Man who claimed death sentence was based on false expert testimony has been executed in Texas

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A man was executed Thursday night in Huntsville, Texas, for the murder of a man during a robbery that happened decades ago.

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Brent Ray Brewer, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. local time, according to The Associated Press. He died 15 minutes after he was given a lethal injection for the death of Robert Laminack in April 1990.

Brewer had reportedly claimed that the prosecutors had relied on “false and discredited expert testimony” at his resentencing trial in 2009, according to the AP. Brewer’s lawyers claimed that the prosecution’s expert, Richard Coons, said “falsely” that Brewer would be a future danger. This finding was believed to have helped to impose a death sentence.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday dismissed Brewer’s appeal. The AP said that his claim should have been previously raised. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday voted 7-0 to commute Brewer’s sentence to a lesser charge. They also rejected a six-month reprieve.

“We are deeply disturbed that the (appeals court) refuses to address the injustice of allowing Brent Brewer to be executed without an opportunity to challenge Dr. Coon’s false and unscientific testimony,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Brewer’s attorneys, per the AP.

Hours before his execution, the United States Supreme Court declined to intervene over Brewer’s claims.

Prosecutors said that Laminack, 66, gave Brewer and his girlfriend a ride to the Salvation Army in Amarillo when he was stabbed in the neck, according to the AP. He was also robbed of about $140. According to the AP, he was 19 at the time of the murder. Brewer said that he had no violence in prison and became a better person after he got involved with the faith-based program for inmates on death row. He also expressed remorse for the murder and wanted to apologize to Lamiack’s family.

“I will never be able to repay or replace the hurt (and) worry (and) pain I caused you. I come to you in true humility and honest heart and ask for your forgiveness,” Brewer wrote in a letter to Laminack’s family, according to the AP. The letter was included in his clemency application.

Brewer was convicted of capital murder and was given the death sentence in 1991. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his death sentence and two other Texas inmates, according to the AP. The ruling was made that the juries in the three cases “did not have proper instructions when they decided the men should be executed.”

Brewer went through another trial in 2009 and was given the death sentence again, the AP said. About a year later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals called Coon’s testimony in another death row case “insufficiently reliable” and shouldn’t be allowed to testify.

Brewer is the seventh Texas inmate to be put to death this year. According to the AP, he is the 21st inmate in the United States to be put to death in 2023.