Green was arrested three days after the fatal shooting after leading police on a 50-mile chase in a stolen car. According to testimony at his trial, a gun in the car was traced to the Lastrapes slaying.

Appeals attorneys said problems at the Houston police crime lab raised questions about the validity of that evidence.

At his trial, nine victims identified Green as the person who robbed them during a three-day crime spree. His defense lawyers argued he had been abused by a mentally ill mother and turned to the streets to help provide support for two younger brothers.

As much as I hate to say it, this is not an isolated event. Here is another article, again from the Associated Press, about the execution of another man in Houston, who coincidentally shares the same last name as the previous situation. Edward Green III was tried and convicted for a double murder case. Edward Green was executed on the evening of Monday, October 5th. The link between the two Greens? The DNA evidence in both of their cases was done in the same Houston, Texas crime lab that has been "called into question by two state senators and the police chief himself."

Convicted Killer in Houston Case Executed

Wed, Oct. 06, 2004

MICHAEL GRACZYK

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A convicted killer was executed even though the handling of his case by Houston's troubled police lab had been called into question by two state senators and the police chief himself.

Edward Green III, 30, was put to death Tuesday night despite his attorneys' pleas that evidence relevant to his double murder trial might be in some 280 recently discovered boxes that had been mislabeled and improperly stored.

Green's lawyers as well as the senators and the police chief had wanted all executions out of Harris County stayed pending review of the boxes. In Green's case, prosecutors said all evidence had been accounted for.

Gov. Rick Perry refused to impose a blanket moratorium on Harris County executions and rejected a 30-day reprieve for Green.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Texas' high court also declined to block Green's execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles twice refused clemency requests.

"The main evidence leading to Green's conviction is his own confession to these brutal and senseless murders," the governor said.

Green was convicted of fatally shooting Edward Haden, 72, and Helen O'Sullivan, 63, during a 1992 robbery.

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