concerned, is a good man and an excellent lawyer,” Robert Pelton, a Houston-based felony protection legal professional, stated in an interview. “But I personally would not take on that many cases. With that many cases, it’s hard to go to the jail, see your client, research the law.”

Even with this information publicly to be had, judges have endured assigning large caseloads to the similar handful of protection legal professionals — even after a few of the ones legal professionals have again and again failed shoppers.

In 2009, the Houston Chronicle reported that two of protection legal professional Jerome Godinich’s shoppers on loss of life row misplaced their federal appeals because Godinich missed filing deadlines. The legal professional blamed a damaged submitting gadget in every of the instances, prompting criticism from the fifth Circuit. That hasn’t stopped Harris County judges from sending a gradual movement of labor Godinich’s manner. Godinich, who has been approved to apply regulation in Texas since 1987, has no public disciplinary history. 

A 2020 study revealed within the Duke Law Journal presented a conceivable rationalization. The learn about, through Georgetown Law professor Neel Sukhatme and Texas Center for Justice and Equity legal professional Jay Jenkins, discovered that protection legal professionals automatically pay “entry fees” to trial judges in Harris County within the type of marketing campaign donations. Those judges appoint greater than two times as many instances to legal professionals who donate as to people who don’t.

There is not any proof that donor legal professionals obtain extra instances as a result of they’re higher at their jobs, in keeping with the learn about. “We find that, if anything, defense attorneys who donate to judges are less successful than those who do not in terms of attaining charge reductions, dismissals, and acquittals, or avoiding prison sentences for their clients,” Sukhatme and Jenkins wrote.

Between 2004 and 2018, Godinich used to be appointed 1,974 instances, together with 5 capital instances, from a tribulation pass judgement on named Jim Wallace, the learn about discovered. During that time frame, Godinich donated a minimum of $9,000 to Wallace’s electoral campaigns. It seems to had been a excellent funding: Between 2014 and 2018, Godinich made a minimum of $872,642.50 from instances sooner than Wallace, in keeping with the learn about.

Godinich didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Cornelius donated to judges, too. “I give money to people running for judge out of friendship and because I believe they are a good Judge, or will be, and for no other reason,” Cornelius wrote in an e-mail.

According to campaign finance records, he contributed greater than $17,000 to more than a few judges’ election campaigns between 2004 and 2021 — together with $300 to state District Judge Renee Magee, who presided over Cruz-Garcia’s case.

“It’s like watching a slow-motion train wreck,” stated Marcus, the UT regulation professor, relating to Harris County’s indigent protection gadget. “You see these repeat offenders who have more cases than could be competently handled by a 10-lawyer public defender office on their own and nobody’s doing anything about it.”

In loss of life penalty instances, a protection legal professional’s task may also be twofold. Their first process is to persuade the jury in their consumer’s innocence. But if that fails, their task is to stay their consumer off of loss of life row.

In Texas, jurors are requested to believe mitigating instances and long term dangerousness in deciding whether or not to condemn somebody to loss of life. During the punishment segment of trial, protection legal professionals can provide mitigation proof: information that might scale back their consumer’s culpability. This can come with proof of an abusive youth, dependancy, untreated psychological sickness or certain steps their consumer took to get their existence on course for the reason that crime.

Mitigation investigation is most often time-consuming paintings. It calls for growing sufficient agree with with the buyer that they’re going to really feel relaxed divulging deeply private and disturbing information. It calls for an working out of intergenerational trauma and discovering members of the family who’re keen to divulge information that can be unflattering to them, like a historical past of abuse or dependancy. Mitigation consultants can spend years monitoring down decades-old scientific, educational and felony information. Guidelines from the State Bar of Texas and the American Bar Association each in particular name for mitigation paintings in capital instances.

Cornelius didn’t rent a mitigation skilled in Cruz-Garcia’s case. “However, we had my experience, which predates mitigation experts, at least in Harris County,” he wrote within the 2016 affidavit, including that he consulted a psychologist and employed a personal investigator to assist broaden mitigation proof.

Cornelius wrote within the affidavit that he couldn’t discover a mitigation skilled who would settle for the county’s $75 hourly charge, so he employed a psychologist as an alternative since the county used to be keen to pay the next hourly charge for that function.

