Summary:

Ransom, along with Isaac Johnson, Nathan Clark and Brian Williams, went to the home of Herbert "Bill" Primm, an optometrist, in Arlington, Texas. Primm was also a licensed gun dealer and sold guns out of his car trunk.

Clark knocked on the door and Primm told him to go around to the garage. When Primm opened up the trunk of his car, Clark grabbed two Tec Nine firearms from inside, and Johnson ran up and grabbed one of them from Clark.

At the same time, Ransom grabbed Primm by the back of the head. Ransom then hit Primm, leaned him over the trunk of the car, shot him one time, and Primm fell to the ground.

Johnson testified at trial that Ransom said he had shot Primm because Primm saw Johnson's face.

On Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1991, the Fort Worth police executed an arrest and search warrant at Ransom's residence.

The subject of the arrest warrant was Alexis Apples, wanted by the police for his role in a capital murder at J. R.'s Food Store 2 weeks earlier. At the police station, Apples implicated Ransom in the murders at J.R.'s Food Store.

Upon arrest, Ransom admitted his involvement in the murders. Firearms examiners identifies a Tec Nine taken from Ransom's bedroom, as having been taken in the Primm robbery/murder.

Two weeks before Primm's murder, Ransom and Apples stole a car and robbed J.R.'s Food Store in Fort Worth. Ransom and Apples went into the store armed with guns and wearing ski masks while Williams waited in the car. Immediately upon entering the store, Apples shot store clerk Juan Valdez and Ransom shot store owner Sulieman El-Hamad. Ransom then ran out of the store carrying the store's cash register.

During Ransom's 1992 trial, he attacked his lawyer, then a prosecutor, with a homemade knife in court, but was subdued before causing serious injury. In 1997, he made an unsuccessful escape attempt from death row.

Final Meal:

Ransom did not request a last meal.

Final Words:

"I just want to address Katrina and Rebecca. You have been beautiful to me. Without you in my life, I would not have been able to make it like this. Probably, I would have put up a good fight; you have calmed me. I love you. I respect you. Big brother, you put up the best fight you could and I love you. That is it."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Monday, July 21, 2003

Cedric Lamont Ransom Scheduled to be Executed.

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Cedric Lamont Ransom, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 23, 2003. On Feb. 14, 1997, Ransom was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Herbert Primm, which occurred during the course of a robbery in Arlington, Texas. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On Saturday, Dec. 7, 1991, Cedric Lamont Ransom, along with Isaac Johnson, Nathan Clark and Brian Williams, went to the home of Herbert "Bill" Primm, an optometrist, in Arlington, Texas. Primm was also a licensed gun dealer and sold guns out of his car trunk. Clark knocked on the door and Primm told him to go around to the garage.

When Primm opened up the trunk of his car, Clark grabbed two Tec Nine firearms from inside, and Johnson ran up and grabbed one of them from Clark. At the same time, Ransom grabbed Primm by the back of the head.

Ransom then hit Primm, leaned him over the trunk of the car, shot him one time, and Primm fell to the ground. Johnson testified at trial that Ransom said he had shot Primm because Primm saw Johnson's face.

After shooting Primm, Ransom grabbed another Tec Nine out of the trunk and the four men ran to their car. As they did so, Primm's neighbor Steven Gervais, who had emerged from his house when he heard the noise of the gunshot, saw them and yelled, "Hey. What are you doing?"

Ransom then fired upon Gervais. Gervais ran inside to retrieve his own gun but when he returned moments later, the four were gone. He then saw Primm and shouted back to the house for his brother to call 9-1-1. Gervais then went to try to help Primm, but he could not find a pulse. The police arrived about five or 10 minutes later.

On Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1991, the Fort Worth police executed an arrest and search warrant at Ransom's residence. The subject of the arrest warrant was Alexis Apples, who was the boyfriend of Ransom's sister and who also lived there.

Apples was wanted by the police for his role in a capital murder at J. R.'s Food Store on Nov. 24, 1991. During the course of the search, officers found numerous weapons including a Tec Nine and a .44 Magnum, a firearm scope, a magazine clip, .44-caliber ammunition, a shoulder holster, and a large knife in a plastic sheath. Apples was taken into custody.

