Robert Dale Rowell - Trial and Appeals

Trial and Appeals

After being indicted for capital murder on March 1, 1994, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury on April 7. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on December 18, 1996. A petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States on October 6, 1997 and further appeals for writ of habeas corpus were denied by his trial court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1998 and 2002 respectively.

Rowell had appealed his sentence as he claimed the jury were improperly instructed. Under Texas state law, during the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury are asked two special issue questions, one of which relates to the future dangerousness to society of the accused. The jury had asked for clarification of the term "society" and the trial judge had replied, "I am prohibited by law from expanding on the Court's charge." Rowell also said that the judge had not explained properly to the jury just how long the non-parole period of his life sentence would have been. He would not have been released until he was 84 years old.

Prior to the events of May 10, 1993, Rowell already had a criminal record. In 1973 he had served concurrent sentences of ten and twelve years for armed robberies. While on parole in 1980 he had robbed a restaurant at gunpoint. One of the patrons was a police officer, who took chase. After the man had identified himself as a police officer, Rowell had fired at the officer. After being arrested in a parking lot nearby, he was sentenced on November 18, 1980 to 30 years. During this prison sentence he stabbed another inmate with a homemade knife at Ramsey I prison in Brazoria County and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison.

According to a psychological testing, Rowell was reported to be unusual for a capital defendant as he did not act impulsively. Instead, he scored highly in ability to think rationally and act purposefully. He was also reported to be suffering from depression, psychopathic behavior, deviant behavior, anxiety, social introversion, drug addiction and alcoholism.