The Texas Court of Criminat Appeals has ordered a review of the case… So there will be no protest.
November 16, 2006, TX
(AP) If death Texas row inmate Charles Nealy is put to death, Texas will end the year with 25 executions, up three from last year, but about average for the past decade. A record 40 Texas prisoners were executed in 2000.
(NCADP Execution Alert)–Charles Nealy, a black man, is scheduled for execution on Nov. 16. In August 1997, two men robbed an Expressmart convenience store, killing Jiten Bhakta and Vijay Patel. Bhakta was in the back office when a man wearing a dark hat and carrying a shotgun killed him from close range. The store’s surveillance tape caught two men, one with a dark-colored hat and a shotgun and another with a light-colored hat and a pistol, robbing the store, but it did not record either of the murders.
The state denied Nealy’s habeas appeal, in which he claimed that the state provided insufficient evidence to prove him guilty beyond reasonable doubt. However, the prosecution presented conflicting eyewitness testimony as to the identification of Nealy as the man with the dark hat and the shotgun. First, Nealy’s nephew, Memphis, testified that Nealy had told him about the crime prior to the act. Memphis has identified Nealy as the man in the video with the shotgun, but only after the police had told him that his uncle had participated in the robbery. Furthermore, the victim’s brother, who had also been present during the robbery, stated upon examination that the man with the shotgun had a light-colored hat, not a dark hat. Upon cross-examination he contradicted himself, saying the man with the shotgun had a dark-colored hat. Also, the driver of the car, testified that he would not have been able to identify Nealy in the surveillance video had he not known Nealy or been aware of his role in the robbery prior to viewing the videotape.
The state of Texas should punish Nealy for his involvement in the murder of Jiten Bhakta. However, since no one could correctly identify him as the man with the shotgun without confusing him with the other man or being told by the police that Nealy was present, this should not be a capital punishment case. The influence of outside factors in two men’s testimonies and the confusion of the third person’s testimony does not make a sound case for the state against Nealy. Executing Nealy will not prevent any future crime that a life in prison cannot prevent, and his case demonstrates that people are put on death row without being absolutely positive of their role in a murder.