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Randy Halprin in court (July 14, 2021)
Photo: Juan Figueroa / AP
The trial of a Jewish member of the so-called Texas Seven gang, who was sentenced to death in 2003, could be reopened.
Because the judge who presided over the process is said to have represented anti-Semitic views and to be biased.
Dallas Criminal District Court judge Lela Mays found that her predecessor, former Judge Vickers Cunningham, violated Randy Halprin's right to a fair trial.
She recommended that the Texas Appeals Court overturn Halprin's conviction and Cunningham's death sentence.
Halprin and six other convicted offenders escaped from Conally Detention Center in 2000.
The gang, which is therefore known as the "Texas Seven," had attacked several law enforcement officers, captured several weapons and then stormed in their uniforms.
Murder of a policeman
During the week-long flight, the "Texas Seven" carried out several robberies.
On one of them - on Christmas Eve - the cop Aubrey Hawkins surprised the seven.
The 29-year-old was shot.
A member of the gang killed himself before the group was arrested.
The other six members were sentenced to death in 2003 for the Hawkins murder.
Four members have now been executed.
Halprin and Patrick Murphy were last awaiting execution on death row.
The anti-Semitism allegations against Judge Cunningham came after a 2018 article in the Dallas Morning News revealed that he had a trust fund designed to reward his children for marrying white people.
Cunningham confirmed that the foundation exists.
But he said he was not a fanatic.
Halprin's lawyers then found that Cunningham allegedly used racist slurs and anti-Semitic language when talking about Halprin and some of his co-defendants.
Cunningham denied that.
The Texas Court of Appeals stopped Halprin's execution in 2019 to review the allegations.
ptz / AP
