04 June 2019 :

Marlin Enos Nelson gets life sentences. Former death row inmate Nelson, 50, White, a former Charles Manson follower linked to a string of gay hate crimes in the 1980s won an appeal and has been let off death row, but under a new plea deal will still spend the rest of his life behind bars. Nelson was originally sentenced to death in Harris County in August 1988 for the 1987 murder of James Howard who picked him up for sex, according to court records. But in 2013 Nelson's sentence has been overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because of flawed jury instructions at his 1988 trial. The judges overturned his punishment while leaving in place the guilty verdict. Since life without parole wasn’t an option in Texas when Nelson was first sent to death row, prosecutors had to stack a variety of charges — including escape, cocaine possession and aggravated robbery — to ensure that he would he would stay behind bars forever and not have a shot at parole. In recent weeks, a Harris County criminal court judge approved a plea deal that includes a life sentence for the original slaying, plus 10 years, 20 years and a second life sentence for a trio of other decades-old crimes. The stacked sentences will keep him behind bars for life.