When Cornelius asked his $65,000 flat commission — $30,000 upper than the usual commission — he stated the case would contain “a multitude of expert witnesses on many different elements of the various cases.” But the one skilled he asked investment for used to be the psychologist, Susana Rosin. Rosin estimated she would want to do 60-70 hours of labor at the case, and the courtroom authorized the essential investment. But Cornelius didn’t have her paintings at the case for nearly a yr, till simply sooner than the trial started, in keeping with a assessment of Cornelius’ billing information through Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals. Ultimately, Rosin finished best seven hours of labor and didn’t testify at trial.

Cornelius wrote in an e-mail that he “made a calculated decision not to call her as a witness.”

“Rosin would have been a disaster if she got on the witness stand — I mean a disaster for us,” Cornelius stated in an interview. “She would have been forced to answer questions that would have labeled [Cruz-Garcia] as a sociopath, psychopath or antisocial personality, or all three. And that’s a recipe for the death penalty.”

Asked if Rosin had recognized the rest about Cruz-Garcia that may have triggered that more or less testimony, Cornelius stated that she had.

“I don’t remember exactly what she said,” Cornelius stated. “And I told her, ‘Don’t write it down.’”

Rosin didn’t reply to a request for remark.

When Cornelius sought investment for an investigator, he indicated the want to pass to Puerto Rico “to properly investigate this case.” Cornelius used to be proper: Cruz-Garcia spent a lot of his existence in Puerto Rico, together with a stint in reformatory, and has a number of members of the family who are living there. But billing information from the trial make no point out of any member of the protection staff touring to Puerto Rico or soliciting for information from Puerto Rico. Cruz-Garcia’s more youthful brother, Joel Cruz Garcia, wrote in a 2019 affidavit that “as far as I know, nobody from the defense team came to Puerto Rico.”

Cornelius stated in an e-mail that the protection staff did pass to Puerto Rico and that he remembered seeing photos, even though he didn’t be mindful in the event that they introduced again information.

During the punishment segment of trial, Diana Garcia testified concerning the enduring ache of dropping Angelo. “He was my whole world. I love him. I loved him a lot. I still do. I still miss him. I still dream of missing him. It’s as if he is still alive. I can still feel him.”

She instructed jurors she regretted assembly Cruz-Garcia. “I didn’t think he would ever, ever do something like that. We trusted him,” she stated. “He raped me. He took my son away from me. He hurt me very much. And I didn’t hurt him. I didn’t do anything to him.”

Prosecutors convincingly portrayed Cruz-Garcia as an inherently violent drug broker, a person comfy with the usage of violence in accordance with even the slightest provocation. “Obel Cruz-Garcia is a monster. He is an evil person who likes to torture and taunt his victims,” Tise, the assistant district legal professional, said during closing arguments.

Cruz-Garcia’s protection staff presented jurors little to counter that narrative. During their final arguments, the protection assured jurors that in the event that they declined to condemn Cruz-Garcia to loss of life, he would nonetheless spend the remainder of his existence in a “hell hole” the place prisoners may also be caged for 23 hours an afternoon and chance being shot if they are trying to flee. They gave the impression to make just a imprecise effort to humanize their consumer.

“He was a family man,” stated Madrid, the second-chair protection recommend. “You heard his brother. You know he has a family. You know he raised his boys as best he could. Obviously, he went to prison, so he can’t continue to do that. But he has kept in contact with them. He helped to build a church.”

Madrid became it over to Cornelius, who again and again reminded jurors they didn’t must sentence his consumer to loss of life — however equipped few the reason why they will have to let him are living. “If you go back in the jury room and everybody is crying and everybody is so sad because of little Angelo’s death — and I know everybody is sad about it — at some point, though, when you start looking at the evidence in the case and making decisions, if you will just say to yourself, ‘Let’s take the emotion part of it away and decide what the facts are,’ everybody will do better if you do that,” Cornelius stated. “Everyone will do better.”

After dropping his direct attraction and bid for state habeas reduction, Cruz-Garcia used to be appointed a staff of legal professionals from the Dallas federal public defender’s place of business who focus on loss of life penalty litigation. In May of final yr, they summarized their years of investigative paintings in a 255-page habeas petition wherein they requested a federal pass judgement on to vacate Cruz-Garcia’s homicide conviction and loss of life sentence.

“Somebody from the team comes every month,” Cruz-Garcia stated, his eyes filling with tears. “They already know everything about the case, but they still come and visit me. Just to talk with me.”

“They are like my family.”

