Texas man executed for 1993 murder of teacher

Reuters News

Wed Nov 9, 2005

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man convicted of strangling a schoolteacher during a sexual assault in 1993 was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. Charles Daniel Thacker, 37, was the 17th person put to death this year in Texas, which leads the nation in capital punishment.

Thacker was condemned for strangling Karen Crawford during an attempted rape in a restroom at her northwest Houston apartment complex. She had been dragged into the restroom from the complex's mailboxes. Thacker had protested his innocence in the murder, although several women testified at his trial he had raped them. On Wednesday, Thacker's attorneys attempted to have his execution delayed so evidence could be tested for his DNA.

In his final statement while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber, Thacker said, "Tell my family I love them. "I am sorry for the things I have done. I know God will forgive me. I will miss you guys. I love you. I guess that's all," he said.

For his last meal, Thacker requested two double cheeseburgers, French fries with ketchup, onion rings, fajitas, two Mountain Dews, two Coca-Colas, two Dr. Peppers, guacamole dip with tortilla chips, four slices of pepperoni pizza, one chocolate chip, two slices of double chocolate cake and two pints of ice cream.

He was the 353rd person put to death in Texas since the state resumed executions in 1982. Three more executions are scheduled this year in Texas.

Convicted serial rapist executed in Texas

By Michael Graczyk - Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

Associated Press, Nov. 09, 2005

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A convicted serial rapist was executed Wednesday for the strangling and attempted rape of an elementary school teacher 12 years ago. Charles Daniel Thacker, 37, a native of Lorain County, Ohio, gasped several times as the lethal injection drugs took effect. His execution was the 17th this year in Texas, the busiest death chamber in the United States.

He had argued he was innocent of the death of Karen Gail Crawford, 26, who was attacked outside her apartment in Harris County in 1993. The second-grade teacher was surprised from behind and dragged into a restroom. A search began when a passer-by spotted a key dangling from Crawford's open mailbox and her car was nearby with her dog inside. A maintenance worker found the restroom locked.

When the door opened, the worker was blasted with pepper spray from the fleeing man, whom he later identified as Thacker. Other residents who chased the man as he ran into a wooded area also said it was Thacker. Police using tracking dogs found him hiding in a yard. Crawford was found unconscious inside the restroom and died two days later. An autopsy showed she was choked or was held in a hammerlock.

At the time of the crime, Thacker had been out of prison about eight months following four years in jail for robbery and sexual assault. Authorities found a hair belonging to the victim in Thacker's underwear, Thacker wanted the DNA testing to support his claim he was not involved in Crawford's death. There was no evidence of others involved. Thacker's truck was found in the apartment complex parking lot, and witnesses reported seeing him loitering in the area.

After a county jury convicted him of capital murder, the same jurors condemned him after hearing from at least a half dozen victims who testified how he raped or attempted to sexually assault them. The women who testified ranged in age from 13 to 64. Thacker's relatives testified he had been molested as a child by his mother's boyfriend and underwent counseling.

Just before he died, Thacker, expressed love to his family and friends and apologized. "I am sorry for the things I have done," he said. "I know God will forgive me." As the drugs began flowing, he said that he would "get to see Mom."

Inmate executed for choking schoolteacher to death in '93

Supreme Court rejects his appeals 30 minutes before his punishment

By Zeke Minaya - Houston Chronicle

Nov. 9, 2005

HUNTSVILLE - Charles Daniel Thacker, convicted of fatally choking a schoolteacher during an attempted sexual assault, was executed Wednesday. Thacker, strapped onto a gurney and in a slightly quivering voice, thanked his two witnesses, volunteer prison ministers. "Jack and Irene, I love you guys. Tell my family I love them. I am sorry for the things I have done. I know God will forgive me."

Thacker did not acknowledge the only witness for the victim, the brother of Karen Crawford, who died two days after the attack in April 1993. Steve Crawford, of Illinois, at times looked away during the procedure. Thacker asked that his daughter be cared for. "Keep track of Danielle for me. I will miss you guys. I love you. I guess that's all." He also said he was looking forward to seeing his deceased mother.

