Court denies appeal for Texas 7 prison escapee who wanted to delay his execution

One of the remaining Texas 7 prison escapees had his request to delay his execution denied Wednesday.

Patrick Murphy, 58, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 13 for his role in the 2003 murder of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins.

Murphy was serving a 50-year sentence for sexual assault with a deadly weapon on Dec. 13, 2000, when he and six other inmates escaped the Connally Unit of the Texas prison system.

On Christmas Eve 2000, the group robbed a sporting goods store in Irving and shot Hawkins 11 times when the officer arrived at the scene. The group fled to Colorado, where six of them were arrested and the seventh died by suicide to avoid being captured.

A jury convicted Murphy of capital murder in 2003. He was the sixth and final member of the group sentenced to death in the case.

In his most recent appeal, Murphy said he shouldn’t be executed because he was not a major participant in the robbery that led to the Hawkins’ death.

He claimed he didn’t want to rob the store and remained in the car while the rest of the group went inside, according to court documents.

Murphy was convicted because of the “law of parties,” which finds him responsible for the murder just by participating in the robbery, even if he didn’t shoot the officer.

“You don’t have to pull the trigger to kill someone,” then-Dallas County prosecutor Bill Wirskye said at Murphy’s 2003 trial. “He’s got Aubrey Hawkins’ blood on his hands.”

Additionally, Murphy accused the judge who presided over his criminal trial of being biased. He claimed then-Judge Vickers “Vic” Cunningham hoped his 2006 bid to become Dallas County’s district attorney would get a boost from presiding over Murphy’s trial and those of other Texas 7 members.

Murphy’s death by lethal injection was initially scheduled for March, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution after he claimed religious discrimination. Murphy is Buddhist and wanted a Buddhist priest present at his death, but his attorneys said one wasn’t allowed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Randy Halprin, the other remaining member of the Texas 7, after Halprin accused Cunningham of making anti-Semitic statements about him during his trial. Halprin is Jewish.

The court took Halprin’s allegations against Cunningham seriously and delayed his execution, which had been scheduled for earlier in October.