Duane Buck, convicted of a double homicide in 1995, will be removed from death row in Texas after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Photo courtesy Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Duane Buck, a Texas man convicted of a double murder in 1995, will avoid a death sentence and get life in prison due to questionable expert testimony used against him during his original trial, according to a new plea bargain with prosecutors this week.
Attorneys for Buck appealed his death sentence and earlier this year won a 6-to-2 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled one of three psychologists at trial -- who'd said Buck posed a future danger, in part, because he's black -- unfairly influenced the jury's decision to hand down the death penalty.
Buck, 54, was convicted of killing his girlfriend Debra Gardner and her friend Kenneth Butler. He also shot his sister, Phyllis Taylor, and her friend, Harold Ebenezer, who both survived. Under the plea agreement, Harris County prosecutors dropped the death sentence in exchange for Buck's guilty pleas to the two additional attempted murder charges, reported the Texas Tribune.
The two additional guilty pleas netted Buck an extra 120 years in prison.
"After reviewing the evidence and the law, I have concluded that, 22 years after his conviction, a Harris County jury would likely not return another death penalty conviction in a case that has forever been tainted by the indelible specter of race," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement. "Accordingly, in consideration for Buck pleading guilty to two additional counts of attempted murder we have chosen not to pursue the death penalty."
Taylor has opposed a retrial to get the death sentence for her brother.
"Talking about that night is deeply emotional for me," she said. "The thought of going through another trial was just too much to bear."
Members of Gardner's family said Buck should be executed for his crimes.
"The boy is a cold-blooded murderer," said Accie Smith, Gardner's sister. "He is not a victim of racism. He's a cold-blood, calculating murderer."
The issue of Buck's death sentence gained the case national attention and his cause was taken up by groups like the NAACP and anti-death penalty ministers.
Smith said she feels her family was thrown "under the bus."
"What happened today is a travesty and it's a disgrace," she said. "I will never understand why his life is more important than [Debra's] life."
