Death Watch

Manuel Fernando Garza

No Right to a Good Attorney

On Feb. 2, 2001, moments after being confronted by the San Antonio policeman who would soon learn of his warrants, 20-year-old Manuel Fernando Garza escaped Officer John Riojas' grip and sprinted down the street. Riojas gave chase and eventually caught up with Garza, who continued to resist arrest. Riojas pulled his gun out, and Garza took it from him. Garza fired one shot that ended up killing Riojas on the spot.

Garza was arrested Feb. 4 and appointed an attorney on Feb. 14. He hardly stood a chance at escaping the death penalty from that moment on.

On Feb. 21, one week after being appointed by the court to Garza's case, his attorney withdrew on account of being unqualified to argue capital cases. Two new attorneys were placed on Garza's case that day, but 17 months later, when the first chair withdrew so that he could go on his vacation, neither had put any investigative work in. Same goes for the investigator appointed to Garza's case May 8, 2001: He ultimately left the case after losing his license; he had not made any requests for discovery.

Vincent Callahan was then appointed as Garza's first-chair counsel on July 19, 2002. He was friends with Edward Camara, Gar­za's second chair, and, according to Camara, "pretty well not very reliable as far as putting necessary work on a case." The two devised a plan: Camara would handle the jury selection, and Callahan would work on Garza's punishment. Both decided to dedicate no resources to mitigation, aside from a mitigation specialist who billed Garza's camp for 12.75 hours. A psychologist also met with Garza for two hours before being told (by Cal­lahan and Camara) to cut his efforts short.

Jury selection began Aug. 30 and lasted over a month. The trial, held in October, took less than one-third of that time. Garza was convicted of capital murder on Oct. 24; he received his death sentence five days later.

San Antonio attorney Michael Gross attempted to argue ineffective assistance of counsel in a 2004 application to the state for a writ of habeas corpus. The 162-page writ laid out nine claims, but it was denied in 2008. A federal habeas petition was stayed the following year while Garza exhausted his remedies at the state level, and an amended version was filed and then denied by the federal court in 2012. In 2013, an appeal to the Fifth Circuit was also denied, as was a subsequent appeal for a certificate of appealability. A 2014 writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in June.

Now 34, Garza is set for execution next Wednesday, April 15. He'll be the sixth Texan executed this year and 524th since the state's reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

This story has been updated to clarify Garza’s age.