30 September 2020 :
A split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a Texas federal court’s decision granting habeas corpus relief to Faryion Wardrip and ordered that Wardrip’s death sentence be reinstated. The ruling comes ten years after the district court ruled that Wardrip’s trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and obtain prison records that could have shown Wardrip was unlikely to pose a continuing threat to society if he was spared the death penalty. Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham dissented from the panel’s ruling. He said that counsel’s reliance on “a single piece of evidence: that Wardrip ‘had only two minor disciplinary reports’ over the course of nearly twelve years in prison,” without requesting other prison records was unreasonable and prejudicial. Higginbotham noted that the other prison records contained “numerous facts that would have given the jury a more complete picture of Wardrip’s life in prison than a bare recitation of his disciplinary infractions,” including that “while in prison, Wardrip worked as a fireman and reporter, earned his GED, attended classes, acted as a trustee, and raised funds for a young man in need of a kidney transplant.” Wardrip, now 61, White, committed five murders in Texas between December 1984 and May 1986. Four of the murders happened in Wichita County and one happened in Tarrant County. He claimed he committed the crimes due to his abuse of illegal drugs. Wardrip was sentenced to death by the court, as his defense lawyer argued he wasn’t a danger if he was instead given a life sentence. He was sentenced to death on November 9, 1999. Wardrip filed several appeals over the years on the basis of ineffective assistance by his lawyer. On April 9, 2010 (see), the federal court conditionally granted a relief, stopped the death sentence and ordered that Wardrip should be released if the State didn’t start proceedings for a new trial or agreed to a life sentence within 180 days. The district court has now reversed that relief, reinstating the death sentence.
