9781422270899

Chapter One

L ittle exists about the seven men online or in print except for their prison records. Each of them started out as a regular guy. No member of the Texas Seven committed headline-grabbing crimes to land in prison. Each held down a normal job. The men’s backgrounds did differ. One played in a band in high school, while another attended college to become a teacher. Friends knew another by his fabulous sense of humor. The one thing each man had in common, though, was breaking the law in the state of Texas, arguably the toughest of the U.S. states on crime. In Texas, offenses that net an individual a few years in other states result in decades-long sentences or death sentences. The state also applies a legal tenet called the “law of parties,” which states that if while in the company of others, one of them commits a crime, then all of those present can share the legal blame. The Texas legal system applied the law of parties to The Texas Seven in the case of the murder of police officer Aubrey Hawkins. Meet the Seven: Newbury, Rivas, Rodriguez, Garcia The Texas Seven were also known as the Connally Seven. John Bowden Connally Jr., was an American politician. He served as the 39th Governor of Texas. The Seven escaped from the John B. Connally Unit in 2000.

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Meet the Seven: Newbury, Rivas, Rodriguez, Garcia