At the police station, Apples gave a statement about the murders at J.R.'s Food Store and was charged with capital murder. Based on Apples' statement, police obtained an arrest warrant for Ransom. Later that same day, Ransom and his family went to the police station to inquire about Apples.

When the police learned that Ransom was downstairs waiting in the car, they sent three officers down to arrest Ransom for the capital murder at J.R.'s Food Store. After being advised of and waiving his rights, Ransom gave a voluntary audio taped statement about the J.R.'s offense. Firearms examiners restored the serial number to the Tec Nine taken from Ransom's bedroom. The number matched the serial number of one of the Tec Nines recorded in Primm's acquisition-disposition log without a purchaser.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

• 02/13/92 - Ransom was indicted for the 12/07/91 capital murder of Herbert Primm.

• 12/05/92 - Ransom was found guilty of capital murder.

• 12/10/92 - Ransom was sentenced to death.

• 06/15/94 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Ransom's conviction and sentence due to error occurring at jury selection.

• 02/20/96 - On the State's motion for rehearing, the Court of Criminal Appeals issued a new opinion affirming Ransom's conviction, but vacating the sentence and remanding for a new punishment hearing.

• 02/14/97 - On retrial of the punishment phase, Ransom was again sentenced to death.

• 02/10/99 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court in an unpublished opinion.

• 08/27/98 - While direct appeal was pending, Ransom filed his state writ of habeas corpus petition raising 12 claims.

• 11/30/98 - The state habeas court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law, recommending that relief be denied.

• 02/24/99 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals independently denied all habeas relief.

• 03/28/00 - Ransom filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus raising 16 claims.

• 05/10/02 - The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, denied all habeas relief.

• 03/05/03 - The Fifth Circuit denied Ransom's COA application in an unpublished opinion. Ransom did not seek rehearing.

• 06/30/03 - Ransom petitioned for clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

• 07/21/03 - The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denies Ransom permission to file a successive federal habeas petition.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

Evidence during the 1997 retrial on punishment showed that before the robbery and murder of Herbert Primm, Ransom had participated in several other violent crimes with his friends.

On Nov. 24, 1991, two weeks before Primm's murder, Ransom and Alexis Apples stole a car from a church parking lot and picked up Brian Williams. The trio parked behind J.R.'s Food Store in Fort Worth.

Ransom and Apples went into the store armed with guns and wearing ski masks while Williams waited in the car. Immediately upon entering the store, Apples shot store clerk Juan Valdez and Ransom shot store owner Sulieman El-Hamad. Ransom then ran out of the store carrying the store's cash register. Eighteen-year-old Valdez died at the scene while El-Hamad, a father of seven, was completely paralyzed and was unable to breathe on his own. He died approximately eight months later as a result of his injuries. Ransom later admitted that he and Apples committed the murders at J.R.'s, and gave an audio taped confession to police.

On Nov. 27, 1991, only three days after the murders at J.R.'s and 10 days before Primm's murder, a robbery-murder occurred in Fort Worth at Brian's Food Store, which was owned and operated by Adam and Diana Mefleh.

Diana was talking on the telephone with her husband around 3:50 p.m. when he told her that two men whom he had never seen were entering the store. She then heard one of the men tell Adam to open the cash register and move away from the counter, and the other male warned, "Do what he said or he will shoot you." The phone then fell to the floor and Diana called 9-1-1. Adam's body was found behind the counter; he had been shot in the head from a distance of two to three feet. During the investigation, police found Ransom's fingerprints on a candy wrapper that had been left on the store counter.

In addition, police recovered a 9 mm semiautomatic shell casing from a freestanding shelf in the store, and found another projectile in a candy rack. Test firing confirmed that the bullet and casing were fired by a 9 mm handgun seized from the house where Ransom and Apples lived. At trial, Ransom testified that he was with Apples during the robbery and that Apples shot a man at Brian's Food Store with a chrome 9 mm.