Much of the information they exposed used to be to be had on the time of Cruz-Garcia’s trial. It tells the tale of a sophisticated guy who cared deeply about his circle of relatives and fell into the violent global of drug dealing after being not able to flee poverty thru licit paintings. It describes a person who, after being arrested, become a fashion prisoner who trustworthy his existence to spiritual learn about. It’s a model of Cruz-Garcia’s tale that jurors by no means heard — person who may have made a minimum of one juror pause sooner than sending him to loss of life row.

Cruz-Garcia used to be born in Santo Domingo and grew up in excessive poverty. He spent a lot of his youth running and taking good care of his siblings after his father used to be critically injured in an coincidence. His father drank closely and gave him alcohol at a tender age, a forensic psychologist who interviewed Cruz-Garica 4 instances for a blended 23 hours wrote in a 2019 declaration.

“He grew up too fast,” Joel Cruz Garcia, his brother, wrote in a 2019 affidavit asked through Cruz-Garcia’s present felony staff. “I think that Obel felt abandoned, but he kept all of the sadness inside him. He focused in working hard to provide for the family.”

After marrying younger, he moved to Puerto Rico through himself on the lookout for higher paintings. Unable to come up with the money for a flight, he made the damaging adventure through sea in a ship he helped construct. There, he labored seven days every week on a espresso plantation, incomes about $60 every week and dwelling in a warehouse with 15 different employees. He despatched his father cash to present to his spouse, Mireya Perez, she wrote in a 2018 affidavit.

At some level, Cruz-Garcia’s father instructed him that his spouse used to be seeing any other guy. Devastated, he began ingesting closely, mimicking the coping mechanism he had discovered from his father. He felt “everything a body can feel,” he later instructed the forensic psychologist.

Perez believes Cruz-Garcia’s father lied about her in hopes of holding extra of his son’s cash, she wrote in her affidavit. Even once they stopped talking, Cruz-Garcia endured sending cash for his or her kid, she wrote.

Cruz-Garcia left the espresso plantation and were given a task at a cafe, the place he met Angelita Rodriguez, who offered him to Santana, in keeping with the habeas petition. They ultimately made their approach to Houston, the place they offered medicine.

“Even though I don’t know exactly why Obel got involved with drugs, I believe that he thought that was the only way that a young guy from a small fishing town in the Dominican Republic could be successful in this world,” his brother wrote in his affidavit.

“I would have liked to have the opportunity to explain more about this to the jury, with the hope that they would have understood that Obel is a good person who found himself trapped in a dangerous trade. The drugs were everywhere in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic around the 80’s and 90’s.”

Around the time that Cruz-Garcia moved to Houston, a person named Saul Flores used to be killed. His homicide used to be unsolved however all the way through the punishment segment of the trial, Tise claimed that Cruz-Garcia killed him “for nothing more than he hit on his girlfriend,” a lady named Elizabeth Ramos.

Cruz-Garcia wasn’t on trial for killing Flores and prosecutors didn’t must end up his guilt. But they used the portrayal of Cruz-Garcia as a person who used to be keen to kill over the slightest provocation as evidence that he posed a long term risk. The Flores homicide seems to be a part of why prosecutors selected to pursue the loss of life penalty, in keeping with a 2011 email from Tise.

By his personal admission, Cornelius made little effort to problem prosecutors’ declare that Cruz-Garcia posed a long term risk. “I did not feel we had much of a chance on the issue of future dangerousness in this trial,” he wrote in his post-trial affidavit. “The State does not seek the death penalty on cases where the crime is an aberration or where the defendant does not have a history.”

Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals tracked down Ramos, who wrote in a 2018 affidavit that she didn’t acknowledge the call “Saul Flores” and had no recollection of a person appearing up at her condominium in search of a romantic dating, as Santana had described at trial. She would had been keen to testify at trial, she wrote.

Asked about Ramos and whether or not he concept it used to be a mistake to not examine this situation of long term dangerousness, Cornelius stated he didn’t be mindful this a part of the case.

While promoting medicine, Santana become hooked on cocaine, he testified at trial. In a 2018 affidavit, Santana’s ex-wife, Margarita Martinez Zorrilla, wrote that Santana used to be bodily abusive and that she infrequently sought assist from Cruz-Garcia. 

“Obel was the only person who was able to calm him down,” she wrote. Cruz-Garcia introduced her and her kid meals and diapers when Santana used to be not able to offer for his circle of relatives, she endured. “Obel was very good to me, not like [Santana].”

If Cornelius had requested, Zorrilla would have testified at Cruz-Garcia’s trial, she wrote.

