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#Post#: 297--------------------------------------------------
~ Patrick Murphy, (TX) ~
By: BuzzC Date: February 1, 2019, 10:08 pm
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Death Row Information
[IMG]
HTML https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/murphypatrick2.jpg[/img]
Name Murphy, Patrick Henry, Jr.
TDCJ Number 999461
Date of Birth 10/03/1961
Date Received 11/20/2003
Age (when Received) 42
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed) 09
Date of Offense 12/24/2000
Age (at the time of Offense) 39
County Dallas
Race White
Gender Male
Hair Color Grey
Height 05'07"
Weight 212
Eye Color Hazel
Native County Dallas
Native State Texas
Prior Occupation
Maintenance, Carpenter, Laborer
Prior Prison Record
#386888 on a 50 year sentence from Dallas County for aggravated
sexual assault; 12/13/2000 escaped from custody
Summary of Incident
On 12/24/2000, in Irving, Texas, Murphy and six codefendants
fatally shot a 31 year old white male police officer while on
escape from the TDCJ Connally Unit.
Co-Defendants
Joseph Garcia, George Rivas, Randy Halprin, Larry Harper,
Michael Rodriguez, Donald Newberry
Race and Gender of Victim
White/Male
8)
HTML https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/murphypatrick.html
#Post#: 307--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Patrick Murphy, 13Nov19, (TX) ~
By: BuzzC Date: March 28, 2019, 10:30 am
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Member of 'Texas 7' set to be executed in policeman's killing--
Thursday, March 28, 2019
HUNTSVILLE-- The state of Texas on Thursday is scheduled to
execute a member of the “Texas 7,” a group of inmates convicted
of killing a police officer at a sporting goods store on
Christmas Eve in 2000 after they escaped a maximum security
prison days earlier.
Patrick Murphy, 57, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. CDT by lethal
injection in the state's death chamber in Huntsville, the
state's department of criminal justice said.
Murphy was serving a 50-year sentence for aggravated sexual
assault when he and six other inmates broke out of maximum
security prison in Kenedy, Texas, on Dec. 13, 2000, according to
court documents.
Eleven days later, Murphy and the other escapees robbed a
sporting goods store in Irving. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins,
31, was shot and killed by the group as the men fled, according
to court filings.
They were apprehended about a month later at a Colorado RV park
where one of the escapees committed suicide.
Murphy was sentenced to die in 2003 after he was convicted of
capital murder of a police officer.
Murphy was in a vehicle, serving as a lookout and did not shoot
Hawkins during the robbery, according to prosecutors. But he was
still convicted of murder under the state’s law of parties, a
statute that holds a person criminally responsible if they act
as an accomplice.
Since his sentence, Murphy's attorneys have filed several
unsuccessful appeals challenging the merits of the case,
including the constitutionality of the law of parties statute.
On Tuesday, his lawyers filed an appeal in federal court arguing
that his religious freedom rights have been violated by Texas,
which will not allow a Buddhist priest to accompany him in the
death chamber.
Four of the escaped inmates have been executed while Murphy and
one other are on death row.
If executed, Murphy will be the third inmate to be put to death
in Texas and the fourth in the United States in 2019, according
to the Death Penalty Information Center, an organization that
tracks the death penalty in the United States.
8)
#Post#: 309--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Patrick Murphy, 13Nov19, (TX) ~
By: BuzzC Date: March 29, 2019, 12:23 am
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'Texas 7' prison-break gang member gets execution reprieve--
Friday, March 29, 2019
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A member of the "Texas 7" gang of
escaped prisoners won a reprieve Thursday night from execution
for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer after
claiming his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist
spiritual adviser wasn't allowed to be in the death chamber with
him.
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Patrick Murphy's execution about
two hours after he could have been executed.
Murphy's attorneys had said that Texas prison officials' efforts
to prevent the inmate's spiritual adviser, a Buddhist priest,
from being with him when he is put to death violated Murphy's
First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Murphy, 57, became
a Buddhist almost a decade ago while incarcerated.
Lower courts had rejected Murphy's argument.