Thacker also asked his witnesses to tell his attorney that "they couldn't find a vein on my arm." The issue of injection procedures was in his appeals that were rejected by the Supreme Court about 30 minutes before his execution. After his final statement, the first dosage of the lethal three-part cocktail of drugs began flowing at 6:23 p.m. "I can feel it a little bit," he said. Moments later, his breathing became labored and hoarse, and his eyes closed. He was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. The execution was the 17th this year in Texas.

Thacker, a native of Loraine County, Ohio, was executed by injection for fatally choking Karen Crawford, a 26-year-old second-grade teacher for the Klein Independent School District, during an attempted rape. Appeals attorneys tried unsuccessfully to delay Thacker's punishment, contending new DNA testing should be performed on evidence and challenging the execution procedures and the questions asked of jurors who decided Thacker should die.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week refused to commute his sentence to life in prison and refused a request to delay the punishment for 120 days.

Crawford was returning from a trip to the grocery store when she stopped to retrieve her mail at her apartment complex in the 6800 block of Champions Plaza in northwest Houston. Thacker accosted her, then dragged her into a nearby women's bathroom. Witnesses at Thacker's trial testified that they noticed Thacker lurking around the mailboxes about an hour before Crawford was attacked. A building resident noticed Crawford's keys hanging from her mailbox, which led to a search of the grounds. Eventually a maintenance worker checked the bathroom.

Thacker burst out, sprayed the maintenance worker with pepper spray and ran into a heavily wooded area. A short time later, Houston police with tracking dogs found Thacker hiding behind a house in the woods. Crawford was placed on life support at Cy-Fair Medical Center, where she died two days later.

During the trial, several female witnesses, 13 to 64, testified about their encounters with Thacker, many of them saying they were raped and nearly strangled. During the penalty phase of the trial, Thacker's mother, Glada, told the jury that her son had been molested as a child by a man she had dated and begged that his life be spared. The jury returned a sentence of death in only about two hours.

Before the capital conviction, Thacker served a little less than four years of two concurrent 12-year sentences he received in 1988 for robbery and sexual assault. Five months after his release, he beat and nearly stabbed to death a 62-year-old woman who had stayed late at a Tomball church.

In 1995, jurors awarded Crawford's parents, Mary and Charles Crawford, $8.1 million in damages and related costs against the apartment complex where their daughter lived. The jurors found the apartment complex negligent in providing basic levels of protection.

As execution nears, terror still tangible for victim

By Zeke Minaya - Houston Chronicle

Nov. 9, 2005

The memory of the attack no longer pains Julie Hollas the most. Instead, it's the small and unexpected ways the violence and fear of those few hours have woven themselves into her daily life. She doesn't like to leave home at night. She shrinks from hugs — even from her 7-year-old son — if hands come close to her neck. She cannot stand the smell of sweat. "If Greg has been working in the garden, he has to take a shower before he can even kiss me hello," Hollas said of her husband of nearly 10 years. "Because it will bring back a fear. I go through it again."

Charles Daniel Thacker was already a convicted rapist when, Hollas says, he sexually assaulted her Feb. 17, 1993. Thacker was arrested two months later, after strangling Klein schoolteacher Karen Gail Crawford during an attempted rape, and convicted of capital murder. He is scheduled to die tonight. After Thacker was sent to death row, the case involving Hollas' attack never went to trial. But lawyers familiar with the case say Hollas' testimony was key in the conviction. Thacker and his attorney refused to comment for this article.