After Angelo’s loss of life, Cruz-Garcia left Houston, reconnected with Perez, and the 2 had a moment kid. He used to be an affectionate and loving father, who, in contrast to maximum males she knew, did laundry, cooked, wiped clean and altered diapers, Perez wrote in her 2018 affidavit.

Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals additionally accrued a sworn statement from another woman, who dated Cruz-Garcia and had a kid with him whilst he used to be with Perez. She described how Cruz-Garcia satisfied her to hunt scientific consideration for serious stomach ache, paid for her surgical treatment and took care of her whilst she recovered.

In 2001, Cruz-Garcia used to be arrested and sentenced to 16 years in reformatory in Puerto Rico after pleading to blame to kidnapping a person and a teenage boy from a meals truck there and making an attempt to get medicine and money in alternate for his or her go back. He remained incarcerated in Puerto Rico till he used to be charged with Angelo’s homicide in 2008 and transferred to Texas.

During this time, he advanced a name as a model prisoner, guided through his spiritual conviction. He served because the assistant to the chaplain of a jail in Bayamón, a job that allowed him to stroll unsupervised all through the power and make a copy of the keys to the chaplain’s place of business.

Cruz-Garcia used to be “a good listener” and “dedicated and loving,” the chaplain wrote in a 2015 affidavit. “At times, he also helped me think through my own faith and belief in God.” Had he been contacted through Cornelius’ staff, “I would have done anything I could to help Obel.”

The best information jurors won about Cruz-Garcia’s imprisonment in Puerto Rico got here from a corrections officer known as through prosecutors. That officer testified that, early all the way through his incarceration, a map and cord created from bedsheets have been present in Cruz-Garcia’s mobile, which he shared with any other prisoner, suggesting a conceivable get away plan. He additionally testified {that a} mobile phone used to be discovered on Cruz-Garcia all the way through a strip seek. Cruz-Garcia used to be by no means charged with making an attempt to flee and he didn’t obtain any disciplinary infractions after that incident, in keeping with the habeas petition.

Throughout the punishment level of the trial, prosecutors known as 15 witnesses, whose testimony lasted two days. Cornelius known as 4 witnesses, best two of whom testified in particular person. Collectively, their testimony lasted not up to an afternoon.

Perez, Cruz-Garcia’s spouse, went first. She testified from the Dominican Republic, and a deficient video connection blended with interpretation issues made her testimony tricky to apply.

Cruz-Garcia’s brother Joel Cruz Garcia went subsequent.

As the trial approached, Joel Cruz Garcia felt Cornelius’ paintings used to be rushed, he wrote in the 2019 affidavit. The flight to Houston that they had booked for him to testify used to be at a time he had already instructed them conflicted along with his time table, so he ended up purchasing a separate price tag. When he spoke with the felony staff’s investigator over the telephone, she requested best about his dating along with his brother as an grownup.

“Because trial counsel were unprepared and had not adequately investigated Mr. Cruz-Garcia’s life history, they failed to elicit helpful testimony” from Joel Cruz Garcia, Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote. “Instead, Joel provided only the briefest chronology of Mr. Cruz-Garcia’s childhood and inadvertently made it appear that he had experienced a pleasant childhood.”

“Not only was the testimony not particularly mitigating,” they endured, “the false impression it gave was actually aggravating.”

Abel, Cruz-Garcia’s more youthful son, additionally testified, however as a result of he used to be simply 5 years outdated when Cruz-Garcia went to reformatory in Puerto Rico, he didn’t have a lot information to supply.

The best witness ended up being an 18-year-old boy named Angel Meza, who got here to the court docket on his personal after listening to concerning the trial. Meza met Cruz-Garcia within the Houston prison, the place the 2 had common “spiritual” discussions, Meza testified. He instructed the jury that he used to be a “hard-headed” teenager dealing with a housebreaking price and that Cruz-Garcia helped him make higher alternatives. The two stayed in contact thru letters, even after Meza went house.

“In my opinion, he’s a man of God,” Meza testified. “Always tried to help me in every possible way he could.”

On on a daily basis that the jury heard proof all the way through the punishment segment, Cornelius billed a minimum of 3 hours to different instances, in keeping with the habeas petition.

Tuesday, July 16: 6.25 hours and one courtroom look commission.

Wednesday, July 17: 3.25 hours and two courtroom look charges.

Thursday, July 18: 5.5 hours and any other courtroom look commission.

