Without comment, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has declined to hear the complex capital murder conviction and life sentence of former Dallas doctor George Guo.
The decision not to grant a Discretionary Petition for Review upholds a ruling by the 5th Court of Appeals in January, which ruled Guo got a fair trial. Today’s action also means the end of the appeals, effectively keeping Guo locked up for the rest of his life with any chance for parole.
Guo’s case that reaches back more than 30 years.
In 1988, Katherine Bascone of Highland Park was raped, strangled and left in a vegetative state. Bascone never recovered from the attack and died in 2018.
Since capital murder has no statute of limitations, police were able to arrest and charge Guo. But the state still had to work with evidence and witnesses from 1988. DNA evidence from the crime led to the arrest of Guo.
The conviction was not easy. The state overcame 30 years of hurdles to track down and convict Guo of capital murder.
“It is a tricky case in the sense of causation. That’s what has to be established here,” said Brian Owsley, a law professor at the University of North Texas, Dallas, who says the cause of death has to be established before the state could move forward. Then the death had to be tied back to Guo.
What Owsley was puzzled by was the lack of defense that was presented during the trial.
“The prosecution called over two dozen witnesses. But the interesting thing is the defense attorney didn’t call any witnesses.” Owsley said. He felt an expert could have helped the defense argue that there was no causation. “They took a different tack, seemingly, that they just said, look the prosecution has the burden of proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt, they failed in many regards, therefore our client should walk. That obviously didn’t work.”
However Owsley says the expert could have helped sew reasonable doubt and help set the stage for an appeal.
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