Memories remain vivid

Hollas and her husband plan to be in Huntsville tonight but are not going to witness the execution. Hollas said she is torn over the issue of capital punishment, even more so now because of her involvement in the Thacker case. "On the one hand, I feel sorry that he has to die," she said. "On the other hand, I want him to fry. "I want to know he is sorry, that he has repented. I want to know when he dies, where is he going? That's what's tearing me up inside." Hollas, who was 23 at the time of the trial, remembers being asked by Thacker's defense attorney if she was certain that he was her attacker. Hollas said she turned and faced Thacker, before answering. "Then I said, 'I will never forget his face until the day I die.' "

And she hasn't, Hollas said. With the execution's approach, the 34-year-old mother has looked back with mixed emotions over her long struggle to rebuild her life. She spoke with the Chronicle and insisted that her name be used because she wants others to benefit from her experience and, she said, using her name "makes it more real."

In 1993, Hollas was Julie Bowlby and she lived in Tomball. On her way home Feb. 17, she stopped to get her mail in front of her apartment building. When she got back into her van and tried to close the door, it swung open. A man climbed in and shoved her into the passenger seat, Hollas recalled. He was armed with a knife. "As soon as he drove off he started to rip at my clothing," Hollas said. "In my head I was thinking, 'I don't want to die.' " Hollas could smell the man's sweat. "He smelled," she said. "He just smelled, he was dirty." The man drove behind a nearby senior citizen's center, down a dead-end street by an empty field. "I won't hurt you, I won't hurt you," Hollas remembered him saying. When she looked at the dashboard glow, the clock flashed 7:14 p.m.

Hollas didn't fight back until his hands were around her neck and he began to squeeze. "I just know he didn't put his hands around me for any other reason other than to kill me," she said. She slapped his hands away. "I would have told him anything just to live," she said. Hollas told him that since they had been sitting in the dark she hadn't seen his face. She told him to wipe the van clean of any possible fingerprints and that she wouldn't go to the police.

He threw the keys in front of the van and disappeared into the dark field. She sat quietly for a moment before groping outside for the keys. She drove home, intending to take a shower, go to bed and forget the night ever happened. Her mother persuaded her to go to the police, and several months later, Thacker was arrested in the slaying of Crawford, a 26-year-old second-grade teacher. Hollas was asked to testify; news reports described her testimony as "powerful." The killer was given the death penalty.

Climbing back up

Hollas' true fight began after the trial. Remembering still brings tears to her eyes. "Looking back now I feel sorry for who that person was," she said from her north Houston home. "I feel sorry for what she was feeling at that time." Depression set in. Unable to bring herself to leave her apartment, Hollas lost her job. Soon she was on public assistance, worried about keeping the lights on and feeding herself.

In a way she was fighting for her life, just as hard as when she was trapped in the van. "I was just trying to live. I was just trying to have a life of some sort," she said. "I was just worried about where the money was going to come from. There were times when I did not have electricity."

But at her core, there was a part of Hollas that no attack could touch. Hollas called it stubbornness, and she used it to push herself back onto her feet. "I didn't have a choice to become a victim," she said. "But it was up to me to become a survivor." Hollas started going to counseling and began taking antidepressants. She became active in her church, where the members rallied around her and helped her find a new job. And, through mutual friends, she met Greg Hollas. "When we met, we hated each other," she remembered with a laugh. "He thought I was rough, and I thought he was naive. We did not like each other." Experience had hardened her, she acknowledged, but she soon saw that Greg had the capacity to see the world in a way that she no longer could. Greg could still be trusting. "I really needed someone like that," she said. "I still need that today. I still need reassurance. But no matter how bad things get, he still loves me for me."

Julie and Greg married in 1997. Hollas kept climbing. The couple had a son. She had whole years where things would seem dark and she would lash out at her loved ones. At one point her doctor threatened to have her hospitalized. She kept climbing. Greg countered her ill-temper with patience. "God put him in my life and he is the one I was supposed to be with," she said. "Who else would put up with my bitchiness?" Life may never be easy for Hollas, but about two years ago she took stock of her life and realized she had come a long way. "I'm not that same person anymore," she said. "I've come so far. It makes me proud of myself today."

