HOUSTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the appeal of a Honduran man on Texas death row for beating and strangling a Houston woman during a robbery at her home more than 20 years ago.
Attorneys for 47-year-old Carlos Ayestas have argued he unfairly was treated because he was not a U.S. citizen.
The high court also has reversed the judgments and returned to a lower court the cases of two other death row inmates — one a 1993 case from Red River County in far northeast Texas and another from Houston from 1983 — based on a decision last week where the justices ruled the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ignored current medical standards and required use of outdated criteria when it decided an inmate was mentally disabled.