Texas Jewish death row inmate Randy Halprin was granted a new trial after a judge ruled in his favor over allegations that the judge who presided over his trial used anti-Semitic language, WFAA reported.
A Dallas County judge has ruled that Halprin – part of the “Texas 7” group of escaped prisoners – be given a new trial after examining evidence that his trial was biased because the judge held anti-Semitic beliefs.
Judge Lela Mays approved Halprin’s application for relief after examining claims by the death row inmate that former Dallas County Judge Vickers Cunningham referred to him using anti-Semitic language, thereby prejudicing the jury against him.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will now make a final decision as to whether Halprin will be given a new trial.
Halprin, 44, had argued he had not received a fair trial because of Vickers’ biased views against him and his references to Halprin using anti-Semitic language.
In her ruling, Mays found that Halprin’s application for a new trial should be granted because Cunningham did not recuse himself or reveal his views, which would have allowed the defense to ask for a new judge, Newsweek reported.
"In light of all the evidence, this court finds both that Judge Cunningham harbored actual, subjective bias against Halprin because Halprin is a Jew, and that Judge Cunningham's anti-Semitic prejudices created an objectively intolerable risk of bias," Mays wrote.
Mays urged the Court of Criminal Appeals to throw out Halprin’s conviction and death sentence, and said that a “new fair trial is the only remedy.”
In 2019, Halprin was granted a stay of execution by the Court of Criminal Appeals after presenting evidence that Cunningham harbored anti-Semitic views.
Halprin, 43, was part of the “Texas 7” group of prisoners who escaped from a prison in the state in 2000 and were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer who responded to a robbery they committed. Four of them have already been executed.
In May 2019, Halprin said in an appeal that Cunningham, who sentenced him in 2003, referred to him using anti-Semitic slurs, including “f****n’ Jew” and “g*****n k**e.”
At the time of his escape, Halprin was serving a 30-year prison term for beating and injuring a child. He does not deny being at the scene when police officer Aubrey Hawkins was murdered in December 2000, but says he did not fire his gun.