Crime lab problems don't stop execution
Questions in case raised over Houston's police lab
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A convicted killer was executed even though the handling of his case by Houston's troubled police lab had been called into question by two state senators and the police chief himself.
Edward Green III, 30, was put to death Tuesday night despite his attorneys' pleas that evidence relevant to his double murder trial might be in some 280 recently discovered boxes that had been mislabeled and improperly stored.
Green's lawyers as well as the senators and the police chief had wanted all executions out of Harris County stayed pending review of the boxes. In Green's case, prosecutors said all evidence had been accounted for.
Gov. Rick Perry refused to impose a blanket moratorium on Harris County executions and rejected a 30-day reprieve for Green.
The U.S. Supreme Court and Texas' high court also declined to block Green's execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles twice refused clemency requests.
"The main evidence leading to Green's conviction is his own confession to these brutal and senseless murders," the governor said.
Green was convicted of fatally shooting Edward Haden, 72, and Helen O'Sullivan, 63, during a 1992 robbery.
Green's lawyers have questioned the reliability of ballistics evidence, but the Houston police lab controversy for the past two years has centered on the reliability of its DNA testing procedures.
The lab's DNA section has been closed since a 2002 audit revealed possible contamination of evidence, inadequate training for analysts and insufficient documentation.
DNA retesting has been ordered in about 400 other cases, including 17 of death-row inmates who have not been assigned execution dates.
Green made a final statement, apologizing to families of the victims.
"I do not come here with the intention to make myself out to be a person I am not," Green said in a brief final statement. "I never claimed to be the best person. ... I did the best I could with what I had."
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