Heliberto Chi was executed in Texas tonight. He had been convicted and sentenced to death for a robbery/murder in a suburban Dallas store in 2001.
The Houston Chronicle reports that an accomplice who drove the get-away car was given a life sentence instead of the death penalty:
The getaway driver at the murder scene, Hugo Sierra, who is the brother of Chi’s girlfriend, is serving a life prison term.
On August 21, Texas plans to execute Jeff Wood for being the get-away driver for Daniel Reneau, who killed a clerk during a robbery. And Jeff Wood was forced by Reneau to drive the get-away car at gunpoint. In once case, the get-away driver does not get life under the law of parties, but in the other case the get-away driver gets the death sentence. This shows how arbitray capital sentencing is in Texas. Two cases very similar, but with very different outcomes.