John T. Floyd Law Firm
Board Certified Houston Criminal Lawyer
“Serious Criminal Defense Throughout Texas”
Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist
Experienced Criminal Trial Lawyer
Federal And State Criminal Defense
Phone # (713) 224-0101
Toll Free 1-866-374-1327
E-mail jfloyd@JohnTFloyd.com
Top Lawyers: Criminal Defense - 2008, 2009, 2010 HTexas
DEATH PENALTY ISSUES
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July 16, 2011
OUR TAKE ON THE CASEY ANTHONY VERDICT
Lack of Evidence and Reasonable Doubts Lead to Acquittal
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Now that Casey Anthony has been acquitted on the most serious charges resulting from the death of her young daughter, Caylee, and is scheduled for release next week, virtually every media pundit, along with their side-kick “expert” attorneys has had their say about the case. And now, after one of the jurors chose to flee the state of Florida in fear of retaliation, we also feel compelled to add a few comments—both about the verdict and the conduct of those expert attorneys leading up to and subsequent to the verdict. more...
January 22, 2011
TEXAS DEATH PENALTY INQUIRY SHUT DOWN
The Real Reason for Abolition: Texas Poses Greatest Risk of Executing an Innocent
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
For two days in December of last year Harris County Criminal District Court Judge Kevin Fine allowed attorneys representing accused capital murderer John Edward Green to present evidence that the process for carrying out the death penalty in this state is so flawed that it creates an unconstitutional risk that an innocent person could be executed. The two-day hearing in the Green case drew national and international media attention because it involved a challenge to the death penalty in the very State which has executed more people than any other since the executions resumed in this country on January 17, 1977. more...
December 11, 2010
THE TEXAS DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM BROKEN
Nationally Recognized Experts, Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Cite Risk of Innocents Being Put to Death, State of Texas Replies “No Comment”
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
That question could reasonably be asked of any state that maintains the death penalty. Every system of punishment is cracked in one way or another. The fact that 138 condemned inmates in 26 death penalty states have been exonerated since 1973, and the fact that there have been 261 DNA exonerations in this country since 1989, and the fact that our law books are filled with reversals of criminal convictions and death sentences offers compelling evidence that our entire criminal justice system, and, in particular, our death penalty systems is if not broken, certainly flawed. Earlier this year Harris County Criminal District Court Judge Kevin Fine stirred considerable legal and political controversy when he declared from the bench that Texas’ death penalty procedures were unconstitutional. The backlash was so intense, from the state’s attorney general to its governor, that Judge Fine clarified his ruling the next day by saying he had not actually declared the death penalty process unconstitutional and ordered attorneys in the case to submit additional legal arguments detailing how the process was so flawed that it violated the “cruel and unusual punishment” provisions of the Eighth Amendment. more...
July 29, 2010
CAMERON TODD WILLINGHAM: IMPROPER OR WRONGFUL CONVICTION?
Texas Forensic Science Commission Concludes Flawed Science Used In Trial That Led To Conviction and Execution
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
It was December 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham was alone in his residence with his three small children—Amber 2, and one-year-old twins, Karmon and Kameron. A fire broke out in the residence. Willingham managed to escape the fire. The three children did not, dying a horrible death trapped in the flames that quickly engulfed the residence. Willingham was immediately targeted as a suspect for arson murder. He was indicted on January 8, 1992. After turning down an opportunity to plead guilty for a life sentence, more...
March 15, 2009
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT:
AN INDICTMENT BY A DEATH ROW SURVIVOR
By: Billy Sinclair
I am pleased to announce, through the website of the John T. Floyd Law Firm, that my wife, Jodie, and I have recently released our second book, Capital Punishment: An Indictment by a Death Row Survivor. Released by the prestigious publishing house Arcade Publishing (New York), Capital Punishment is a collection of fourteen essays that examines the entire spectrum of the subject of the death penalty: its methods of executions, its Southern regional phenomenon, its racism, its tortuous botched executions, and its impact on our society. more...
March 13, 2008
BOOK RELEASE
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT:
AN INDICTMENT BY A DEATH ROW SURVIVOR
By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd
I am happy to announce the release of another book by my good friends Billy and Jodie Sinclair entitled Capital Punishment: An Indictment by a Death Row Survivor, released by Arcade Publishing (New York). The book is a compelling collection of essays commenting on the death penalty from many different perspectives about this controversial and, in my opinion, most despicable, inhumane and arcane of punishments that continues to thrive in this so called modern world. more...
February 11, 2009
ANDRE THOMAS: INSANE IN TEXAS
Executing the Insane: Past Witch Hunt; Current Shame
By Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Just after noon on December 9, 2008 a corrections officer assigned to Texas’ death row was making a normal security round in Building 10 when he observed what appeared to be blood on the face of condemned inmate Andre Thomas. The inmate told the officer he had pulled out his last good eye and eaten it. Prison doctors quickly determined the condemned inmate needed additional medical treatment. Security staff transported him to the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. After Thomas received medical treatment, the Texas Department of Public Safety and Corrections transferred him to the Jester 4 Psychiatric Unit in Richmond where he remains as of this writing. more...
February 3, 2009
IS LARRY RAY SWEARINGEN GUILTY OF CAPITAL MURDER?
Actual Innocence Not Recognized Ground for Relief in Federal Habeas Corpus Jurisprudence
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Is Larry Ray Swearingen guilty of capital murder? The State of Texas, through Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Marc Brumberger, believes that he is. The parents of Melissa Trotter, Charles and Sandra Trotter, believe that he is. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals believes that he is. more...
