The Trial of Gary Graham: 1981 - Witness Identifies Murderer

The police were then investigating the murder, two weeks earlier, of Bobby Grant Lambert, who had been killed by a. 22-caliber bullet in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket during a robbery attempt at 9:30 P.M. Lambert was a known drug trafficker from Tucson, Arizona, who had a criminal record; $6,000 in cash had been found in his pocket.

One witness of that murder, Bernadine Skillern, who had glimpsed the killer from 40 feet away in the darkened parking lot and who had described him to a police sketch artist, now was shown Gary Graham's picture in a photo lineup. She could not positively identify him. Next day, viewing a live lineup, she identified Graham.

Charged with killing Lambert, Graham pled guilty to the 10 counts of robbery, but denied the murder.

Attorney Ronald G. Mock was appointed by the court to defend Graham. Mock was well known in Harris County, Texas, for his availability to represent indigent clients. While the legal community knew that he had been reprimanded or suspended by the bar a number of times, it also knew that he frequently accepted cases turned down by other attorneys. His record—75 percent of his capital case clients went to death row—was the same as the sentencing record of juries in Harris County.