Judge Orders New Trial for ‘Texas 7’ Death Row Inmate Randy Halprin

Randy Halprin in a file photo. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

A Texas death row inmate is expected to get a new trial over anti-Semitic bias harbored against him by the judge who presided over his case, according to a court ruling.

Randy Halprin, a “Texas Seven” prison gang member, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins on Dec. 24, 2000. His lawyers have long argued that Judge Vickers Cunningham, who presided over his trial, was biased against him because Halprin is Jewish.

Late Monday, Judge Lela Mays of the 283rd Criminal District Court in Dallas County concluded that Halprin was denied his rights to exercise his religion, due process, and equal protection of the law. Mays recommended that the Court of Criminal Appeals vacate the conviction and death sentence ordered against Halprin.

“In light of all the evidence, this Court finds both that Judge Cunningham harbored actual bias against Applicant because Applicant is a Jew and that Judge Cunningham’s anti-Semitic prejudices created an objectively intolerable risk of bias,” Mays wrote in the ruling.

The 45-year-old death row inmate and six others escaped from a maximum security prison in South Texas in December 2000. After breaking out, the escapees went on a robbery spree, including one at a sporting goods store where they shot and killed Hawkins, 29, on Christmas Eve in 2000.

A nationwide manhunt ensued, leading to the capture of six of the men near Colorado Springs, Colorado, in January 2001. The seventh man died by suicide before he could be captured.

All six were charged and convicted of capital murder of a police officer and sentenced to death.

Halprin and Patrick Murphy, who is awaiting execution, are the only living members of the infamous seven escapees. Four have been executed.

Cunningham, who served as a District Court Judge and Dallas County Judge, retired from the bench in 2005 and went into private law practice. He also served as Dallas District Attorney Pro Tem from 2015 to 2016 on the research, investigation, and prosecution of capital murder cases.

In August, witnesses testified that Cunningham expressed anti-Semitic bias while presiding over the 2003 capital murder trial.

Cunningham’s younger brother was among the witnesses who testified that the judge had used racial slurs “almost all the time.”

“As the State has conceded, the contemporaneous statements that Judge Cunningham viewed the Texas 7 co-defendants as ‘the Mexican, the queer, and the Jew,’ and that he vowed to ‘get them all the death penalty,' established that Judge Cunningham harbored actual, subjective bias against [Halprin] at the time of trial because [Halprin] is Jewish,” according to Mays’s ruling.

The Murder of the Officer

Hawkins had just finished eating Christmas Eve dinner at a restaurant with his wife, son, mother, and grandmother when he was called to check out suspicious activity at the nearby Oshman’s store. He drove around the parking lot and made his way to a loading dock, where he was met with a “barrage of gunfire,” according to the Irving Police.

Halprin, who pleaded not guilty, claims he “did not shoot or pull a gun on that night,” according to his personal website, where he posts updates on his case.

The officer had “no time to take evasive or defensive action” when he was fired upon, the police said. “Mortally wounded, Officer Hawkins was pulled from his squad car and run over by the killers.”

Days before Halprin was scheduled for lethal injection on Oct. 19, 2019, he was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Halprin’s case because state-court proceedings were already underway to address the accusations that religious bias had affected his trial.

“The facts underlying this petition are deeply disturbing,” Justice Sonia Sotomayer wrote in a statement explaining the reasons for the decision (pdf).

In October 2021, Mays found that Cunningham violated Halprin’s right to a fair trial. She recommended overturning his death sentence. In May, the appeals court ordered an evidentiary hearing to be held before considering the case.

Mays’s ruling comes after the three-day trial in August. The case will be forwarded to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.