Cambodian citizen Kim Lim &
Cuban citizen Anibal Rousseau 
The following
appeal for Cambodian citizen Kim Lim and for Cuban citizen Anibal Rousseau
(Both inmates of Huntsville, Texas' Death Row) was written by their
fellow inmate of Death Row, Mr
Jorge "George" Cordova, 
who had a serious
upcoming execution date of February 10th, 1999.
Despite the closeness
of this date, on January 13th, we at the CCADP received the following letter
from Mr Cordova, in which
he did not at all mention his own situation.
He asked instead,
that people support and look into these two cases.
About Mr Kim Lim,
Cordova
said, "Mr Lim has the mental capacity of an eight year old child."
And
about Mr Rousseau, "I am convinced of Mr Rousseau's innocence."
Dear
Friends Visiting Website,
Suppose you were in a foreign country,
friendless, penniless, not understanding the customs or norms of the natives
of said country...and one day someone came to your ramshackled residence,
dragging you to headquarters, accusing you of murder and all types of other
deeds; smeared, sneered, and jeered by the inhabitants, not understanding
a word said, you were taken to court, given a court - appointed defender
by the same system that is seeking your demise, and, with non existent
physical evidence, a flimsy, clumsy, questionable eyewitness, you were
found "guilty," (not by a jury of your peers which would be required by
law), sentenced to death, and shipped to that country's most notorious
death row. (Texas leads the nation in the killing fields.)
Within the bowels of this beast, (D.R),
where the din of chaos, madness, and insanity reigns supreme, buried in
concrete, some 8x12 tombs juxtaposed in rows not unlike that country's
cemetary, you do your best to make this dungeon your "home."
Scorned by the inhabitants, forgotten
by your friends, dismissed by your own family, waiting and hoping for a
letter or a visit that never materializes, you await your fate, whatever
that outcome may be, always hoping for the best, never allowing your resiliency
a seconds rest.
Pacing the confines of your tomb -
back and forth, back and forth, one two three four, one two three four,
your tired legs trekking the miles, going nowhere yet marching nevertheless,
days accumulating into weeks,weeks into months, months into years...the
intervening sequence of events overlapping into fifteen years, twenty
years,* still marching, hoping, dying within, a silent death, cocooned
in a din of agony, despair engulfing the air, the redundancy, oh man, the
redundancy!
! ! For this, there is no clemency.
If you can "see"
and empathize with the aforementioned brutal, cruel, diabolical experience,
whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, I implore your noble minds,
magnanimous hearts, and ask for your support for the following two men:
Mr
Kim Lim
Kim
Lim # 9990330
Polunsky
Unit D.R.
12002
FM 350 South
Livingston,
Texas
77351
USA
You
can now email Kim Lim through his
supporters
who will print and mail your email to him : kim_ly_lim@yahoo.com
Date
of Birth: 04/05/1971
Nationality:
Cambodian
On
Death Row Since: 1992
Note
: Mr Lim has the mental capacity of an eight year old child. |
Mr
Anibal Garcia Rousseau
Mr
Anibal Garcia Rousseau
#999492
Polunsky
Unit D.R.
12002
FM 350 South
Livingston,
Texas
77351
USA
Date
of Birth: 11 / 27 / 40
Nationality:
Cuban
On
Death Row Since: 7/10/89
Note:
I am convinced of Mr. Rousseau's innocence. |
*The
fifteen / twenty years analogy is based upon the authors personal experience,
not Mr Rousseau's and Mr Kim's,.
CON MUCHO GUSTO...
George
Cordova # 706, January 1999
Visit George Cordova's Homepage:
Latest News Anibal Garcia Rousseau
Death
row case goes back to court -- Defense lawyers didn't get crucial ballistics
results
Harris County prosecutors
will have to explain how several key pieces of information that could have
helped clear a capital murder defendant were never turned over to his defense
attorney.
Anibal Rousseau was convicted
of capital murder in 1989.
The Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals on Wednesday ordered the case of Anibal Rousseau returned to district
court for further
review of allegations that ballistics test results favorable
to his defense were
not made known either before
or after the trial.
