“Texas Seven” Escapee Set for Execution

Joseph Garcia is infamous for his role in the biggest prison escape in Texas history. For that crime and a murder that followed, Garcia is facing an execution date of Tuesday, Dec. 4, where he would become the fourth of the "Texas Seven" to be put to death. But with two appeals and a stay pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a clemency petition before the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Garcia's placement on death row remains controversial.

On Dec. 13, 2000, the Texas Seven broke out of a maximum-security prison near San Antonio with stolen weapons in a prison truck. Once free, the men committed several robberies across the state, including at a sporting goods store near Dallas on Christmas Eve, where they ran into police officer Aubrey Hawkins and fatally shot him 11 times. A month later, after making national news, the men were captured in Colorado. All, save one who killed himself, were sentenced to death under the Texas "law of parties," though Garcia maintains he never fired his weapon that night. State statute allows accomplices to another crime – such as robbery – that results in murder to be held responsible even if they were not involved in the slaying, and Garcia's lawyer Dale Baich said, "Joseph was sentenced to death even though the state could not prove that Joseph killed, intended to kill, or was even present when the co-defendants killed Officer Hawkins."

Garcia's concurrent appeals touch on more than the law of parties. Before his escape, Garcia was serving out a murder sentence from Bexar County; the first matter pending before the CCA argues he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel in that case. Garcia insists he acted in self-defense, but his trial attorney failed to investigate or present that claim to the court, and the filings allege Garcia continued to receive shoddy counsel through his appeals.

A subsequent petition at the CCA argues Garcia's death sentence in the Hawkins case was a result of "misleading evidence" presented by the state, ineffective counsel, and a "racially prejudiced judge" who tainted the case, in addition to its challenge to the law of parties. Via email, Baich stressed that there remain "significant legal issues before the courts that have not been presented until now because of procedural technicalities and bad lawyering."

Garcia has been fighting his sentence for nearly two decades. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his last appeal and he was scheduled for lethal injection in August, but was spared due to a technical issue. If a stay or clemency is not granted, Garcia will be the 12th Texas inmate executed in 2018. Before the year is up, one more – Alvin Bra­ziel Jr. – is scheduled to die, on Dec. 11.