Steve Wells is quoted in several major publications commenting on the muder case involving Joe Lee Guy.
Chicago Tribune
June 23, 2004
"Death Row inmate wins sympathy. Even officials in Texas say justice was not served."
AUSTIN, Texas -- It's not often that a condemned inmate seeking commutation of his death sentence can win the support of the prosecutor who put him on Death Row, the chief judge of the county court and the local sheriff.
But then, it's not often that a case like Joe Lee Guy's makes it through the court system, his defenders say.
Guy was the unarmed lookout for a 1993 convenience-store robbery in Plainview, Texas, in which the store owner was murdered and his elderly mother was wounded. At his trial, Guy was represented by a court-appointed defense lawyer who had been disciplined or suspended by the state bar more than a dozen times and whose secretary said he snorted cocaine on the way to the courtroom.
The defense lawyer, in turn, hired an unlicensed investigator who befriended the mother of the murder victim and coached her through her testimony against his own client. Soon afterward, the investigator became the sole beneficiary of her will.
His defense team thus seriously compromised, Guy was quickly convicted of the murder and sentenced to death, while his two accomplices--the actual shooters--drew life sentences. During the penalty phase of his trial, Guy's attorney failed to present any mitigation witnesses who could have testified to his non-violent nature, his diminished mental capacity or his nightmarish childhood at the hands of an abusive mother.
"The facts of this case are unprecedented and have made clear to us that Guy's death sentence should not stand," wrote Terry McEachern, the Hale County district attorney who prosecuted Guy, in a petition to Texas Gov. Rick Perry seeking commutation of Guy's punishment to life in prison. He was joined in the petition by Ed Self, presiding judge of the Hale County district court, and both the current and former county sheriffs.
Perry has yet to act on the commutation petition, despite the unanimous endorsement of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a hearing on Guy's last remaining legal appeal will be held in U.S. District Court in Lubbock. Defense attorneys are seeking a new sentencing hearing for Guy so that mitigation evidence can be heard by a jury.
Texas has long been considered the state most aggressive in using the death penalty, and officials here have conducted more than one-third of all executions carried out in the U.S. in the past 28 years. But while death penalty opponents have frequently criticized the quality of justice in Texas capital cases, Guy's is a rare instance in which they have been joined by some state officials.
"It's the worst aberration I've seen," said Self, who has been a judge in Hale County for six years and a lawyer for 25 years before that. Self did not preside over Guy's original trial but he reviewed the case at the request of Guy's current defense team.
Recruited as lookout
Guy, now 32, was 21 at the time his cousin and an accomplice recruited him to act as a lookout for the robbery of Howell's Grocery Store in Plainview. A compliant and simple man, according to those who knew him--his IQ tested at 77--Guy agreed. Evidence at his trial indicated he stood watch outside the store and entered only after the proprietor, Larry Howell, had been murdered and his mother, French Howell, wounded.
Guy's childhood had been marked by isolation and rejection; when he was in elementary school, children would throw pennies at him for entertainment. Friends and family members recalled that his mother was addicted to gambling and drugs and frequently left Guy and his sister to fend for themselves. His father, an alcoholic, was murdered. But the jury in his capital trial heard none of that character evidence because the defense investigator, Frank SoRelle, failed to find any witnesses who could have provided it. (The attorneys pursuing Guy's federal appeal found more than 50 friends and relatives who supplied affidavits on his behalf.)
It was SoRelle's behavior that has most alarmed court officials and legal experts who have reviewed Guy's case, particularly the investigator's unorthodox relationship with French Howell.
"As trial officials pledged to the pursuit of justice, we cannot defend a capital sentence obtained when a primary member of the defense team was actively pursuing a relationship with, and representation of, the mother of the murder victim, herself a victim of the crime," wrote McEachern, Self and the sheriffs.
SoRelle befriended the elderly woman and sat in the back of the courtroom during her testimony, signaling to her as she answered questions. After Guy's conviction, SoRelle acted as her representative and, when she died a year later, he emerged as the beneficiary of her $750,000 estate.
In an affidavit solicited by Guy's defense team in July 2000, SoRelle conceded that his relationship had been inappropriate and constituted a conflict of interest.
"The truth of the matter is this: Joe Lee Guy had ... an inexperienced investigator who felt more compassion for the surviving victim, Ms. Howell, than I had for Joe Lee Guy, my client," SoRelle stated.
SoRelle has since renounced that affidavit, however. Now a real estate agent in Lubbock, he contended during a brief phone interview that he did nothing improper.
