Appeals court orders new trial for man on Texas’ death row over judge’s antisemitic bias

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Texas appeals court has ordered a new trial for a Jewish man on death row because of antisemitic bias by the judge in his case. Randy Halprin was part of a gang of prisoners who fatally shot a police officer in 2000 after escaping. Halprin’s lawyers say former Judge Vickers Cunningham in Dallas used racial slurs and antisemitic language to refer to Halprin and some of his co-defendants. In a ruling Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminals Appeals says evidence showed that Cunningham formed an opinion about Halprin that derived from his “poisonous antisemitism.” Cunningham is now an attorney in Dallas. His office says he will not be commenting on Halprin’s case.