In Texas, jurors aren’t explicitly requested whether or not to condemn somebody to loss of life. Instead they’re urged to reply to a series of yes-or-no questions, the solutions to which resolve the defendant’s destiny. Is the defendant prone to pose a long term risk to society? Did the defendant reason the sufferer’s loss of life or intend to? If the solution to either one of the ones questions is “yes,” jurors face a 3rd query: Are there enough mitigating instances to warrant existence imprisonment as an alternative of a loss of life sentence?

By regulation, jurors are urged that they can’t resolution any query in prefer of loss of life except they agree unanimously, and so they won’t resolution any query in prefer of existence except 10 or extra of the 12 jurors agree.

But what occurs if 11 jurors need to resolution the questions in prefer of the loss of life penalty and there’s one holdout?

By regulation, that may lead to a existence sentence. But the regulation explicitly forbids jurors from being instructed that at trial: The pass judgement on, protection legal professional and prosecutors “may not inform a juror or a prospective juror of the effect of a failure of a jury to agree on issues,” the regulation reads. Unless jurors are available in with an in depth working out of the sophisticated regulation, they will be unaware that they, on their very own, be able to block a loss of life sentence.

This seems to have took place in Cruz-Garcia’s case.

On the afternoon of July 18, 2013, the day the jury’s punishment deliberations started, juror Angela Bowman won a voicemail from her 10-year-old daughter’s camp counselor. Bowman’s daughter had a 101.8-degree fever and he or she used to be about to be sequestered clear of her unwell kid, indefinitely.

Bowman requested Magee to switch her with another juror, however the pass judgement on instructed her that used to be now not conceivable. When a bailiff allowed her to name house that night time, she discovered her daughter’s signs had worsened. She apprehensive it used to be pneumonia.

By the following morning, jurors have been nonetheless cut up over whether or not to condemn Cruz-Garcia to loss of life. The jury foreman pulled out a Bible and browse passages from Genesis 9 and Deuteronomy — books that come with requires the loss of life penalty. The Bible studying gave the impression to transfer one of the crucial jurors extra in prefer of a loss of life sentence, Bowman wrote in a sworn statement the following month. “I felt a great deal of pressure from the other jurors because it appeared that I was the last holdout for a life sentence,” she wrote.

Bowman asked to speak with Magee.

“I am the only juror that’s completely — I can’t agree,” Bowman stated. “I can’t answer the same questions with everyone else and I feel pressured. And I don’t want to hold them up.”

She requested once more to get replaced with another juror. Magee repeated that that used to be now not an choice and urged her to proceed deliberating.

“Here’s my thing,” Bowman replied. “I don’t think I’ll ever come to an agreement.”

Still, Magee instructed Bowman to return and proceed to planned.

“Judge, I don’t want to have to stay another night. I really don’t know,” Bowman stated.

“That’s completely in the hands of the entire jury,” Magee stated.

At the tip of the day, the opposite 11 jurors instructed Bowman that they weren’t converting their minds and that she used to be conserving issues up, Bowman wrote in her affidavit. “I changed my verdict so I could go home and take care of my child.”

The jury returned a unanimous loss of life sentence for Cruz-Garcia. Bowman left the courthouse and took her daughter directly to the emergency room, she wrote.

By then, Cornelius had billed Harris County greater than $33,000 for paintings on different instances over the process Cruz-Garcia’s seven-week trial.

“In other words,” Cruz-Garcia’s present legal professionals wrote in his habeas petition, “during Mr. Cruz-Garcia’s trial, Mr. Cornelius worked the equivalent of an entire other death penalty case.”

After dropping his direct attraction, Cruz-Garcia filed a state habeas petition, his first alternative to make a declare of useless help of recommend. In Texas, state habeas lawsuits happen in the similar courtroom because the conviction, continuously with the similar pass judgement on. Cruz-Garcia filed a movement to recuse Magee from his case; he alleged that she had improperly met with Bowman, the holdout juror, and satisfied her to vote for the loss of life penalty.

Magee declined to recuse herself and referred the subject to the regional presiding pass judgement on. That pass judgement on additionally declined to recuse Magee from the case with out ever conserving a listening to. As a end result, Cruz-Garcia needed to provide allegations of Magee’s misconduct to Magee to adjudicate.

During Cruz-Garcia’s state habeas lawsuits, Magee used to be operating for reelection. Her campaign website boasted that she “significantly reduced her pending caseload … in an effort to provide a fair and speedy resolution of cases.” It featured a news article about Cruz-Garcia’s trial — the one case she presided over as a pass judgement on discussed at the web page.

