A state district judge agreed Friday with an appellate attorney and the Tarrant County district attorney's office that Death Row inmate Chelsea Richardson should get a new punishment hearing.
Eastland County Judge Steve Herod, who was appointed to hear Richardon's appeal, has signed off on an agreement between the parties that basically says that the former prosecutor on Richardson's case, Mike Parrish, failed to disclose material favorable to her defense. They agreed that the material, if turned over, might have kept Richardson from getting the death penalty.Herod has recommended to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that Richardson be given a new punishment hearing.If that happens, Richard's attorney, Bob Ford, and the district attorney's office plan to work out a deal in which Richardson, 27, will receive a life sentence for her role in the 2003 slaying of her boyfriend's parents, Rick and Suzanna Wamsley of Mansfield.On Wednesday, District Attorney Joe Shannon, who was elected after Parrish retired in 2008, said his office will not be a party to the infliction of the death penalty "when there is even an appearance of impropriety on the part of a prosecutor who formerly worked in this office."Authorities said Richardson; her boyfriend, Andrew Wamsley; and friend Susana Toledano killed the Wamsleys in 2003 so Andrew Wamsley could inherit his parents' $1.56 million estate.Toledano struck a deal with prosecutors and received a life sentence in exchange for testifying against Wamsley and Richardson. Richardson and Wamsley, meanwhile, turned down prosecutors' plea bargain offer and were each convicted of capital murder in separate trials. Wamsley got a life sentence; Richardson, of Fort Worth, got the death penalty, a first for a woman from Tarrant County.During Richardson's appeal, Ford alleged that Parrish committed prosecutorial misconduct by failing to tell the defense about 11 pages of notes taken by Dr. Randy Price, a psychologist who interviewed Toledano at Parrish's request. Ford argued that some of Toledano's statements to Price could have been used to lessen Richardson's culpability.After a series of hearings over several years, the district attorney's office agreed with Ford that the notes could have been used to attack the state's theory that Richardson was the mastermind and should have been turned over."The applicant should receive a new punishment trial," the agreement stated.On Thursday, Lewis Wamsley, Rick Wamsley's father, said he had mixed feelings about the recent turn of events, saying, "We're not rejoicing; we're not unhappy.""I think the thing that irritates me more than anything is that we, as a family, prior to going to court originally, we agreed with the district attorney to make a plea bargain offer to both she and Andrew," Lewis Wamsley said. "They both turned it down and we -- the taxpayers -- have spent tons of money prosecuting the case and we are right off where we were at the very beginning. It could have eliminated a lot of heartache. She had an opportunity and she turned it down and manipulated it around and we're back where we were at the beginning."Melody McDonald,817-390-7386Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