December 5, 2008
INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL IN CAPITAL CASES
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In 2001 the two female justices on the U.S. Supreme Court spoke out about the quality of legal representation afforded to criminal defendants facing the death penalty in this nation. more...
September 10, 2008
THE AFFAIR OF A JUDGE, DA, AND A KILLER
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Would you want a Judge presiding over a criminal case against you sleeping with the District Attorney prosecuting that case?
Didn’t think so. Most people wouldn’t. You expect a Judge to be neutral, free of the slightest appearance of impropriety. You expect a District Attorney to be zealous, honest, and even-handed in the prosecution of criminal cases. Those general expectations – what the State Bar calls the rules of ethical conduct – are compromised when a District Attorney prosecutes a case before a Judge with whom the District Attorney is having a sexual liaison. more...
August 9, 2008
TWO EXECUTIONS WITH INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The State of Texas executed two foreign nationals during the week of August 5 and 7, 2008. Both men, Jose Ernesto Medellin and Heliberto Chi, were found guilty of committing brutal murders. There was little doubt about their guilt. Had they not been foreign nationals, their executions would have passed under the Texas execution radar basically unnoticed. This is a sad fact in this great state where executions have become all too common. more...
August 5, 2008
THE INEQUITY OF ONE DEATH, ONE LIFE; Inequities in the Application of the Death Penalty
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On July 23, 2008 the State of Mississippi executed Dale Leo Bishop for his involvement in the beating death of 22-year-old Marcus James Gentry. The Bishop execution was significant only because he became the third person put to death in this country who did not actually kill the victim while the actual killer received life imprisonment. more...
July 18, 2008
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE REBUFFED BY TEXAS OFFICIALS
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The International Court of Justice recently issued an order staying the execution of five Mexican nationals held on Texas’ death row in response to a petition filed by the Mexican government. The Mexican government is seeking a review of these particular cases to determine whether the State’s denial of the condemned inmates access to the Mexican Consulate after their arrest adversely impacted their defenses. more...
May 30, 2008
THE JUAN LEONARDO QUINTERO CASE
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Everyone, including Juan Leonardo Quintero, was unhappy about the May 20, 2008 jury verdict that spared the convicted cop killer an appointment with a state executioner and insured that he would spend the rest of his natural life in a maximum security state prison. More...
May 28, 2008
A DEATH PENALTY TRIAL
By Mr. Billy Sinclair
The death penalty trial in this essay actually occurred. It is based the well-publicized facts, offense reports, and the trial transcript concerning my arrest, indictment, prosecution, and sentence to death for the December 5, 1965 shooting death of a convenience store clerk in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The trial was marred by documented suppressed mitigating evidence, perjured testimony, and ineffective assistance of counsel. The death penalty verdict, I believe, was obtained by the State of Louisiana because of these constitutional violations. By the time I was able to establish these violations in a court of law in 1984, they were considered “harmless errors” because the death sentence had been vacated.
But a significant number of the 1100 inmates executed in this country since 1976 were sent to their deaths because of suppressed mitigating evidence, perjured testimony, fabricated forensic evidence, or grossly inadequate legal representation. Further, as was the case in 1965, it was the social status or the race of their victim that influenced the decision by prosecutors to seek the death penalty against them. The following capital trial illustrates not only the harsh reality of how the death penalty is often prosecuted but how the process can be politicized. It presents the best argument for the abolishment of the penalty. It is the only punishment in these United States that can never, ever be prosecuted equitably and justly. More...
May 20, 2008
EXECUTIONS: THE UGLY REALITY AND RACIAL IMPLICATIONS CONTINUE
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Just 19 days after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lethal injection protocol used by most states to carry out executions, the State of Georgia put to death William Earl Lynd on May 6, 2008. Interestingly enough, the Supreme Court said that when lethal injections are carried out “properly,” the result will be an immediate, humane death. Lynd was pronounced dead at 7:51 p.m. – some seventeen minutes after the first drug, sodium thiopental, was administered. Three to five grams of this barbiturate is supposed to induce immediate unconsciousness. Media reports did not indicate that Lynd was immediately rendered unconscious. More...
April 18, 2008
DALLAS JUSTICE GIVEN TO THOMAS JOE MILLER-EL
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
It was a brutal crime. According to public records, Dorothy Miller-El set it up on November 16, 1985. She had previously worked at the Holiday Inn near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. She provided her husband Thomas Joe Miller-El and Kennard Sonny Flowers with inside information about the motel. The two men entered the motel in the early morning hours where they robbed, bound and gagged two employees: 25-year-old Douglas Walker and 29-year-old Donald Ray Hall. Miller-El asked Flowers if he was going to shoot the two men. When Flowers hesitated, Miller-El shot Walker in the back of the head twice, killing him instantly, and then shot Hall in the side, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. More...
March 27, 2008
MEDELLIN: TEXAS LAW TRUMPS PRESIDENT’S PEN
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican national, took part in one of the most brutal and horrific crimes to have ever occurred in Harris County. A January 8, 2008 column on the John T. Floyd website outlined the facts of the June 24, 1993 murders of 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and Medellin’s role in those murders. There is no need to recount those terrible details in this column. More...
January 4, 2008
THE MEDELLIN CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
They were called the “Black and Whites” in 1993 – a Harris County predatory street gang. There were eight of them, including Jose “Joe” Ernesto Medellin. It was 11:30 p.m. on the evening of June 24. Earlier in the evening 17-year-old Raul Villareal has been initiated into the gang by fighting a rival gang member. The Black and Whites were in a city park drinking beer and celebrating the outcome of that initiation ritual. More...
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