USA - Texas. A jury resentenced Michael Dean Gonzales to death

An Ector County jury resentenced Michael Dean "Spider" Gonzales, 35, Hispanic, to death for the 1994 murders of his then-next door neighbors Manuel Aguirre and Merced “Bita” Aguirre, 77 and 65, during a robbery. His 1995 death sentence had been overturned because an expert witness had testified that Gonzales’ ethnicity should be considered as a factor in determining whether or not he posed a future threat to society. Half a dozen Texas death row inmates have received new sentencing hearings because of such testimony by Walter Quijano, former chief psychologist for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.