Death row appeal claims witnesses had their facts wrong

Eyewitnesses who testified they saw Jose Echavarria shoot and kill in cold blood FBI agent John Bailey after a botched robbery attempt in 1990 "simply had their facts wrong."

So said Echavarria, who has been on Nevada's death row since shortly after the killing. He filed a series of appeals with the Nevada Supreme Court, which in a recent unpublished opinion denied all the inmate's claims, and affirmed his conviction and sentence handed down by former District Judge Lee Gates.

On June 26, 1990, a day after shooting Bailey multiple times as the agent lay on the ground, Echavarria fled to Juarez, Mexico, where he was arrested and signed a confession before being extradited to Nevada.

Since then, he has filed a stream of appeals in both state district and supreme courts, as well as in the federal system.

The Nevada Supreme Court decided two of Echavarria's latest appeals; in both , justices sided with the trial court.

In addition to claiming eyewitnesses were wrong and an expert defense witness should have been called, Echavarria also claims his attorneys prior and post-conviction were ineffective, that he was entitled to a new penalty hearing and that the state's death penalty lethal injection protocol was unconstitutional.