But in a concurring opinion Thursday night, the newest justice
on the court, Brett Kavanaugh, said the Texas prison system
allows a Christian or Muslim inmate to have a state-employed
Christian or Muslim religious adviser present either in the
execution room or in the adjacent viewing room. But inmates of
other religious denominations who want their religious adviser
to be present can have the adviser present only in the viewing
room and not in the execution room itself, he said.
"As this Court has repeatedly held, governmental discrimination
against religion_in particular, discrimination against religious
persons, religious organizations, and religious speech_violates
the Constitution," he wrote. "The government may not
discriminate against religion generally or against particular
religious denominations."
Kavanaugh said Texas can't move forward with Murphy's punishment
unless the state permits his Buddhist adviser or another
Buddhist reverend of the state's choosing to accompany Murphy in
the chamber during the execution.
"What the State may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or
Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious
adviser of their religion in the execution room," the justice
said.
Kavanaugh did not hear any death penalty cases in his 12 years
as an appeals court judge joining the Supreme Court.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel the
state would review the ruling to determine how to respond.
Desel said Murphy would be returned from the Huntsville Unit
prison, where executions are carried out, to the Polunsky Unit,
about 45 miles to the east, where death row inmates are
imprisoned.
"I knew there was a thin thread of possibility," a smiling
Murphy said from a holding cell just a few feet from the death
chamber after he was told by the warden he received a reprieve.
Texas officials argued to the court, citing security concerns,
that only chaplains who had been extensively vetted by the
prison system were allowed within the chamber. While Christian
and Muslim chaplains were available, no Buddhist priest was.
Prison officials allowed Murphy to visit with his spiritual
adviser for about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon.
Murphy was among the inmates who escaped from a South Texas
prison in December 2000 and then committed numerous robberies,
including the one in which they shot 29-year-old Irving police
Officer Aubrey Hawkins 11 times, killing him.
Hawkins, who had been with the Irving police force about 14
months, had just finished Christmas Eve dinner with his family
when he responded to the call about the robbery at a sporting
goods store and was ambushed.
The escaped inmates were arrested a month later in Colorado,
ending a six-week manhunt. One of them killed himself as
officers closed in and the other six were convicted of killing
Hawkins and sentenced to death. Murphy would have been the fifth
to be executed. The sixth inmate, Randy Halprin, has not been
given an execution date.
Murphy would have been the fourth inmate put to death this year
in the U.S. and the third executed in Texas, the nation's
busiest capital punishment state.
In February, the Supreme Court rejected a request from a Muslim
death row inmate in Alabama to have his Islamic spiritual
adviser be present in the execution chamber. Dominique Ray, who
was executed , also argued his religious rights were violated
because Alabama allows a Christian chaplain employed by the
prison to be in the execution chamber.
Murphy was convicted under Texas' law of parties, which holds a
person criminally responsible for the actions of another if they
are engaged in a conspiracy.
Murphy's attorneys had also asked the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals to stop his execution, arguing his death sentence is
unconstitutional because he was only the lookout during the
robbery, never firing at Hawkins because he had left the scene
before the shooting began.
The appeals court earlier this week turned down the request
while the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to
recommend either a commutation of his sentence or a 90-day
reprieve.
"It is unconscionable that Patrick Murphy may be executed for a
murder he did not commit that resulted from a robbery in which
he did not participate," his attorneys, David Dow and Jeff
Newberry, said in a statement.
Toby Shook, the lead prosecutor who handled Murphy's case and
those of the other five members, said Murphy actively
participated in the robbery, monitoring a police scanner from a
getaway vehicle and telling the other inmates when Hawkins was
coming to the back of the store.
"He alerted them. That allowed them to set up their ambush,"
said Shook, who is now a criminal defense attorney in Dallas.
Murphy was serving 50 years for a Dallas sexual assault but was
only 15 months away from being released on mandatory parole when
he took part in the prison escape.
Shook said Murphy has a very long and violent criminal history,
including molesting his step-sister and pulling a gun on his
father.
"They all were violent felons," Shook said. "So, he fit in
perfectly with the rest of the Texas 7. He actively participated
in all their robberies and all their crimes when they were out
on the run."
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