Harrelson appeal rejected again

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to consider claims that Charles Harrelson was wrongly convicted of the 1979 assassination of a federal judge in San Antonio.

Announced without explanation, the justices' decision represented a third and perhaps final rejection of a lengthy appeal financed by the convicted killer's movie-star son, Woody Harrelson.

The denial means Charles Harrelson likely will die in the maximum-security federal penitentiary in Colorado where he was sent after attempting to escape an Atlanta federal prison. The 65-year-old is serving two sentences of life without parole.

His appeal, filed in 1997, attracted widespread attention largely because it combined a high-profile killing, a celebrity son and a nationally known defense attorney, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

The glitz, however, hardly swayed judges who, one after another, were unconvinced by Harrelson's challenge to his conviction for the 1979 murder-for-hire of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr.

Harrelson claimed in his appeal that his trial attorney failed to properly defend him and that federal prosecutors concealed evidence that would have implicated others, including a local defense attorney.

Sitting in the San Antonio federal courthouse that is named after the slain jurist sometimes called "Maximum John," U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled a year ago that Harrelson received a fair trial in 1982 and that his arguments did little to dispel "the government's overwhelming evidence of his guilt."

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals likewise turned down Harrelson in December.

The Supreme Court's refusal Monday will be the final word on the case unless Harrelson finds new evidence and raises new claims.

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That fellow, Woody, was the one that truely convinced me that little good can come from Hollywood, where people lie for a living. After being treated to "Woody" the character for several years...corn-fed, good natured, honest and wholesome...and then being fed a diet of "I am really a pot-smoking whiney, annoying, spoiled Hollywood wierdo, who thinks he is way smarter than you", I was disappointed like few times in my life. What a shame.

Charles Harrelson did the crime - and he is going to do the time. I lived in SA at the time and remember this case very well. The evidence against Charles was quite strong and unambiguous.

I don't blame Woody for trying to get his dad free from prison as long as he has the resources to do so, but the time has come for him to accept the fact that his dad is a murderer; he took a life in cold blood with intent and malice aforethought.

Deal with it, Woody. Smoke a few more rocks, toke some meth, do whatever stupid thing you do and deal with it - daddy ain't coming home.

Charles Harrelson was a well known police character in Houston who handed out business cards that said Charles Harrelson hit man. He went to prison in the early sixties for murdering a well to do grain dealer from Hearne Texas. He was also the chief suspect in a contract hit on David Berg’s brother. David Berg is a very successful Houston attorney, but his brother I have been told was a small time gambler who aspired to be a hood, and he crossed the wrong people.

He is probably right about his Houston attorney selling him out though. His name is Bobby Tarrant. Tarrant was a very colorful lawyer who once punched the then DA Rusty Hardin into the jury box during a trial, because he offended his daughter who was on trial for some kind of dope case. He was also barred from practicing law in the federal courts, because the cops caught him with I think three machine guns. They had borrowed them from him during the TSU riots. They later got mad at him though for something, and nailed him for the guns.

Tarrant became Harrelson’s lawyer, and he thought if he helped the feds in judge Woods case the government would lift his ban on his practicing in federal court, so he wore a wire when he went to the county jail to confer with Harrelson. Harrelson discovered the wire during the meeting, and the jig was up for Tarrant. I think he had good lawyers after that.

Harrelson was a classic loser, and a dumb ass. Any notoriety he received was only because he was willing to kill people. The lawyer Tarrant was from everything I’ve heard about him a pretty cool guy.

My parents were also living in San Antonio at the time of the judge's murder. They lived in the same condo complex as the federal judge who replaced the murdered judge in the trial that was the reason for the murder. I remember this because of the high level of security maintained at the condo (lots of burly men in dark suits and sunglasses hanging around the place). It made a big impression on me at the time.

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