The State also introduced evidence that in September and October 1989, then 16-year-old Ransom and several friends participated in four home invasion burglaries.

During three of these burglaries, the victims were robbed at gunpoint late at night. One victim was kicked, beaten and threatened with death. Another victim, a 19-year-old college student living with her parents, was surprised by the intruders while taking a shower and was pulled from the shower by Ransom and an accomplice. Ransom confessed his part in the burglaries to the police.

Other evidence proved that Ransom's violent behavior continued after his incarceration for Primm's murder. On Nov. 11, 1992, at the close of voir dire in the first trial of this cause, Ransom stood up in the courtroom, grabbed Chris Phillips (one of his attorneys) around the neck, and held a knife-like weapon to Phillip's throat. When Bailiff William Wooden entered the courtroom, he slammed his asp on a table and screamed at Ransom to release Phillips.

In response, Ransom pulled away from Phillips, looked at Bob Gill, the former prosecutor, then advanced toward Gill, raising the weapon in a stabbing motion and threatening, "I'll kill you. I'll kill you." When Gill grabbed Ransom's arm, the men fell to the floor, and Ransom continued to fight Gill until Wooden pulled Gill away. Wooden then struck Ransom with his asp, took the weapon from him, and handcuffed him. As a result of the incident, Gill, Phillips, and both bailiffs suffered cuts and injuries.

On Feb. 2, 1995, Ransom and other death row inmates were in the outdoor recreational area when a fight broke out between two inmates. When the inmates were ordered to "rack up" -- to come to the door to be strip searched, placed in restraints, and escorted to the cells -- Ransom refused to obey and was restrained by two officers. While the inmates were being escorted one at a time from the area, Ransom broke free from the officers, lunged at two inmates, and had to be restrained again.

At the time of the incident, Ransom was housed in a segregated unit on death row pending an investigation for an attempt to take over the prison garment factory.

On Dec. 31, 1996, Ransom was housed in the Tarrant County Jail awaiting his new trial on punishment in this case, which began two days later. He and another inmate had been playing basketball in the gym area. When their allotted recreation time concluded, Sheriff's Deputy Mark Ortega escorted them back to their cells.

On the way, Ortega stopped at Deputy Tim Rice's office to pick up some paperwork, and instructed Ransom and the other inmate to stand against the wall and wait for him. Shortly thereafter, Ransom ran into the office and struck Rice with a traumatizing blow to the back of the head, while the other inmate attacked Ortega.

Rice did not recall anything after a second blow to the head until he awoke in the medical department in extreme pain. Rice suffered closed head injuries that kept him out of work for more than a week and still affected him at the time of his trial testimony.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Cedric Ransom, the convicted killer of an optometrist who authorities say once attacked his lawyer and a prosecutor with a knife, was sentenced to death in a heavily guarded courtroom in Fort Worth. Jurors deliberated a little more than 2 hours before returning the verdict, the 2nd death sentence that Ransom received.

The Fort Worth man's original death sentence was erased in 1994 when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his trial judge made an error in jury selection.

Ransom was convicted of capital murder in 1992 for the robbery and slaying of Herbert Primm, who was shot to death in his driveway. At the time, Ransom was under indictment for 3 other murders and robberies.

Ransom and three accomplices went to Primm's house on Dec. 7, 1991, planning to steal guns from the optometrist and part-time weapons dealer, according to trial testimony.

Primm begged the men to take the guns and spare his life, but Ransom shot him in the head, prosecution witnesses testified. In closing arguments at the second trial in February of 1997, Assistant District Attorney Richard Bland rattled off the list of convictions and charges against Ransom.

He said Ransom smuggled a crude knife into his 1992 trial, using it to attack his lawyer and a prosecutor, and had assaulted a corrections officer in the Forth Worth jail. Ransom and fellow death row inmate Willie Pondexter made an escape attempt in June 1997 -- cutting through a fence at the Ellis I Unit with a hacksaw blade, climbing onto the roof and making a run for the two perimeter fences. The attempt was foiled when a guard spotted the inmates and ordered them to stop. Both did.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson

Txexecutions.org

Cedric Lamont Ransom, 29, was executed by lethal injection on 23 July 2003 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a gun dealer.

