Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390 (1993), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled by 6 votes to 3 that a claim of actual innocence does not entitle a petitioner to federal habeas corpus relief by way of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Background

On September 29, 1981, Texas Department of Public Safety Officer David Rucker was shot and killed along a stretch of highway a few miles north of Brownsville, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. Rucker's body, discovered by a passerby, was lying beside his patrol car. He had been shot in the head. Around the same time, Los Fresnos police officer Enrique Carrisalez observed a speeding vehicle traveling on the same road away from where Rucker's body had been found. Carrisalez and his civilian friend, Enrique Hernandez, turned on the patrol car's flashing red lights and pursued the vehicle, which pulled over. Carrisalez took a flashlight and walked toward the car. The driver of the vehicle opened his door and exchanged words with Carrisalez before firing at least one shot at Carrisalez's chest. He died eight days later on October 7, 1981. Former U.S. Navy and Vietnam veteran Leonel Torres Herrera (September 17, 1947 – May 12, 1993) was arrested and was charged with the capital murder of both Carrisalez and Rucker.

Before he died, Carrisalez also identified Herrera as the person who shot him from a single photograph shown to him in the hospital. The license plate of the vehicle from which the gunman emerged was traced back to Herrera's live-in girlfriend, a car that local law officers knew Herrera drove on occasion. Carrisalez's civilian friend, Enrique Hernandez, testified that only one person was in the car when Carrisalez was shot.

Other evidence showed that Herrera's Social Security card had been found alongside Rucker's patrol car on the night he was killed. Splatters of blood on the car identified by Carrisalez's friend as the vehicle involved in the shootings were found to be type A blood, the same as Rucker's. Blood on Herrera's pants and wallet was likewise discovered to be type A. Last, a handwritten letter was found on Herrera when he was arrested which "strongly implied" that he had killed Rucker.

Herrera became the prime suspect in Hidalgo County - Precinct 3 Deputy Constable Ricky Lewis's murder on February 17, 1979, after law enforcement found Constable Lewis's stolen duty weapon during a search of Herrera's home. However, he was never charged with Constable Lewis's murder because he was only convicted of Officers Rucker and Carrisalez's murders.

Trial

In January 1982, Herrera was tried for the murder of Carrisalez. At the trial, Carrisalez' partner identified Herrera as the person who shot Carrisalez. The jury found Herrera guilty of the capital murder of Carrisalez, for which he was sentenced to death. Later that year, Herrera pleaded guilty to the murder of Rucker. The court denied his motion for a writ, stating that Herrera's evidence did not meet the standard for issuing a stay of execution, since it hinged on the claims of a person who was dead and could not be questioned under oath, and that the statements of the attorney and cellmate who claimed that Herrera's brother confessed were hearsay, without Herrera being alive to question, and inadmissible. Herrera appealed the district court's ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Appellate Court ruled the district court did not make any errors in procedure or violation of the defendant's rights by denying Herrera's writ motion.</blockquote>

O'Connor concluded by asserting that the majority did not hold that the Constitution permits the execution of an actually innocent person.

See also

  • List of people executed in Texas, 1990–1999
  • List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 506

References

  • False justice
  • Executing the Innocent