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Updated: 9:55 AM Feb 27, 2006
Attorney Criticized For Duplicate Death Row Appeals
A court appointed attorney who represents the so-called Texas Railroad Killer is under fire for filing a nearly duplicate appeal for another death row inmate. Posted: 4:45 PM Feb 26, 2006 |
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(Feb. 26, 2006)--The court-appointed attorney who handled the death penalty appeal of condemned serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz is being criticized for filing a nearly identical appeal for another death row inmate.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday that Houston lawyer Leslie Ribnik wrote the virtually identical appeals for Maturino Resendiz and another condemned prisoner, Robert Gene Will.
Except for different names, the first 20 pages of both appeals are identical, including the same capitalization error on page 17.
The briefs, which center mostly on a single technical challenge to instructions given to Texas death-penalty juries, also give incorrect conviction dates for both men.
Ribnik has apologized for the mistakes but says the appeal argument is valid.
A new legal team for Maturino Resendiz has since replaced Ribnik, a criminal lawyer for 16 years.
Maturino Resendiz, the Mexican drifter dubbed the "Railroad Killer," remains on Texas death row and is scheduled to be executed on May 10 for raping and killing a Houston doctor.
He was named the "Railroad Killer" after being linked to 14 slayings in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Illinois near the rail lines he rode nationwide.
He has claimed to have committed even more.
Among his alleged victims was a former Central Texas pastor and his wife.
Skip and Karen Sirnic were killed in Weimar.
Before moving there, they lived in Riesel, where Skip Sirnic pastored the Friedens United Methodist Church.
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