Willie Washington was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a double murder
According to court documents Willie Washington would enter a grocery store where he was handed food stamps and money. Washington would pull out a gun and shot Kiflemariam Tareh and another employee with Kiflemariam Tareh dying from his injuries
Willie Washington would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Willie Washington Photos
Willie Washington Now
SID Number: 02200874
TDCJ Number: 00000856
Name: WASHINGTON,WILLIE TERION
Race: B
Gender: M
Age: 64
Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW
Current Facility: POLUNSKY
Willie Washington Case
A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with Texas death row inmate Willie Washington, bouncing the decades-old case back to a lower court in light of ongoing claims of bad lawyering.
The Harris County man was out on parole in 1985 when he was arrested for a double shooting in a Houston grocery store, where he gunned down Kiflemariam Tareh and wounded Yemane Kidane.
The then-36-year-old was arrested after returning to the scene with stolen money still in his pocket, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.
Since his death sentence in 1986, Washington has been fighting his case, most recently by alleging deficient legal representation earlier in the judicial process.
“We see at least a debatable merit in these claims,” the court wrote this week. One of Washington’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims dings his trial lawyers for failing to challenge the selection of an all-white jury, despite notes about race on prosecutors’ jury questionnaires
He also faulted his trial lawyers for failing to uncover potentially mitigating evidence that could have warded off a death sentence – and he faulted his later appeals attorneys for not noticing the trial lawyers’ apparent oversights.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Washington’s claims at least merited another look, vacating the lower court’s ruling and sending the case back for further discovery and an evidentiary hearing.