Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 1, 2006 3:52:38 GMT -5
Saturday, July 01, 2006
By Tommy Withersthingy
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a stay of execution for convicted murderer Billie Wayne Coble.
Without comment, Judge Carl E. Stewart and E. Grady Jolly voted to approve a defense motion to vacate 54th State District Judge George Allen’s Aug. 30 execution date for Coble.
Judge Emilio M. Garza noted on the one-page order that he would deny the motion.
Coble was sentenced to death in the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged wife’s parents, Robert and Zelda Vicha, of Axtell, and her brother, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha.
Allen, who presided over Coble’s trial in Waco in 1990, set Coble’s death date in April at the suggestion of the Texas Attorney General’s Office after the 5th Circuit rejected Coble’s appeal. The attorney general represents the state in death row federal appeals.
The theory at the time was that a death date five months away would give Coble’s attorney sufficient time to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider Coble’s appeal.
Coble’s attorney, Richard Ellis, of Mill Valley, Calif., asked Allen to vacate his order, arguing that the appeals court in New Orleans still had jurisdiction in the case because he was entitled to ask the entire court to reconsider the ruling.
“While the order did not specify a reason for the stay, the motion that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted was based on the trial court’s lack of jurisdiction to set an execution date for Billie Coble, as his case was still pending in that court when the date was set,” Ellis said Friday. “Mr. Coble’s case is still pending his motions for rehearing in the 5th Circuit.”
If the appeals court rejects Coble’s motion for a re-hearing, the Coble will be eligible for another execution date.
J.R. Vicha, Bobby Vicha’s son and a prosecutor in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the court decision, which was filed Thursday.
Ralph Strother, who prosecuted Vicha before he became 19th State District Court judge, declined comment, saying, “Anything that I would say right now would be unprintable.”
twithersthingy@wacotrib.com
757-5737
www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/07/01/07012006waccoblestay.html
By Tommy Withersthingy
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a stay of execution for convicted murderer Billie Wayne Coble.
Without comment, Judge Carl E. Stewart and E. Grady Jolly voted to approve a defense motion to vacate 54th State District Judge George Allen’s Aug. 30 execution date for Coble.
Judge Emilio M. Garza noted on the one-page order that he would deny the motion.
Coble was sentenced to death in the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged wife’s parents, Robert and Zelda Vicha, of Axtell, and her brother, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha.
Allen, who presided over Coble’s trial in Waco in 1990, set Coble’s death date in April at the suggestion of the Texas Attorney General’s Office after the 5th Circuit rejected Coble’s appeal. The attorney general represents the state in death row federal appeals.
The theory at the time was that a death date five months away would give Coble’s attorney sufficient time to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider Coble’s appeal.
Coble’s attorney, Richard Ellis, of Mill Valley, Calif., asked Allen to vacate his order, arguing that the appeals court in New Orleans still had jurisdiction in the case because he was entitled to ask the entire court to reconsider the ruling.
“While the order did not specify a reason for the stay, the motion that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted was based on the trial court’s lack of jurisdiction to set an execution date for Billie Coble, as his case was still pending in that court when the date was set,” Ellis said Friday. “Mr. Coble’s case is still pending his motions for rehearing in the 5th Circuit.”
If the appeals court rejects Coble’s motion for a re-hearing, the Coble will be eligible for another execution date.
J.R. Vicha, Bobby Vicha’s son and a prosecutor in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the court decision, which was filed Thursday.
Ralph Strother, who prosecuted Vicha before he became 19th State District Court judge, declined comment, saying, “Anything that I would say right now would be unprintable.”
twithersthingy@wacotrib.com
757-5737
www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/07/01/07012006waccoblestay.html