SAN ANGELO, Texas — Ted Calvin Cole, known in San Angelo as the dog leash killer, will serve a life sentence instead of facing execution.
The state has decided to back away from attempts to resentence Cole to death in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court reversal on the penalty phase of Cole’s trial, which concluded in 1988 with a death sentence.
119th District Judge Ben Woodward signed the judgment Tuesday.
According to a release issued by the 51st and 119th district Attorney’s Office, the passage of 22 years since the initial trial makes it unlikely a new death penalty sentence will be carried out or upheld at the appellate courts.
51st District Attorney Steve Lupton said one problem is that it took 11 years from the time of the original trial to the conclusion of the state post-conviction process — a process by which a criminal defendant may challenge a court decision.
In April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the capital sentence of Jalil Abdul-Kabir, formerly named Ted Calvin Cole, in the 1988 strangling death of 66-year-old Raymond Richardson of San Angelo.
Cole, 31 at the time, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection.
“The death penalty is an appropriate punishment for Cole. But until our appellate court systems efficiently carries out death penalty sentences, unnecessary delays will cripple the death penalty as an effective option in punishment,” Lupton said Tuesday in a news release.
In 1999, the district attorney’s office pursued a death penalty sentence and the defendant was executed in 2005, Lupton said, so the penalty is possible in today’s court system. A 2008 Texas Department of Criminal Justice report showed that of the 1,976 offenders serving a life sentence for capital murder only five had been released on parole since 1995.
Those released likely had little to no criminal history before their capital murder convictions. But when Cole was 16, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting and killing the man he described as his “best friend,” Gary Don Dedecker. Cole reportedly took Dedecker’s car after shooting him in the throat. He served 5˝ years of that sentence before being released on parole in 1978.
“There is nothing we can do to change the parole laws at the time of Cole’s conviction,” Lupton said in the release, “but being eligible for parole does not mean that one will receive parole, particularly in Cole’s case.”
In 1982, he was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse of two children in Dallas and sentenced to two 15-year concurrent sentences. He was released on parole in June 1987 after serving 5˝ years.
Lupton said although financial costs are not a factor in pursuing justice, the state cannot ignore the fact that a death penalty trial could cost the county at least $250,000.
In his release, Lupton thanked those responsible for obtaining Cole’s initial death-penalty ruling in 1988, including law enforcement officials, prosecutors and witnesses.
Cole was represented in his appeal by the West Texas Regional Defender for Capital Cases, an organization that has been defending capital cases since January 2008.
Jack Stoffregen, an attorney on the case, spent part of Tuesday afternoon notifying people connected to the case of the outcome. He agrees that whenever a case is as old as Cole’s, all kinds of witness and legal problems arise.
“We’re obviously pleased on Mr. Cole’s behalf and on everyone’s behalf,” Stoffregen said. “It was a good outcome, not only for him but it was the most favorable outcome under the circumstance for the district attorney’s office, the court and all your taxpayers as well.”
Cole’s case had the longest time lapse of any case the firm has defended. Stoffregen said its attorneys are typically appointed immediately after the case is tried. In Cole’s case there was a four to five year period when nothing happened.
Stoffregen said attorneys realized from the beginning that finding witnesses would be a problem — when they attempted to find family members, teachers and counselors a good number of them had died since the original trial.
Lupton said that a number of them had not testified in the original trial, and therefore, the court had no record to offer in a new trial.
Cole is eligible for parole after he has earned 15 years of credit. He has served time in Huntsville, but it is unclear at this time where he will serve the rest of his sentence.
“Something we talked about here in discussing the case — it’s our belief that Ted will serve the rest of his life in prison,” Stoffregen said. “The chance of parole in our opinion is not there.”
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/jun/29/ted-calvin-cole-to-serve-life-instead-of-facing/?partner=yahoo_feeds
Topic: Ted Cole TX DR #906 Resentenced to Life in 1988 Murder (Read 2771 times)