Coming to terms Despite her struggles with those small daily reminders, Hollas two years ago began speaking on panels organized by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. During the talks she recounts the attack for prisoners and TDCJ officials. "You try and make it as real as possible for them," she said. "The attack itself is not what bothers me the most. It was an event, it happened."

At one recent talk, a prisoner stood and thanked her. He told her he had never thought about the victims of crimes before. "He now realizes that whatever his crime was, he now realizes what that did to his victims," she recalled. Thinking about that exchange, Hollas marvels at the course of her life. She said she has learned that life is often unkind, cruel at times, but if you work at it, life will have no choice but to compensate.

Todesstrafe-usa.de

Charles Thacker - ALIVE e.V. - Voices from inside

Charles D Thacker, 32 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, 1.73 largely and 170 Pound heavily. I am the youngest one of four children in our family, single, have a 11-year old daughter, like art, music to hear, read and to write, cook, dance and still different one. I look both for friendship and for assistance for my appointments. I am lonely an artist even learned, in this world. Older, sex and race do not interest me in a friendship.

ATTENTION - Legalised Murder

To 07.04.1993 Karen G. Crawford during it their post office got, attacked and to the lady toilet of their apartment plant kidnapped. Some time continued to notice someone later the open mail box both keys and post office, which around-lay and distrustfully it became and led at Billy resounds, the manager of this plant. Resound came, in order to examine this problem and went to ms Crawfords apartment, in order to see whether it was there, after it recognized the number of the mail box.

Mr. Resound decreased/went back and it saw that the gentlemen's toilet was open, noticed however that the door to the lady toilet was locked and knocked, in order to arrive inside, when a man voice called from the inside to it that it use the toilet. To Mr. resound had the public telephone to use, in order to inform the Managerin.

The Managerin and its married man appeared some minutes later. The toilet door opened and a man came out and tried to leave. To Mr. resound withdrew it however and said to it that it would not go anywhere. To Mr. resound reported to the police in a statement that it fought with the man, brought it to soil and also stepped it. Resound also stated the fact that the man it sprayed Muskatspray in the face and so resound together with the Managerin and their married man back forced. To Mr. resound stated that he said the other one, it are to the eingangstuer to go and these lock, it wants to go to the back door, around the man to lock up for the police.

Mr. Resound took his taschenmesser and tried a suspecting to hurt, while it fought for control of the back door. While it told this to the police, it said also that it cut the man at the arm. To Mr. resound succeeded it to lock the back door thereupon the suspicious front entrance seized on and could overwhelm and flee the Managerin and their married man. To Mr. resound pursued it, until it jumped over a fence, which was high over 2,4 m and it disappeared.

Mr. Resound and the others went back to the toilet and found ms Crawford with the face downward lying, while a part of its Jogginghosen had pulled down. To Mr. resound and the others turned it and determined that she does not breathe, thus introduced it revival measures. To Mr. do not resound knew which it did there. When the police came, took over the policemen and began for suspecting to look also immediately. All three eye-witnesses gave a description of the man to the police. All three said that the man Blue Jeans and a kind carried dark grey or blue jacket and a blue baseball cap. Two of the eye-witnesses said that the man looked, as if are it Latino. The size and the remainder resembled themselves, some differences in the age description were made.

I was in this night, one could say, I was there in the proximity, behind the apartments in a rich neighbourhood. I was with two others on the way, in order to look for things for stealing and selling. When the whole policemen emerged, we separated and ran ourselves to our Trucks behind the apartments, in order to make us of it. I did not create it, was arrested. I carried the following things: a yellow sweater, cut off trousers and socks and tennisschuhe. I did not have wounds, which would have shown that I was cut or in combat was complicated.

While the police set me on the rear seat of a car, they permitted to look at the three so-called witnesses me over 20 minutes and three hours later came them to a police place around me with a confrontation to identify. Later they were trained, which should say and like it it during the process. The police log during the negotiation and said, they would have kept me far by the others, but even the witness admitted me outside of the car to have seen. The police log, when it said, I was also torn by a dog (K-9) down. The on-duty official admitted the truth and said that the K-9 did not down-tear me; they more or less stolperten over me.

