Member of “Texas 7” loses federal appeal

HOUSTON—The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal from a death row inmate who was part of the notorious “Texas 7” gang of escaped prisoners.

Attorneys for 56-year-old Patrick Murphy argued unsuccessfully to the court that evidence failed to show Murphy killed or tried to kill suburban Dallas police officer Aubrey Hawkins and that he had deficient legal help at his trial and earlier in his appeal.

Murphy was serving 50 years for a Dallas sexual assault when he and six others broke out of a South Texas prison in 2000. They committed numerous robberies, including the Irving holdup where Hawkins was killed, before being captured in Colorado. One killed himself there.

Murphy is among three of the gang on death row. Three