By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – A federal appeals court has ordered a new sentence for one of the longest-serving inmates on Texas death row. The Monday ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans comes in the case of 50-year-old Anthony Leroy Pierce.
He's been on death row for 32 years for the August 1977 robbery and murder of 40-year-old Houston fried chicken restaurant manager Fred Johnson.
Pierce has been tried three times for the 1977 robbery that netted him about $80 and left Johnson dead. The first two capital murder convictions overturned on appeal.
The Monday ruling leaves Pierce's third capital murder conviction intact. However, the court concurs that the Harris County jury in his third trial in 1986 were denied the required chance to consider mitigating evidence. Such evidence might suggest Pierce posed no threat to society.
Suspect sought in killing of Dallas cabbie, 2 hurt
Police have revealed the identity of a Dallas taxi driver they say was shot dead by a man who chased the cab following an argument at a strip club.
Two passengers in the cab driven by 30-year-old Bashir R. Abraham were wounded in the early morning shooting Monday. Sr. Cpl. Janice Crowther says two men involved in the disturbance got into the taxi early Monday, then an unknown suspect in another vehicle pulled up next to the cab and opened fire.
After the shooting, Crowther says, the wounded passengers "left the cab driver on the ground" and drove themselves to a hospital in the cab. The taxi driver was taken to a hospital where he died.
The passengers were treated and released, then both were arrested on unrelated charges.
Police are still seeking the gunman.
Garland's Operation Medicine Drop A Success
Garland Police are calling "Operation Medicine Drop" a success.
Saturday, Police, Drug Enforcement Agents and the Citizen Police Academy operated two "Medicine Drop" locations in Garland. The groups collected a variety of old prescription medications. The goal was to keep the drugs out of hands of potential drug abusers and keep them from being flushed down the drain -- ending up in the city water system.
Police say they collected almost 40 thousand pills or capsules - nearly 90 pounds of unused and expired drugs. Based on that success, police plan more "drop offs."