No blood, no finger marks, no physical proofs this crime fit me. There was evidence in containers, later became known that they were opened, before they went to the laboratory. For approximately one year they refused handing these evidence containers out even the district lawyer handed the containers around, returned them however later again.

Texas ' principal witness was the forensic pathologist, but the forensic pathologist stated that no sexual encroachment took place; he said also that she was not intentionally killed. It actually died also only three days later, than the physician turned the machines off. The suspicious one held it in a stranglehold, in order to overwhelm it not to kill in order. Other medical reports wrote over a heavy impact on the chest, but the occurred itself, while to Billy resound the revival measures introduced. The report tempts to the acceptance that its heart estimated itself during the impact, but none wanted to talk about because it would have in such a way looked then as if Mr. resounds it inadvertently killed.

I a female Richterin assigned named Mary Bacon, a very partial Richterin, if it concerned sexual crimes or crimes at women. (from where should I know?) Ms Bacon and their daughter had been expenditure-robbed and their daughter many years had been raped and the man never were before found. Ms Bacon is against each man, who is accused of a crime at a woman in its court, and she breaks and hurts the law, in order to reach, what wants her.

My case was now already rejected several times. I am in the Todestrakt of Texas for eight years and now am I on the way to the Habeas corpus appointment to state level. From the first day on I had lawyers, nor who worried themselves neither around the human life any interest in the case had. Nobody made something of, according to which I asked. My right to two trial counsels was rejected, my appointment lawyers said to me, I was to leave it in peace; one even called me a "liar" because I about masking proofs at the police spoke, but this is in my process photographs and police reports.

I come from a poor family, my life am in the hands of obligation defenders. I do not have anybody, which that everything controlled, in order to be safe that they do at all something. My trial counsel admits in the meantime to have all measuring ELT and that the Richterin hurt my rights. In Texas is like that which nothing new. My friend Jerry Burdine is here already for over eighteen years and its lawyer in the court room slept (!), but in Texas is all the same that.

I need some assistance, legal pieces of advice, a fund for the defense to keep in order to find someone, with which I can be safe that something is done, supporting moral friendship, me help myself the head above so that I can fight against all that. Money for stamps and write things is likewise urgently needed.

Executions are carried out in the name of the justice and in name it people. IN YOUR NAME! Who against death penalty is not official, is a supporter. Because they will regard your silence as agreement.

Is against it and lets it everyone know!

Thacker v. State, --- S.W.3d ----, 2005 WL 2980965 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005) (PCR).

On Motion for Stay of Execution and on Direct Appeal from the Denial of DNA Testing from Harris County. Richard Bourke, for Charles Daniel Thacker.

PER CURIAM

OPINION

Appellant was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on May 8, 1994. We affirmed his conviction and sentence on direct appeal, and the mandate for that affirmance issued on February 7, 1997. We denied habeas relief December 19, 2001. On October 13, 2005, appellant filed an application for post-conviction DNA testing. The trial court denied relief, finding, among other things, that appellant failed to establish that the request for DNA testing was not made to unreasonably delay the execution of sentence or the administration of justice. Appellant filed an appeal, which was received by this Court on November 3, 2005.

Appellant is scheduled to be executed on November 9, 2005. He seeks a stay of that execution to allow his counsel adequate time to prepare briefing on appeal, or in the alternative, "an accelerated briefing schedule, requiring the State to submit any reply brief and to have the matter considered by the Court immediately." Appellant has submitted an "interim brief" and the State has submitted a reply.

To obtain relief under Chapter 64, the convicted person must "establish[ ] by a preponderance of the evidence" that "the request for the proposed DNA testing is not made to unreasonably delay the execution of sentence or administration of justice." [FN1] The trial court's finding that appellant failed to do so is supported by the record. Chapter 64, authorizing motions for DNA testing, has been in effect since April 5, 2001. [FN2] Appellant waited over four years to file his motion, and that motion was filed less than a month before his scheduled execution.

