UPDATE, 11/7/34, 4:13 p.m.: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined Tuesday to consider Brewer’s challenge regarding the state’s discredited “expert” witness on future dangerousness. The same day, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously not to stay or postpone Brewer’s execution. His lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution on the basis of the junk science used to convict Brewer in 2009.
The State of Texas’ expert witness, Dr. Richard Coons, testified under oath that Brent Brewer, who was on trial for murder, had no conscience. He was the final witness for the prosecution in the 2009 retrial, and he asserted that Brewer would pose a future danger if given life in prison—a critical distinction Texas jurors must make when the death penalty is on the table. His testimony proved damning: The jury sentenced Brewer to death.
But, according to court filings, the psychiatrist had never spoken to Brewer, never examined him. He’d never even laid eyes on the defendant until he testified in his first capital trial. (Brewer’s initial death sentence was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, but a second jury sentenced him to death in 2009.) Now, as Brewer’s November 9 execution date looms, his lawyers are pleading with the state’s highest appeals court to stay his execution in order to consider how damaging Coons’ “unscientific” testimony was.