Herbert Primm was an optometrist by trade. He was also a licensed firearms dealer who sold guns out of his home in Arlington. On 7 December 1991, Ransom, then 18, went with three acquaintances to Primm's house to buy guns. Nathan Clark, 17, talked to Primm in his garage while the other three hid.

When Primm opened the trunk of his car to show Clark the guns, Clark grabbed two Tec Nine semiautomatic rifles that were inside, and his companions burst from their hiding places, brandishing weapons. Isaac Johnson, 18, ran up and grabbed one of the Tec Nines from Clark.

Primm told the robbers, "just take them." Ransom then grabbed Primm by the back of the head and hit him, then he bent Primm over the hood of the car and shot him once in the head with a .44 Magnum. After shooting Primm, Ransom grabbed another Tec Nine out of the trunk, and he, Clark, Johnson, and Brian Williams, 17, ran to their car.

Primm's neighbor, Steven Gervais, came outside when he heard the gunshot. He saw the robbers and yelled at them. Ransom fired at Gervais and missed. Gervais ran inside to retrieve his own gun, but the men had left by the time he returned outside. He asked his brother to call 9-1-1 while he checked on Primm. Gervais said that he could not find Primm's pulse. Police arrived about 5 or 10 minutes later.

Three days later, Fort Worth police were executing an arrest and search warrant at Ransom's residence. Ransom's roommate, Alexis Apples, 20, was being investigated for a murder that had taken place at J.R.'s Food Store on 24 November, about 2½ weeks earlier.

During the course of the search, police found numerous weapons, including a Tec Nine rifle and a .44 Magnum. Police took Apples into custody and obtained an arrest warrant for Ransom. Later that day, Ransom's family went to the police station to inquire about Apples, who was dating Ransom's sister. When police learned that Ransom was downstairs waiting in the car, they arrested him.

In addition to the above evidence, the jury also heard testimony that the serial number of the Tec Nine rifle found in Ransom and Apples' residence was found in Primm's log. The book showed that Primm had acquired the rifle, but not yet resold it.

At age 18, Ransom had no prior felony convictions, but the jury heard evidence and testimony of other violent offenses he had been involved in. Ransom made an audiotaped confession of his involvement in the 24 November 1991 murder at J.R.'s Food Store in Fort Worth. He and Alexis Apples robbed the store while Brian Williams waited in the car. Apples shot store clerk Juan Valdez, 18, while Ransom shot store owner Sulieman El-Hamad. Valdez died at the scene. El-Hamad was left completely paralyzed. He died from his wounds eight months later.

Ransom also testified that he and Apples robbed Brian's Food Store in Fort Worth on 27 November. According to Ransom, Apples shot and killed store owner Adam Meflah during the robbery.

During pretrial proceedings on 11 November 1992, Ransom grabbed one of his attorneys, Chris Phillips, by the neck and tried to stab him in the back with a 5½-inch shard of glass. When the bailiff ordered him to release Phillips, Ransom pulled away, then advanced toward Bob Gill, the prosecutor, yelling, "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" Gill and Ransom fell to the floor and struggled until the bailiff separated them and disarmed and handcuffed Ransom. Both Phillips and Gill were removed from the case, and Gill later testified against Ransom during his punishment hearing.

A jury convicted Ransom of the capital murder of Herbert Primm in December 1992 and sentenced him to death. (Ransom was also indicted, but not tried, for the murders of Juan Valdez, Sulieman El-Hamad, and Adam Meflah.) In June 1994, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction due to a problem with jury selection. On the state's request for rehearing, the Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated the conviction in February 1996, but did not reinstate the death sentence. The case was remanded to the trial court for a new punishment hearing.

At Ransom's second punishment hearing, the jury heard of other violent acts committed since his first conviction, including an attack on a sheriff's deputy that occurred two days before the hearing began.

A jury resentenced Ransom to death in February 1997. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed this death sentence in February 1999. All of Ransom's subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Isaac Deon Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder in the Primm case and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in less than 18 months. (At the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.) In 1993, he was convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is still in custody at this writing.

