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Automatic appeal for John Allen Rubio underway
Posted: 03.23.2011 at 11:06 PM
Marcy Martinez

Marcy Martinez is an anchor and reporter for Action 4 News.

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John Allen Rubio, the man convicted twice already for killing three children in Brownsville in 2003 gets an automatic appeal after getting sentenced to death last year.

"It's not really about John Allen Rubio. It's about the process. It's designed to get more eyes to look at it to see if there were any errors," said Action 4 Legal Analyst John Blaylock.

This is the second time Rubio's been on death row and the second time his conviction, by law, has been up for appeal.

Last time, the conviction was reversed and a new trial unfolded in 2010 with defense attorneys trying to prove Rubio was insane at the time he stabbed and then cut the heads off of three small children.

A juror who sat through the trial just a few months ago and decided on Rubio's death sentence told Action 4 news that it was emotionally trying on jurors, and that he wouldn't wish any person to have to sit through a trial like Rubio's and see the graphic things jurors had to see.

Documents filed by Rubio's appeals team explain that Rubio is requesting another attorney to serve as co-counsel in the appeal process all which comes at a cost to Cameron County.

"Normally a judge will allow two attorneys, but going and getting an extra one is kind of frowned upon because it's just more money out of the counties system," said Blaylock.

After two long trials for the same man for the same conviction costing the county millions of dollars, Blaylock believes the murderer is going to stay where he is on death row.

"The judge went out of the way to give defense all the rope they needed. I believe there is a very low likelihood of reversal," said Blaylock.

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