Herrera v. Collins
| Herrera v. Collins | |
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| Argued October 7, 1992 Decided January 25, 1993 |
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| Full case name | Leonel Torres Herrera, Petitioner v. James A. Collins, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division |
| Citations | 506 U.S. 390 (more)
113 S. Ct. 853; 122 L. Ed. 2d 203; 1993 U.S. LEXIS 1017; 61 U.S.L.W. 4108; 93 Cal. Daily Op. Service 512; 93 Daily Journal DAR 1024; 6 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 882
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| Prior history | Defendant convicted, 197th Judicial District Court of Cameron County, Texas; affirmed, 682 S.W.2d 313 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984); certiorari denied, 471 U.S. 1131 (1985); petition for writ of habeas corpus denied, 819 S.W.2d 528 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991); certiorari denied, 502 U.S. 1085 (1992); denial of petition for writ of habeas corpus affirmed, 904 F.2d 944 (5th Cir. 1990); certiorari denied, 498 U.S. 925 (1990); stay of execution vacated, 954 F.2d 1029 (5th Cir. 1992); certiorari granted, 502 U.S. 1085 (1992) |
| Subsequent history | Rehearing denied, 507 U.S. 1001 (1993) |
| Holding | |
| Petitioner's claim of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence is not ground for federal habeas relief. United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas |
| Concurrence | O'Connor, joined by Kennedy |
| Concurrence | Scalia, joined by Thomas |
| Concurrence | White |
| Dissent | Blackmun, joined by Stevens, Souter (parts I–IV) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amends. VIII, XIV | |
Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390 (1993), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled by 6 votes to 3 that a claim of actual innocence does not entitle a petitioner to federal habeas corpus relief by way of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
On September 29, 1981, Texas Department of Public Safety Officer David Rucker was shot and killed along a stretch of highway a few miles north of Brownsville, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. Rucker's body, discovered by a passer-by, was lying beside his patrol car. He had been shot in the head. Around the same time, Los Fresnos Police Officer Enrique Carrisalez observed a speeding vehicle traveling on the same road away from where Rucker's body had been found. Carrisalez and his partner turned on the patrol car's flashing red lights and pursued the vehicle, which pulled over. Carrisalez took a flashlight and walked toward the car. The driver of the vehicle opened his door and exchanged words with Carrisalez before firing at least one shot at Carrisalez' chest. He died nine days later. Leonel Torres Herrera was arrested a few days later and was charged with the capital murder of both Carrisalez and Rucker.
Before he died, Carrisalez also identified Herrera as the person who shot him from a single photograph shown to him in the hospital (not a photo array). The license plate of the vehicle from which the gunman emerged was traced back to Herrera's live-in girlfriend, a car that local law officers knew Herrera drove on occasion. Carrisalez' partner testified that only one person was in the car when Carrisalez was shot.
Other evidence showed that Herrera's Social Security card had been found alongside Rucker's patrol car on the night he was killed. Splatters of blood on the car identified by Carrisalez' partner as the vehicle involved in the shootings were found to be type A blood, the same as Rucker's. Blood on Herrera's pants and wallet was likewise discovered to be type A. Last, a handwritten letter was found on Herrera when he was arrested which "strongly implied" that he had killed Rucker.
In January 1982, Herrera was tried for the murder of Carrisalez. At the trial, Carrisalez' partner identified Herrera as the person who shot Carrisalez. The jury found Herrera guilty of the capital murder of Carrisalez, for which he was sentenced to death. Later that year, Herrera pleaded guilty to the murder of Rucker.
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