Rousseau, who has maintained
his innocence since his arrest, was convicted of capital murder in 1989
and sent to death row. The lead prosecutor in the case, Lorraine Parker,
pleading ignorance of the
information in question,
has called for a new trial. The other prosecutor, District Attorney Chuck
Rosenthal, has said he did not remember seeing results of the tests.
Technically, the appeals
court allowed Rousseau to now raise issues that he did not raise in his
1st appeal following the conviction. His lawyers hope this will translate
into a full-fledged hearing where they can present evidence -- the 1st
step in getting a new trial.
"This is a rare move for
the Court of Criminal Appeals," said Phil Hilder, one of Rousseau's lawyers.
"We are delighted that we now have the opportunity to go back to the state
court for a hearing."
First, however, state District
Judge Susan Brown must grant one. Roe Wilson, who handles capital appeals
for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said it would not be
unusual for the trial court judge to rule on the merits of the new claim
without hearing evidence.
Rousseau, 61, was convicted
of killing David Delitta, an Environmental Protection Agency agent, during
an October 1988 robbery outside a southside restaurant. The conviction
hinged on the eyewitness
identification of Rousseau
by David Sullivan, Delitta's co-worker.
Neither police nor prosecutors
disclosed to the defense that the gun used to kill Delitta was found five
months later in the possession of Juan Guerrero, a Dominican drug dealer.
Guerrero, arrested after a traffic accident, was suspected of killing Leo
Williams in March 1989. He later admitted to the murder.
2 ballistics tests by the
Houston Police Department firearms lab concluded that the bullets used
to kill Delitta and Williams were fired from the same gun, the black .38-caliber
revolver found with Guerrero.
Presumably, the burden is
on prosecutors to explain why this information did not reach defense attorneys,
how the gun ended up with Guerrero and why it failed to match the description
given by eyewitness Sullivan, who repeatedly told authorities -- and Rousseau's
jury -- that the gun pointed at him and Delitta was chrome or nickel-plated.
Prosecutors made a point
in the trial of linking Rousseau to a shiny, silver revolver that he used
in a series of bank robberies in the months before the Delitta murder.
Timing may be be part of
the district attorney's explanation. The results of the 2nd ballistics
test, the one that conclusively showed that Guerrero's gun was the murder
weapon, were not recorded until June 27,
1989, 5 weeks after the
end of Rousseau's trial.
Rousseau's lawyers contend
that if the Guerrero connection had been pointed out to his defense counsel
in the 1st place, it is likely that the trial would not have gone forward
until the results of the 2nd test
were known.
"I think we've uncovered
some real substantial evidence of innocence," said Bryce Benjet, another
of Rousseau's attorneys. "This guy Juan Guerrero was arrested with the
murder weapon, he was known to be a violent offender and he made statements
to our investigator indicating he was involved in the (Delitta) shooting."
Guerrero served a prison
sentence in connection with Williams' murder and was deported to his native
Dominican Republic early this year.
Parker, the former prosecutor,
signed an affidavit in February saying that Rousseau deserved a new trial.
She said she was never informed of the ballistics tests or Guerrero's arrest.
"Disclosure of this evidence
would have likely entailed additional investigation on both sides on such
issues as whether Juan Guerrero could have been the assailant in Mr. Delitta's
case, whether Guerrero's weapon could be linked to Anibal Rousseau, and
whether there was an explanation for the difference between Sullivan's
description of the weapon and its actual appearance," Parker stated.
At the very least, police
knew during Rousseau's trial that the same gun was used to kill Delitta
and Williams, as was recorded in the notes of their investigation into
Williams' killing. At the time they theorized -- incorrectly -- that the
gun would turn out to be the silver revolver described by Sullivan. Now
a civil attorney in Denver, Parker told the Chronicle in April that if
Rousseau cannot be linked to the weapon, the case against him evaporates.
Co-counsel Rosenthal, who
was an assistant district attorney at the time, could not be reached for
comment. He has previously said he did not remember seeing the reports
that linked Guerrero's weapon to the Delitta killing. He also has said
he thinks it is plausible that the gun could have passed indirectly from
Rousseau to Guerrero, criminals who lived near each other.
Rosenthal's office has 120
days to respond to the issues raised in Rousseau's appeal.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
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