Magee misplaced her reelection marketing campaign in November 2016. Cruz-Garcia had now not but had the chance to publish proof in give a boost to of his claims, however Magee and prosecutors labored to wrap up the case all the way through Magee’s ultimate weeks at the bench.

On Nov. 30, she granted prosecutors’ request to set a Dec. 22 time limit for every occasion to publish their “findings of fact and conclusions of law.” That resolution wasn’t won through Cruz-Garcia’s legal professional till Dec. 6, giving her simply 16 days to dossier her findings — all the way through which period she had a weeklong listening to in a separate case and an out-of-town funeral for a circle of relatives member.

Magee signed the state’s proposed findings of truth and conclusions of regulation, verbatim, on Dec. 29, every week after receiving it and simply two days sooner than leaving place of business.

When Magee ran for any other judgeship in 2018, her website, once more, promoted her paintings on Cruz-Garcia’s case. She died final yr.

Judges’ rubber-stamping of prosecutors’ findings isn’t unusual. A 2018 report published in the Houston Law Review discovered that judges followed all the prosecutors’ findings verbatim in 96% of the 191 instances the authors analyzed.

“Because even rubber-stamped findings receive deference in federal court, the inadequate state court resolutions frustrate the enforcement of constitutional norms in federal court as well,” wrote the authors, considered one of whom is Marcus.

Whenever somebody is done, prosecutors and the media hype the years of assessment that preceded their killing, the authors famous: “When those layers of review afforded no meaningful consideration of the inmate’s constitutional claims, they make the general public more comfortable with the execution than is justified by the underlying reality.”

There is a commonplace false impression that if somebody is unfairly sentenced to loss of life, the long appeals procedure gives a lot of alternatives for redress. In truth, as soon as somebody is condemned to die, it’s extremely tricky to vacate that sentence, regardless of how a lot proof there’s that the individual didn’t get an even trial — or is even blameless.

Last yr, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices blocked two other folks sentenced to loss of life from presenting proof in federal courtroom that that they had useless legal professionals at trial as a result of that they had failed to give the proof in state courtroom. This ruling implies that if somebody has a foul legal professional at trial and will get any other dangerous legal professional in state post-conviction lawsuits, they is also left and not using a manner of ever elevating the problem in federal courtroom — the a part of the judicial gadget that’s meant to serve as as a safeguard towards unfair results in state courtroom.

“The Court’s decision will leave many people who were convicted in violation of the Sixth Amendment to face incarceration or even execution without any meaningful chance to vindicate their right to counsel,” Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent. “This decision is perverse. It is illogical.”

Cruz-Garcia’s case is now pending in federal courtroom. Despite having a faithful staff of legal professionals who focus on loss of life penalty litigation, it might be too overdue to avoid wasting his existence. During the Clinton management, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which used to be designed to hurry up the time from conviction to execution and imposed strict limits on what prisoners can convey up in federal habeas lawsuits, and when. In November, the state argued that a number of of Cruz-Garcia’s useless help of recommend claims “are procedurally barred and defaulted” and “all are without merit.”

The Harris County district legal professional is not going to request an execution date for Cruz-Garcia till after the fifth Circuit regulations at the case, which is your next step if he loses in federal district courtroom.

Texas has already done 5 other folks this yr, bringing the overall to 583 other folks for the reason that Supreme Court reinstated the punishment in 1976. Harris County accounts for greater than one-fifth of the killings.

Robert Hurst, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice communications officer, has witnessed a number of of those executions. When other folks ask the way it impacts him, he asks in the event that they’ve ever needed to put a canine down. It’s the similar factor, he stated. “They just go to sleep.”

Hurst basically offers with the media, so he doesn’t know most people on loss of life row really well, he stated. But he used to be on a first-name foundation with one guy who did a number of media interviews sooner than he used to be done in October. Asked if that loss of life used to be extra painful to witness, Hurst stated it used to be now not.

As the time of loss of life used to be known as out, Hurst concept, “I’ll say a prayer for you, buddy.”

When Cruz-Garcia first were given to Polunsky, any other Spanish speaker incarcerated on loss of life row warned him to not get with reference to any person — to keep away from feeling affection. “You don’t want to feel bad when they kill them,” the person warned.

But it nonetheless hurts. From his mobile, Cruz-Garcia can see when guards escort other folks out of the reformatory to be done at any other facility about 40 miles away.

“It’s terrible,” he stated. “You can’t do anything.”

Interpretation equipped through Suzette Ermler. Mari Hayman and Roque Planas contributed reporting.