Nathan Clark was apparently not charged in the Primm murder, but in 1993, he was convicted of aggravated robbery and cocaine possession and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He also remains in custody. Brian Keith Williams is also serving a 25-year sentence for aggravated robbery. Alexis Alexander Apples was convicted of murder with a deadly weapon in the J.R.'s Food Store case. He was sentenced to life in prison and is in custody at this writing.

While testifying at his 1997 punishment hearing, Ransom denied any involvement in the Primm case, but he did admit to killing El-Hamad. "It was wrong," Ransom told the court. "I had no right to shoot him." Ransom was caught while attempting to escape from the Ellis Unit near Huntsville in 1997. He and another condemned inmate had cut through a fence with a hacksaw blade. Ransom declined requests to be interviewed from death row.

At his execution, Ransom thanked his friends for their support and expressed love to them. Without their calming influence at his execution, he said, "Probably I would have put up a good fight." As the lethal drugs began taking effect, he told them "I'll be OK." He did not look at or acknowledge Lori Primm, his victim's wife. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Killer of Gun Dealer is Executed

Houston Chronicle

July 23, 2003

HUNTSVILLE -- A Fort Worth man who attacked one of his own attorneys and a prosecutor during his capital murder trial was executed Wednesday evening for robbing and fatally shooting a gun dealer, one of four slayings authorities linked him to during a 17-day period in 1991.

In a brief final statement, Cedric Ransom thanked a friend and a spiritual adviser who were present to watch him die. "You have been beautiful to me. Without you in my life, I would not have been able to make it like this. Probably I would have put up a good fight. You have calmed me," he said.

Ransom told them he loved them. As the lethal drugs began taking effect, he told them, "I'll be OK." He gasped a couple of times, exhaled and stopped breathing. Nine minutes later, at 6:21 p.m., he was pronounced dead.

Ransom, 29, was the 19th Texas inmate executed this year and the first of two on consecutive nights this week.

"He was a bad guy," said Richard Bland, one of the Tarrant County prosecutors who tried Ransom's case. Besides the Dec. 7, 1991, slaying of optometrist and part-time gun dealer Herbert Primm, Bland said, Ransom was involved in three fatal robberies of convenience stores. "Most people go to an ATM to get cash," Bland said. "He'd go to convenience stores and not leave any witnesses."

In late appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ransom contended he was mentally retarded and should be ineligible for execution under a high court ruling in another case last year. About an hour before his scheduled punishment, the high court rejected the appeals.

At the conclusion of jury selection, Ransom used a smuggled 5 1/2-inch piece of broken glass hidden in his hand to try to stab one of his attorneys in the back. Ignoring orders from a bailiff to back off, Ransom turned his attention to a nearby prosecutor. "He was coming at me and his words were very clear: `I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!' " recalled Bob Gill, now a state district judge in Tarrant County. Neither Gill nor the defense attorney, Chris Phillips, was seriously hurt in the November 1992 attack, but both were removed from the case.

Ransom went on to trial and was convicted of capital murder for gunning down Primm, 47, outside Primm's Arlington home. Ransom was 18 at the time. Allen Wayne Janecka faces lethal injection today for being the hit man in a murder-for-hire plot that left four members of a Houston family dead.

Killer Linked to Four Slayings Executed in Texas

TheDeathHouse.com

July 23, 2003

Huntsville, Tex. - A man who shot a gun dealer to death and was also linked to three fatal convenience store robberies was executed by lethal injection Wednesday night at a state prison here.

Cedric Ransom, 29, became the 19th condemned killer executed in Texas in 2003 - tops in the nation. Ransom used his last words to thank a friend and spiritual advisor who were witnessing his execution. "Without you in my life, I would have not been able to make it like this," Ransom said. "Probably, I would have put up a good fight. You have calmed me." The lethal dose of chemicals began at 6:12 p.m. and Ransom was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Ransom was handed a death sentence for the Dec. 7, 1991 slaying of Herbert P. Primm, Jr., an optometrist and licensed gun dealer. Primm was showing Ransom and three other men assault pistols from the trunk of his car. When he did, Ransom and the other men pulled weapons and stole the guns. Primm was bent over the hood and shot in the head with a .44 caliber weapon.

