GREETINGS AND WELCOME
TO THIS WEBSITE!!!
We thank you so much for coming to this site. Some of you may have sought it out or some of you may have stumbled upon it by chance, but for whatever reason that brought you here we hope that you will enter Randy's world with an open heart and open mind. We realize that much of what is written in these pages will be viewed either cynically or subjectively, but we believe that in the end you cannot ignore the humanity that has blossomed in Randy's life. Ultimately, we hope that you will leave this site with a different out look on the death penalty and how it is applied. It is our hope that those who believe in the death penalty discover that a vengeful society, a society without forgiveness, compassion, reconciliation and love is not the answer. Hopefully you will see that the death penalty only creates an endless cycle of pain and suffering. Death should never be the final and only solution. This is NOT a fan site or forum in which to ask you for legal or financial support. Nor is there any intent to be disrespectful to the serious matters of this subject or any victim of any offender. The world that Randy describes is not a funland. Yes, there are moments of light heartedness in his writings, but that should never be taken out of context of the dark and seriousness of the subject matter. Compassion and love does exist on death row. These men are capable of redemption. We hope that you will go through this website with that thought on your mind. We hope that you will listen to Randy's story, if not we ask that you please listen to someone's. He's not the only man on death row and until things change he surely won't be the last…
Randy is not seeking penpals, but he will reply to emails that he recieves as soon as possible.

DISCLAIMER NOTICE:
This is an anti-death penalty activist page constructed and maintained by friends of Randy Halprin. The views and opinions on this or on friends' pages are not necessarily those of Randy himself. Randy has no direct access to the Internet. News regarding him and his case will be posted on this page. Bulletins, messages and comments that are either posted or sent from this page are not necessarily the beliefs of Randy Halprin. Randy has agreed to respond to questions about the case to those who ask. All mail sent here will be printed and forwarded to him. Replies may be delayed due to opportunity and the prison mail delivery system, but mail will be acknowledged as this page is continually updated. Thank you!

***RE-EVALUATING THE DEATH PENALTY***
1. Executions cost more than life in prison. $2 million per person vs. $500,000 (4x as much!). Free counsel for defense, for appeals, maximum security on a separate death row wing.
2. The innocent may be wrongly executed. Since the DP was reinstated in 1976, 82 inmates have been freed from Death Row. That's 1 Death Row inmate found to be wrongfully convicted for every 7 executed.
3. Is not a deterrent; crime rates have not gone down. In fact, the murder rate in the US is 6 times that of Britain and 5 times that of Australia. Neither country has the DP. Texas has twice the murder rate of Wisconsin, a state that doesn't have the DP. Texas and Oklahoma have historically executed the most number of DR inmates, yet in 2003 their state murder rates increased, and both have murder rates higher than the national average.
4. Since Texas has offered life without parole as a sentencing option on Capital Murder cases for jurors, the application of the death penalty as a sentence has dropped by two-thirds. 
5. Some religions forbid death penalty: Catholic, Presbyterian, Quaker, Amish, Mennonite, Methodist.
6. The State of Texas has been willing to execute non-killers of a crime under the controversial "Law of Parties".
7. Many Death Row inmates were convicted while being defended by court-appointed lawyers who are often the worst-paid and most-inexperienced and least-skillful lawyers. The American Bar Association published guidelines for a good defense in a death penalty case: (a) attorneys with prior experience working a capital case, (b) 2 attorneys, 1 investigator, 1 mitigation specialist, and (c) fully funded to pay for travel, private eyes, evidence testing and other things needed to investigate the case. Yet no state meets these standards. And few states pay their state-appointed lawyers well enough to retain competent, effective lawyers.
8. Violates international human rights laws.
9. No longer practiced in most sophisticated societies.
10. Promotes killing as an OK solution to a difficult problem.
11. Death sentences are handed down arbitrarily, not in a fair manner. Serial killers such as the infamous Gary Ridgway in Seattle who admitted killing 48 prostitutes and runaways got life in prison. An "angel of death" nurse in NJ who admitted killing 17 people got life. Meanwhile, mentally ill and impoverished murderers who could not afford good lawyers and did not warrant much media attention were given the death penalty. In Alabama, David Hocker was executed after a one-day trial. His mental illness was not sufficiently described to the jury. Alabama also executed a 74-year-old man (James Hubbard) who had been on DR for 27 years and was beset by medical problems which would have probably soon caused his death by natural means: cancer, high blood pressure and the early stages of Alzheimers. In Texas, a man with schizophrenia was executed (Kelsey Patterson) even after the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency after learning of his time spent in mental hospitals and his unintelligible rambling.
12. Abolished in 1972, because the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional and inhumane. It was reinstated in 1976, after execution methods were "up-dated" and it was ruled that it was no longer inhumane.
13. 68% of all Texans vote death, while 57% of U.S. citizens vote death. 94% of U.S. Citizens believe, wrongly convicted individuals are executed.
14. Ex D.A. Gary Weiser once said, "To put a wrongly convicted man on death row with illegally produced evidence is wrong…; it is not justice."
15. Texas is 49th amongst states in education, poverty, and health care. But it is first in executions.
16. There are over 2 million Woman, Men and Children in prisons across the U.S. There are 400,000 more prisons in the U.S. than there are in China. China's population exceeds 1.5 billion people.
17. A 2002 Scripps Howard poll of Texans found that 66% polled believed that Texas has executed an innocent person. (Since 2000 alone, the press and various university pro-grams have found at least three executed men were indeed innocent…)
18. United States, according to a recent UN study, ranks fifth in executions amongst the entire world.
19. Texas believes that it is not obligated to uphold international treaties signed by the U.S. Government. On August 5 and August 7, 2008, Governor Rick Perry refused to stop the executions of two foreign nationals, who were not given - at the time of their arrests - access to their governments' consulates as mandated by this treaty.
***Texas death penalty cases cost more than non-capital cases. That is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992)***

