FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO HEAR JOSHUA MAXWELL’S APPEAL

San Antonio, Texas: March 1, 2010

Today, the United States Supreme Court denied Joshua Maxwell's application for writ of certiorari seeking review of his death sentence.  Maxwell's execution is now scheduled for Thursday, March 11, 2010.

Maxwell was convicted by a jury in March of 2002 of Capital Murder and sentenced to death for the murder of off duty Bexar County Sheriff's Deputy Rudolfo Lopes.  Lopes was murdered on or about October 11, 2000, during a cross-country crime spree by Maxwell and his female accomplice, Tessie McFarland.  Maxwell and McFarland also murdered another victim, Mr. Robbie Botts, in Indiana.  At the time of the offense and trial the case received significant media attention because of the national manhunt for the killers that ended with their apprehension after a running gun battle and high speed chase with police in downtown San Francisco, California.  The two killers have been referred to as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde, and as the Natural Born Killers, a reference to a 1994 Quentin Tarantino movie.

McFarland, age 30, entered a guilty plea and received a life sentence on June 4, 2003 for her part in the Capital Murder of Lopes.

For more information, contact Cliff Herberg, First Assistant Criminal District Attorney, at 335-2342.