New hearing opposed
Despite the recommendation of the parole board that Guy's death sentence be commuted--a recommendation the tough-minded board members have made only a handful of times in recent years--the attorney general is opposing defense efforts this week to win a new sentencing hearing.
"On the issues currently presented in federal court, we do not believe error existed during the original trial proceedings," said Jerry Strickland, the attorney general's spokesman.
But that position baffles Steven Wells, a Minneapolis pro bono attorney who is leading Guy's appeal.
"This is just a horrible miscarriage of justice," said Wells. "I frankly don't see how the state can oppose this and rationally take the position that this sentence shouldn't be commuted to life."
Associated Press
June 23, 2004, Wednesday
"Inmate awaits word on clemency request as hearings resume"
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - Joe Lee Guy, who has been waiting nearly six months for Gov. Rick Perry to decide whether to commute his death sentence, will return to court Wednesday for hearings on whether he should have been sentenced to die.
According to his clemency petition, Guy was an unarmed lookout in a 1993 robbery-murder in Plainview. The other two men convicted in the slaying of 62-year-old Larry Howell at a grocery store were sentenced to life.
Guy appealed based on the behavior of a defense attorney and an investigator during sentencing, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Sam Cumming's Lubbock court for evidentiary hearings. The hearings began in October but were halted after Guy's clemency petition was filed.
After reviewing the clemency petition, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in January recommended Perry commute Guy's sentence to life in prison. The hearings are set to proceed Wednesday because Perry has not yet ruled on the commutation, said Steve Wells, Guy's appellate attorney.
Perry said June 14 that "we are not ready to make a ruling on that yet." His office on Tuesday said the recommendation is still under review.
Associated Press
June 22, 2004, Tuesday
"Inmate awaits word on clemency request as hearings resume"
LUBBOCK, Texas--Joe Lee Guy, who has been waiting nearly six months for Gov. Rick Perry to decide whether to commute his death sentence, will return to court Wednesday for hearings on whether he should have been sentenced to die.
According to his clemency petition, Guy was an unarmed lookout in a 1993 robbery-murder in Plainview. The other two men convicted in the slaying of 62-year-old Larry Howell at a grocery store were sentenced to life.
Guy appealed based on the behavior of a defense attorney and an investigator during sentencing, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Sam Cumming's Lubbock court for evidentiary hearings. The hearings began in October but were halted after Guy's clemency petition was filed.
After reviewing the clemency petition, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in January recommended Perry commute Guy's sentence to life in prison. The hearings are set to proceed Wednesday because Perry has not yet ruled on the commutation, said Steve Wells, Guy's appellate attorney.
Perry said June 14 that "we are not ready to make a ruling on that yet." His office on Tuesday said the recommendation is still under review.
The evidentiary hearings deal only with Guy's sentencing, not his conviction. Another of Guy's attorneys, Philip Wischkaemper, said he's aiming for a retrial on mitigating factors in the punishment phase.
"Frankly, that's about the best we could hope for," he said.
Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office, which will represent the state in the hearings, declined to comment.
Cummings will hear evidence on whether Guy had ineffective counsel during his punishment phase because of lack of oversight of a defense investigator by Guy's trial attorney, Richard Wardroup.
According to the clemency petition, unlicensed investigator Frank SoRelle formed a relationship with French Howell, the victim's mother. A few months after Guy was sentenced to death, French Howell named SoRelle her sole beneficiary. When French Howell died about a year later, SoRelle inherited about $750,000.
In a 2000 affidavit, SoRelle acknowledged there was a conflict of interest and it "at times caused me to conduct my investigation in a way that was damaging to Joe Lee Guy getting a proper defense."
Wardroup declined to comment Tuesday.
Guy's attorneys also claim the number and quality of witnesses presented were woefully inadequate.
There is no execution date set for Guy.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
"Hearings will resume for Death Row inmate"
Joe Lee Guy, who has been waiting nearly six months for Gov. Rick Perry to decide whether to commute his death sentence, will return to court today for hearings on whether he should have been sentenced to die.
According to his clemency petition, Guy was an unarmed lookout in a 1993 robbery-murder in Plainview. The other two men convicted in the slaying of 62-year-old Larry Howell at a grocery store were sentenced to life in prison.
Guy appealed based on the behavior of a defense attorney and an investigator during sentencing, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Sam Cumming's Lubbock court for evidentiary hearings. The hearings began in October but were halted after Guy's clemency petition was filed.
After reviewing the clemency petition, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in January recommended that Perry commute Guy's sentence to life in prison. The hearings are set to proceed today because Perry has not yet ruled on the commutation, said Steve Wells, Guy's appellate attorney.