Finger Pointed At Ransom

The three other men involved in the robbery were Nathan Clark, Isaac Deon Johnson and Brian Keith Williams. Johnson would later testify that it was Ransom who shot the gun dealer. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against Johnson in exchange for his testimony. Ransom's lawyers were told of the deal on the day Johnson was to testify. The deal was disclosed to the jury. Ransom, who never completed high school, was the only one of the four to receive a death sentence.

The .44 caliber weapon found in Ransom's bedroom matched a bullet found in the victim's garage. A bullet found in a neighbor's garage also had been fired from the same weapon. Johnson had testified that Ransom fired shots at neighbors as he fled the scene, court documents stated. A Tec Nine weapon, owned by Primm, was found in Johnson's bedroom. Two witnesses not involved in the case reported seeing Johnson and Ransom together before the murder.

Alibies Don't Wash

Ransom's defense lawyers tried to convince the jury that Ransom was not at the scene of the murder. Two of his siblings testified that their brother was home at the time of the murder and that Johnson had come to the house to borrow the .44 caliber weapon. However, an appeals court found the witnesses had "obvious bias."

Ransom's original death sentence was thrown out on appeal in 1994 after a higher court found that the trial judge had made an error in jury selection. At later stages in Ransom's appeals, defense lawyers tried to show that he was mentally retarded and, therefore, could not be lawfully executed due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Attacks Lawyers

Ransom's trial was noteworthy. During the trial, he reportedly attacked his own lawyers and a prosecutor. He used a piece of glass to stab the hand of one of his lawyers and then went after a prosecutor. Prosecutors also linked him to a string of slaying at convenience stories during a 17 day period in 1991.

Texas Executes Man Who Killed Gun Dealer

Reuters News

July 23, 2003

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A man who killed a gun dealer selling weapons out of the trunk of his car was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday. Cedric Ransom was the 19th person executed this year in Texas, which leads the nation in capital punishment, and the first of two scheduled to die this week.

Ransom, 29, was condemned for shooting Herbert Primm to death on Feb. 14, 1997 while Primm showed Ransom and three of his friends assault pistols for sale. Primm was an optometrist who also had a federal license to sell firearms. The would-be customers grabbed the guns from his car trunk, then Ransom shot Primm in the head.

In a final statement while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber, Ransom did not mention the crime but thanked his sister and a spiritual adviser for calming him. "Without you in my life I would not have been able to make it like this. Probably I would have put up a good fight, you have calmed me," he said. Ransom did not request a last meal.

He was the 308th person executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a national death penalty ban. Allen Janecka was scheduled for lethal injection on Thursday for killing a 14-month-old boy in a murder-for-hire plot in which four members of a Houston family were murdered.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Cedric Ransom (TX) - July 23, 2003

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Cedric Ransom, a black man, July 23 for the murder of Herbert Primm in Fort Worth. According to the state, Ransom shot Primm, a part-time weapons dealer, in the victim’s driveway on Dec. 7, 1991.

Ransom confessed to another shooting shortly before the murder in question, but said he played no part in the Primm shooting. He claims his co-defendants gave perjured testimony in exchange for sentence reductions at his trial. Since his arrival on death row, he has attracted international attention as a possibly innocent man facing execution in the United States.

Advocates for Ransom claim another man confessed to the crime, but later gave a contradicting statement that shifted the blame to Ransom. They argue that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial, and that a competent attorney could have presented a much stronger, more credible innocence claim.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his sentence in 1994, ruling that the trial court erroneously barred a prospective juror. However, he received a second death sentence in 1997, which has held firmly throughout the appeals process.

