DALLAS – One of the five surviving members of the "Texas 7" gang of escaped fugitives is seeking a new sentencing trial.
Condemned inmate Randy Halprin was in a Dallas courtroom under heavy security Thursday.
Halprin contends authorities considered him the least dangerous of the escapees and that a jury did not hear this detail when he was sentenced to death in 2003. A prosecutor disputed that characterization
Halprin and six others broke out of prison in December 2000. On Christmas Eve, they killed a police officer while robbing a sporting goods store. The men were captured a month later in Colorado, where one of them committed suicide. The rest received death sentences, and one has been executed.
Judge Rick Magnis said he plans to rule on the case by the end of the year.
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