FN1. Tex.Code Crim. Proc., Art. 64.03(a)(2)(B). FN2. See Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 2.

Appellant claims that his failure to file the motion was excused by the pendency of his federal application for writ of habeas corpus, which was finally disposed of on October 3, 2005. He asserts that "habeas counsel was clearly of the view that the two-forum rule would not permit a dual filing in state and federal court." But nothing legally prevented appellant from filing a motion for DNA testing during the pendency of his federal habeas proceedings. Unlike a state application for writ of habeas corpus, a motion for DNA testing cannot, by itself, result in relief from a conviction or sentence. It is simply a vehicle for obtaining a certain type of evidence, which might then be used in a state or federal habeas proceeding.

Moreover, appellant does not assert that he made any attempt to ascertain whether a dual filing would be permitted--such as seeking leave from federal court to file a Chapter 64 motion, and appellant does not allege that he attempted to procure an abatement of federal proceedings to file a Chapter 64 motion, despite the fact that he now contends that DNA testing would provide him with crucial exculpating evidence. Appellant also contends that the technology required for the testing he seeks did not become available until 2002 (Y-STR testing) and 2004 (laser microdissection). But appellant did not file a motion for DNA testing in 2002, 2003, or 2004. He waited until October of 2005, when his execution was imminent.

Appellant's motion for stay of execution is denied. We grant his motion to have the appeal considered immediately. Having considered his appeal based upon his "interim" brief and the State's reply, and having found that the trial court's finding regarding unreasonable delay is supported by the record, we conclude that there was no reversible error in the proceedings below. We affirm the trial court's judgment.

Thacker v. Dretke, 396 F.3d 607 (5th Cir.) (Habeas)

Background: State prisoner who was convicted of capital murder petitioned for writ of habeas corpus. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Melinda Harmon, J., denied the petition, and petitioner sought a certificate of appealability (COA).

Holdings: The Court of Appeals, Jerry E. Smith, Circuit Judge, held that:
(1) petitioner procedurally defaulted claims that the state court's rejection of his claim of jury-instruction error was violative of his federal constitutional rights;
(2) state court's conclusion that, taken as a whole, specific intent jury charge did not violate petitioner's rights under the Trial and Impartial Jury clause of the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, did not warrant federal habeas relief;
(3) state court's conclusion that inability of petitioner to raise issue of his potential eligibility for parole if not sentenced to death did not violate his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, or his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, did not warrant federal habeas relief; and
(4) petitioner's claim that his inability to raise issue of his potential eligibility for parole violated his Sixth Amendment right to exercise compulsory process was barred under Teague; and in any event, did not warrant federal habeas relief. Request for certificate of appealability denied.

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

Charles Thacker seeks a certificate of appealability ("COA") from the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Because Thacker cannot make a substantial showing of the denial of a federal constitutional right, we deny a COA.

A state jury found Thacker guilty of capital murder and further answered Texas's special issues in a manner that required imposition of a death sentence. As summarized by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on direct review, the facts are as follows:

On the evening of April 7, 1993, during a telephone conversation with a friend, Karen Crawford said that she was going to go to the store for dog food. That same evening, a resident of her apartment complex informed the maintenance supervisor, Arkan Hall, that Crawford's keys were hanging from her mailbox, which was located in a common area near the apartment offices. Hall went to Crawford's apartment, but she did not answer the door. He then noticed her car, with her dog inside, parked near the mail room. While checking the area of the mail room and pool, Hall found the women's restroom locked. He beat on the door, and a man's voice answered from the inside. The man became quiet when Hall asked why he was using the women's restroom.

Hall attempted unsuccessfully to force open the door of the restroom. He then telephoned the apartment manager, Emily Vaughn. She and her husband Terrence Cowie arrived at the scene, and the three discussed what to do. Suddenly, the restroom door opened and [Thacker] emerged. A fight ensued when Hall attempted to stop him. Hall attempted to cut [Thacker] with his pocket knife, but [Thacker] sprayed him with mace and got away. [Thacker] sprayed Cowie as well, and then pushed his way through one of the two exit gates. Hall and others nearby chased [Thacker] down the block and tried to cut off his escape.

