Jewish death row inmate granted new trial after judge's antisemitic statements uncovered

Randy Halprin, a 47-year-old Jewish man on death row in Texas, has won the right to a new trial after his lawyers found that the judge who previously sentenced him had a history of making unsubstantiated antisemitic claims, the Independent reported on Friday.

Halprin was found guilty of shooting a police officer in 2000 during a series of robberies following his escape from prison alongside fellow prisoners. Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins, 29, was shot 11 times and died from his wounds. Halprin claimed he never fired the weapon but Texas law held him responsible for the actions of those who participated in conspiracy with him, according to NBC5. 

Before the escape, Halprin had been serving a 30-year sentence for beating an infant, according to NBC. 

Judge Vickers Cunningham, who oversaw the trial in Dallas, sentenced Halprin to death. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overruled the sentence and granted Halprin a new trial given concerns Judge Cunningham may have had biases against Halprin at the time of the sentencing. 

The appeals committee ruled in favor of a retrial by a vote of 6-3 after being shown evidence that Cunningham had continued to make antisemitic claims throughout his career. 

Cunningham had made statements about Jews outside the courtroom “with ‘great hatred, [and] disgust’ and [with] increasing intensity as the years passed,” the court said.

The judge reportedly also made antisemitic comments about Halprin outside the courtroom - referring to Halprin as "the Jew," "Randy the Jew," and "the Jew Halprin," according to NBC.

“The uncontradicted evidence supports a finding that Cunningham formed an opinion about Halprin that derived from an extrajudicial factor — Cunningham’s poisonous antisemitism,” the appeals court wrote in its ruling.

“Today, the Court of Criminal Appeals took a step towards broader trust in the criminal law by throwing out a hopelessly tainted death judgment handed down by a bigoted and biased judge,” Tivon Schardl, one of Halprin’s attorneys, said in a statement. “It also reminded Texans that religious bigotry has no place in our courts.”

Four of the escaped prisoners involved in the shooting have already been put to death, and Patrick Murphy awaits execution. His execution was initially halted after he argued his religious freedom was violated when officials failed to allow his Buddhist spiritual advisor to accompany him.

Previous allegations of racism

Cunningham is reportedly no longer a judge, and is now employed as an attorney in a private practice in Dallas. His office reportedly refused to comment on the case.

Despite having previously denied allegations of bigotry, Cunningham told the Dallas Morning News in 2018 that his living trust would provide additional benefits to his children only if they marry fellow white Christians - and that marriage be heterosexual. He told the paper that he initially opposed interracial marriage but his views evolved.

“I strongly support traditional family values,” Cunningham said. “If you marry a person of the opposite sex that’s Caucasian, that’s Christian, they will get a distribution.”

Bill Cunningham, the brother of the former judge, claimed Cunningham threatened his black husband, according to The Dallas Morning News in 2018.

“His views and his actions are disqualifying for anyone to hold public office in 2018,” Bill Cunningham told Dallas News. “It frightens me to death to think of people in power who could hurt people.”

Amanda Tackett, a former D Magazine writer who worked on Cunningham's 2006 campaign for district attorney, reportedly claimed that the judge repeatedly used racial slurs about black people.

“I’ve never met another Caucasian person like this," Tackett said. “Vic Cunningham is like a character out of a movie.”

Dallas News also reported that Cunningham’s son had sent text messages expressing uncertainty if his father would accept his interracial relationship with an Asian woman.

“I am making my father accept [sic] interracial relationships starting with me and my relationship with my Vietnamese girlfriend,” the son stated. “It’s a slow process but he i [sic] have faith in him turning around. And if he doesn’t, he will have one less person at his dinner table.”