At issue is an internal department code that police used in 264,000 cases to suspend investigations due to a lack of personnel. The crimes included roughly 4,000 sexual assault cases.
Rabbani’s legal appeal challenging his death sentence, which would ultimately prove successful, languished in the Harris County courts for decades. His defense attorneys neglected to pursue it, effectively abandoning Rabbani and leaving him unrepresented for years. Meanwhile, prosecutors remained aware of the appeal but appear to have set it aside indefinitely.
At the same time, Rabbani’s new lawyers allege he suffered medical neglect while serving the unconstitutional death sentence.
Together, these failures have left Rabbani as Wolff found him in spring 2023 – severely disabled, deeply mentally ill and unable to stand or even articulate full sentences. He has, Wolff wrote in his letter to the district court judge, “deteriorated past the point of possible recovery.”
In an email to the Houston Landing on Wednesday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice disputed Wolff’s allegations about Rabbani’s living conditions and declined to comment on Rabbani’s care specifically.
“All inmates have access to comprehensive health care, including mental health care,” Amanda Hernandez, director of communications for TDCJ, said in an email. “Both security and nursing staff attend to inmates on a regular basis.”
Rabbani’s case is not isolated.
Texas again proving it is the shittiest place in America.
I would argue that they carried out the death sentence as Mr. Rabbani seems to need constant care now and has no hope of ever regaining even a measure of personal freedom.
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