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Double murderer to be executed Tuesday in Texas

2021-10-02T21:33:59.873Z


The US state of Texas plans to execute on Tuesday a death row inmate who, 30 years ago, killed two brothers in their home. Unless the Court ...


The US state of Texas plans to execute on Tuesday a death row inmate who, 30 years ago, killed two brothers in their home.

Unless the United States Supreme Court grants him a last-minute stay, Rick Rhoades, 57, is to receive a lethal injection that evening in Huntsville Penitentiary.

A recidivist burglar, he had already made several trips to prison when, on September 13, 1991, just released on conditions, he entered the house of Charles Allen, who was then lodging his brother Bradley in the suburbs of Houston.

According to prison authorities, he killed the two brothers in their sleep before stealing money from them.

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He was not arrested until a month later, while he was robbing a school.

In detention, he confessed to the double murder, while claiming to have acted during a fight with Charles Allen started outside the house.

In 1992 he was sentenced to death after a trial held in Harris County.

According to the Information Center on the Death Penalty (DPIC), this county has carried out 129 executions since the 1970s, more than any other county in the United States.

His lawyers are trying to prevent his name from being added to this sinister list by contesting the composition of the jury that sentenced him.

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Rick Rhoades is white and his victims were white, but his lawyers seek to show that prosecutors dismissed black jurors during his trial, which is prohibited and would invalidate the sentence.

To do this, they went to court to obtain copies of questionnaires filled out by potential jurors thirty years ago.

They lost at first instance and on appeal and turned to the United States Supreme Court on Monday.

The highest court will have to say this evening if it agrees to suspend the execution to examine the merits of the case.

If she refuses, Rick Rhoades will be the sixth death row inmate executed since the start of the year in the United States, where the death penalty has been in sharp decline for a few years, and even more since the start of the pandemic.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-10-02

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