Ransom also claims that the court treated him in a racist manner during his trial, and points out that his case represents the jackpot death penalty combination: black defendant, white victim. According to a study of cases in the 1990’s conducted by the Texas Defender Service, racial bias continues to play a major role in the state’s capital sentencing process. The report includes this fact: “Taking into account age, race, location, occupation, prior arrests, education of the defendant, age of the victim, and whether a weapon was used, the combined races of victim and offender were the strongest predictors of a death sentence in Texas.”

Several inmates with strong innocence claims have been executed in Texas in the past year – most recently Kia Johnson on June 11. Even those who support the death penalty philosophically should recognize that the risk of executing innocent people is too high to justify executions. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, 108 people have been exonerated from death row in the United States due to actual innocence. Please contact Gov. Rick Perry and express your concerns over the state’s careless and excessive use of the death penalty. Please request clemency for Cedric Ransom.

Cedric Ransom # 999050
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, Texas 77351 USA

Cedrid Ransom

Saturday, Feb. 15, 1997 - TEXAS:

Cedric Ransom, the convicted killer of an optometrist who authorities say once attacked his lawyer and a prosecutor with a knife, was sentenced to death Friday in a heavily guarded courtroom in Fort Worth.

Jurors deliberated a little more than 2 hours before returning the verdict, the 2nd death sentence that Ransom has received. The Fort Worth mans original death sentence was erased in 1994 when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his trial judge made an error in jury selection.

Ransom was convicted of capital murder in 1992 for the robbery and slaying of Herbert Primm, who was shot to death in his driveway. At the time, Ransom was under indictment for 3 other murders and robberies.

Ransom, 23 did not react to the verdict, and one of his attorneys described him as very calm.

Ransom and 3 accomplices went to Primm's house on Dec. 7, 1991, planning to steal guns from the optometrist and part-time weapons dealer, according to trial testimony. Primm begged the men to take the guns and spare his life, but Ransom shot him in the head, prosecution witnesses testified.

In closing arguments Friday, Assistant District Attorney Richard Bland rattled off the list of convictions and charges against Ransom. He said Ransom smuggled a crude knife into his 1992 trial, using it to attack his lawyer and a prosecutor, and recently assaulted a corrections officer in the Forth Worth jail.

Rick Halperin (AI-Texas)

Ransom v. State, 920 S.W.3d 288 (Tex.Crim.App. 1994) (Direct Appeal)

Defendant was convicted in the Criminal District Court No. 1, Tarrant County, Sharen Wilson, J., of capital murder and sentenced to death. Automatic direct appeal ensued. After an initial reversal, the state petitioned for rehearing. The Court of Criminal Appeals, Maloney, J., held that: (1) it was reversible error to exclude for cause a venire person who stated that he would require more evidence than the legal minimum in order to answer the special issue on future dangerousness in the affirmative and, on the state's motion for rehearing, Keller, J., held that (2) the Garrett error was an "error affecting punishment only" and, thus, a new punishment hearing was necessary, but no new trial was needed on guilt/innocence; (3) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a change of venue; (4) evidence of extraneous offenses involving an assault committed by the defendant in the courtroom and his possession of a stolen gun registered to the victim was admissible; (5) the fact that the prosecutor did not reveal, until the day of an accomplice's testimony, the deal under which the state would not seek the death penalty against the accomplice in exchange for his testimony did not require exclusion of the testimony; (6) evidence was sufficient to warrant submission of the law of parties issue to the jury; and (7) an instruction to disregard would have been sufficient to cure any error resulting from the prosecutor's jury argument that referred to a witness who did not testify. Conviction affirmed, sentence vacated, and cause remanded. Campbell, J., dissented on original hearing with a statement in which White and Meyers, JJ., joined. McCormick, P.J., filed a dissenting opinion on original hearing. Mansfield, J., filed a concurring opinion on rehearing. Clinton and Baird, JJ., filed dissenting opinions on rehearing. Overstreet and Maloney, JJ., dissented on rehearing.

MALONEY, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder for a murder committed during the course of a robbery. Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2). The jury returned affirmative findings to the two special issues submitted to it and appellant was sentenced to death. Direct appeal to this Court is automatic. Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071(h). Appellant raises sixteen points of error, but because he does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence we dispense with a recitation of the facts. We will reverse.