TEXAS LAW OF PARTIES
WHAT IS THE LAW OF PARTIES?
Penal Code:
1.02 Objectives of Code
(1) to insure the public safety through:
    B. the rehabilitation of those convicted of violations of this code; and
    C. such punishment as may be necessary to prevent likely recurrence of
criminal behavior
(3) to prescribe penalties that are proportionate to the seriousness of offenses and that permit recognition of differences in rehabilitation possibilities among individual offenders;
(5) to guide and limit the exercise of official discretion in law enforcement to prevent arbitrary or oppressive treatment of persons suspected, accused, or convicted of offenses.
73rd Leg., ch. 900 1.01, eff. Sep 1, 1994.
7.01 Parties to Offenses
(c) All traditional distinctions between accomplices and principles are abolished by this section, and each party to an offense may be charged and convicted without alleging that he acted as a principal or accomplice.
7.02 Criminal Responsibility for Conduct of Another
(a) A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if...
    (a) (2) acting with INTENT to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense.
    (b) if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, ALL CONSPIRATORS ARE GUILTY OF THE FELONY ACTUALLY COMMITTED, THOUGH HAVING NO INTENT to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been ANTICIPATED as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy.
7.03 Defense Excluded
In a prosecution in which as actor's criminal responsibility is based on the conduct of another, the actor may be convicted on proof of commission of the offense and that he was a party to its commission, and it is no defense:
(2) that the person for whose conduct the actor is criminally responsible has been acquitted, has not been prosecuted or convicted, has been convicted of a different offense or of a different type or class of offense, or is immune from prosecution.
Article 37.071 (b) (2) of the code of Criminal Procedures permits the infliction of the death penalty only if the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant "intended to kill the deceased or another or anticipated that a human life would be taken."
The application of Texas Penal Code 7.02, in combination with Texas Code of Criminal Procedures Article 37.071(b)(2) is unjust and unconstitutional because it permits the death penalty to be imposed for complicity in a capital crime without requiring a finding that the person intended to kill or that he was a major participant in a crime where he showed reckless disregard for human life. In other words, neglecting to anticipate another actor's commission of murder in the course of a felony is all that is required to make a Texas defendant death -eligible. This is allowing the death penalty to be applied in a most immoral and liberal way.
 

We are a group of Randy's friends' and loved ones' who are trying to save Randy from unjustly being put to death by the State of Texas for a crime he did not commit. Randy Halprin was sentenced to death on June 12, 2003 under the controversial Texas Law of Parties. This unjust law states that even though a co-defendant may NOT have participated in the crime or caused a death, he can still face the death penalty. It also states that he should have "anticipated" the crime. However, that would require the ability of a mind reader! Evidence is overwhelming that Randy was NOT a shooter. We have original statements from his co-defendants whom ALL state that... [more...]

Click HERE to read the actual signed affidavits...!

We are asking that the recent telephone access given to general population inmates also be granted for death row inmates. The system set in place has voice recognition and can be safely controlled. Allowing death row the same phone access promotes good behavior. For every call placed, state taxpayers will be making money. The new phone system features a number of security measures to allow officials to monitor calls. Only outgoing calls are to be allowed and those calls can be made only to friends and relatives approved in advance by prison officials. [more...]