Page 3 - Vickers Cunningham News Today

HOUSTON (AP) -- A Jewish death row inmate who was part of a gang of prisoners who fatally shot a police officer in 2000 after they had escaped is one step

Halprin was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 in the killing of Irving officer Aubrey Hawkins.

Witnesses are now testifying in a hearing that the judge was known to make racial and anti-Semitic comments. Halprin is Jewish.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Randy Halprin has the right to a live evidentiary hearing over claims his judge was anti-Semitic.

From the blog of Kenneth Ryesky at The Times of Israel

One of Randy Halprin’s attorneys, Tivon Schardl, said: “A fair trial requires an impartial judge—and Mr. Halprin did not have a fair and neutral judge when his life was at stake.”

In this Dec. 3, 2003, file photo, death row inmate Randy Halprin, then 26, sits in a visitation cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. AP

A judge’s recommendation paves the way for an appeals court to decide whether Randy Halprin, a Jewish man who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for his role in the killing of a police officer, will get a new trial.

Randy Halprin, a member of the 'Texas 7,' alleged that Judge Vickers Cunningham referred to him using antisemitic slurs

A Jewish death row inmate who was part of the so-called “Texas 7” gang should get a new capital murder trial because the judge who presided over his case held anti-Semitic views, a state district judge said Monday.