In the meantime, Vaughn found Crawford lying face down on the restroom floor. She was unconscious. One shoe and one leg of her jogging pants were pulled off; the other pants leg was pulled down to her ankle. Hall and another man administered CPR. They detected a heart beat, but she was not breathing. Some faint brain activity was detected when she arrived at the hospital, but it ceased within twenty-four hours.

Medical examiners concluded that Crawford's death was the result of strangulation. Crawford's neck was bruised on the front and left side and her face and eyes exhibited a condition known as pinpoint hemorrhaging. It was determined that a choke hold or "hammerlock" was the probable method of strangulation. No evidence of a completed sexual assault was found.

In the early morning hours of April 8, 1993, a police canine unit found [Thacker] hiding in a yard near Crawford's apartment complex. A truck containing papers bearing [Thacker's] name was found parked outside the offices of Crawford's apartment complex. [Thacker] was identified by several witnesses who saw him loitering about the mail room just before the offense. He was also identified by witnesses who saw him running where Crawford was found. A pubic hair matching a sample from Crawford was found in [Thacker's] underwear. Thacker v. State, No. 71,891, at 2-3 (Sept. 18, 1996).

Thacker appealed, raising fifty-seven points of error. His conviction was affirmed on direct review, so he sought state collateral review, raising eight points of error, but was again denied relief. This denial was affirmed in an unpublished opinion by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Ex parte Thacker, No. 74,034 (Tex.Crim.App. Dec. 19, 2001) (unpublished), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 829, 123 S.Ct. 128, 154 L.Ed.2d 44 (2002).

Thacker filed his initial federal habeas petition, which the district court dismissed, without prejudice, to allow for complete state court exhaustion of his claim under Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), which held that juries must make determinations regarding aggravating and mitigating factors. After his second state habeas petition was dismissed, Ex parte Thacker, No. 48,092-02 (Tex.Crim.App. Dec. 10, 2003) (unpublished), Thacker renewed his federal habeas petition, raising nine grounds for relief. The district court denied relief and denied a COA. Thacker v. Dretke, No. H-04-CV-126 (S.D.Tex. May 27, 2004).

* * *

In his COA application, Thacker raises seven issues related to only two alleged errors: that (1) the instruction given the jury on his capital murder charge was a misstatement of Texas law, or at the very least was substantially confusing to the jury as to the sufficient level of intent required to convict; and (2) the trial court's disallowance of any reference to Thacker's parole eligibility in the presence of the jury was unconstitutional. Thacker argues that the erroneous jury charge violated his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Trial by Impartial Jury Clause of the Sixth Amendment, and that he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. With respect to the parole eligibility question, Thacker avers that the purported error violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment, and the Compulsory Process Clause of the Sixth Amendment.

* * *

In Green v. Johnson, 160 F.3d 1029, 1044 (5th Cir.1998), we held that "a state may rationally conclude that its capital sentencing scheme would be better served by not requiring that courts inform juries of parole considerations.... The Texas Legislature could rationally conclude that injection of parole issues at the punishment phases of capital murder trial would invite consideration of factors unrelated to the defendant's blameworthiness...." Such restrictions, therefore, do not run afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Given that conclusion, it can hardly be said that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals acted contrary to, or engaged in an unreasonable application of, federal law. Where no court has yet to publish an opinion considering Thacker's claim that the Sixth Amendment, per Scheffer, protects his right to discuss parole eligibility, and we have explicitly rejected such an argument under the analogous due process framework, we cannot say that Thacker has made a substantial showing that the Texas courts deprived him of a federal right-- nor can we imagine that reasonable jurists could disagree. The request for a COA is DENIED.

The victim, Karen Gail Crawford.