Condemned man's case was flawed, lawyer says
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at 06:21PM
TheSpook
- Latino Man Executed in Texas last night
A
Texas killer was executed Wednesday for the murder of a Houston good
Samaritan during a robbery 10 years ago. Anthony Guy Fuentes, 30, was
pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection for
killing Robert Tate in the Feb. 18, 1994 holdup. He admitted he was one
of three men who committed the robbery, but denied killing Tate. During
his final statement, Fuentes said the "truth" did not come in time to
save his life "It is wrong for prosecutors to lie and make witnesses
say what they need them to say," he said. "The truth has always been
there. I just hope everybody has their peace. Today I get mine." The
U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal minutes before his
execution.An attorney representing a Houston man scheduled to be
executed today
argued Tuesday his life should be spared because of problems with the
police work and prosecution in the case. Fuentes admits he
participated in the robbery
but maintains he did not kill Tate. An appeal filed Monday notes
discrepancies in the testimony of eyewitnesses and argues that Houston
police officers improperly questioned witnesses. Defense attorneys also
argued that Harris County prosecutors knowingly allowed a witness to
give false testimony and withheld information that would have allowed
defense attorneys to expose inconsistencies. "You have all of these
witnesses who witness the same event, and they are all seeing different
things -- some of them are dramatically different," said Jim Marcus,
executive director of the Texas Defender Service and one of Fuentes'
lawyers. "There are so many problems with the eyewitness testimony, and
the case really hangs on putting the right gun in Fuentes' hands. [more] and [more]
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