22 March 2018 :

Douglas Armstrong (48, Black) was sentenced to life in prison without parole after prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against him. A Hidalgo County jury found Armstrong guilty of capital murder in 2007 (see 30/01/2007) for killing 60-year-old Rafael Castelan during an alleged robbery on April 21, 2006. Armstrong was sentenced to death. That sentence was overturned on Nov. 15, 2017 (see). Maslon LLP - the Minnesota law firm representing him pro bono - has argued that someone else killed Castelan in a drug deal gone wrong. According to a Nov. 28, 2017 press release the law firm issued after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Armstrong's resentencing, Armstrong stumbled upon Castelan's body on his way home from a bar. He attempted to walk Castelan, who was critically injured, to a nearby hospital but panicked and fled after witnesses 'misinterpreted the scene, called the police and drove their van at Armstrong." Armstrong was removed from death row after Maslon's team successfully argued that his court-appointed trial attorneys provided ineffective assistance of counsel during the conviction and punishment phases of his trial. Although the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Maslon's attempt to overturn Armstrong's guilty verdict, the court ruled that his defense team "failed to conduct a constitutionally adequate investigation of mitigating evidence that could have been introduced during the punishment phase of his trial," namely the physical abuse Armstrong suffered as a child, his history of substance abuse and his cognitive impairments.