Ex parte DeLaCruz (original by judge alcala)
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In November 1998, police discovered the body of Jorge Pena while on early morning patrol in a secluded area of the Baytown Nature Center. Pena was found lying face down in a pool of blood with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Initially, investigators had few leads in the case. It was
not until approximately one year later that detectives received a tip from a confidential informant suggesting that applicant had been involved in Pena’s murder. Based on the informant’s tip, officers arrested applicant’s son-in-law, Juan De La Garza, and De La Garza’s friend Marcos Torres, both of whom were said to have been present at the time of the shooting of Pena. Based on incriminating statements given by De La Garza and Torres, applicant was indicted for Pena’s murder. In this application for a post-conviction writ of habeas corpus, the issue before the Court of Criminal Appeals centered on a claim that the use of false testimony in a criminal trial violated a defendant’s due-process rights. Furthermore, the Court considered whether such a claim might be subject to procedural default for failure to raise it at some earlier stage of the proceedings. Concluding that applicant’s claim was not procedurally barred because he had no prior opportunity to fully litigate it, the Court reached the merits of his claim and determined that the record failed to demonstrate that applicant’s conviction was procured on the basis of false testimony, and, alternatively, even assuming
that false testimony was admitted at applicant’s trial, that testimony was not material to his
conviction. Accordingly, the Court denied relief.
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