Execution Report: George Cordova

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Under Texas law, for a defendant to be convicted of capital murder, one or more aggravating factors must be present. The most common aggravating factor is the simultaneous commission or attempted commission of another felony. In Cordova's case, potential aggravating factors included the robbery of Hernandez, the robbery of West, and the rape of West, but the only one of these that were included in the state's indictment was the robbery of Hernandez.

Under the "law of parties," the state does not have to prove that the defendant personally inflicted the fatal injury; it is sufficient to prove that he participated in a killing and had an intent to kill or anticipated that a life would be taken.

A jury found Cordova guilty of the capital murder of Joey Hernandez in February 1982 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in September 1985.

Manuel Villanueva pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Cordova's brothers were never charged.

While on Death Row, Cordova was found passing a knife to another inmate and was caught scaling a wall.

In 1988, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Cordova's conviction because the jury was not instructed to consider convicting him of the lesser offense of murder. According to the court's opinion, "The proof of Cordova's participation in the robbery of Hernandez is only circumstantial and far from certain." The court wrote that even though Cordova robbed West, the fact that he let her keep one of her rings indicated "that he was not all that interested in robbery," and his robbery of her "does not establish conclusively that he had the same intent to rob Hernandez."

"It is at least arguable that his purpose throughout was to rape West, not to rob Hernandez," the court wrote. For this reason, the court found that Cordova's due process rights were violated because the jury was not given the option of convicting him of murder. Since the rape and robbery of West were not included in the state's indictment of Cordova, they could not be used as aggravating factors in his capital murder conviction.

Cordova was retried in 1989. The teacher he had raped in Florida testified against him at his punishment hearing. In June, a jury once again found him guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

"I am not guilty of this crime, of the charges brought against me," Cordova said in an interview from Death Row. "I know in my heart I did not kill Hernandez."

Joey Hernandez's brother, Alfred, attended Cordova's execution.

Cordova spoke for nine minutes in what Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk described as a "rambling and repetitive" last statement, in which he apologized for the murder and urged his family and fellow Death Row inmates to remain strong.

"If I could die a hundred times to bring him back, I would do it," he said while looking at Alfred Hernandez. "I just don't know what to say to relieve your pain. I'm embarrassed to see your face because I feel your pain ... I hope you all can take this bad experience and turn it into something positive."

"If I see your brother, I'm going to hug him," he continued. "I don't think I'm worth [sic] to be anywhere near where he's at. If he will allow me to be his servant, I'll tie his shoes; I'll do anything. I'm just sorry." Alfred nodded, his eyes watering.

Cordova told his family, "I am strong, but I did wrong and I have to face up to it. I want to suffer and suffer hard." He then began speaking a prayer in Spanish. The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 3 August 2016.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, Front Page Detective.