A Dallas County man set to die April 11, who shot and killed his friend and the friend’s grandmother before robbing her in 1989 at her home in Preston Hollow, has filed a last-minute appeal claiming his trial lawyer used racist tactics during jury selection.
Mark Allen Robertson, 50, was convicted in 1991 of killing 19-year-old Sean Jason Hill and Hill’s 81-year-old grandmother Edna Brau in August of 1989 after the two men had taken methamphetamines and smoked weed, the Houston Chronicle reported. He was also convicted of killing a 19-year-old 7-Eleven store clerk over before the double homicide.
Robertson’s legal team filed a motion Tuesday that argued his then-attorney Michael Byck “engaged in purposeful discrimination” against potential black jurors under the belief that they would be less sympathetic to a white defendant. Later, in 1997, Byck testified in court to his strategy.
In the appeal, his attorneys ask for a stay of execution.
“By now there should be no confusion on this matter — racial discrimination in the administration of justice is intolerable,” Robertson’s attorney Jeremy Schepers told the Chronicle. “The courts should not hesitate to denounce this behavior.”
On the day of the double homicide, Robertson and Hill went fishing at a creek near Brau’s home in the 9300 block of Hathaway Street after consuming the drugs. After catching seven catfish, Robertson took out a gun and shot Hill in the head.
In a written confession, Robertson said Hill’s body fell into the water and Robertson ran toward the house to wash water over his face in a bathroom.
Robertson then walked to the home’s den where Brau was watching TV and shot her once in the head. He took her purse and Hill’s drugs before leaving the house in Brau’s Cadillac, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The death row inmate has been granted a stay of execution before in 2003 when his then-attorney successfully argued claims of false testimony at Robertson’s trial. Robertson won the chance of a new sentence based on these claims, but was sentenced to death once again, the Houston Chronicle reported.
