21 Facts About Fortunato Benavides

Fortunato Benavides received a Juris Doctor in 1972 from the University of Houston Law Center.

Fortunato Benavides was in private practice as an attorney in McAllen, Texas from 1972 to 1977, from 1980 to 1981 and from 1993 to 1994.

Fortunato Benavides was a judge of the Hidalgo County, Texas Court-at-Law Number Two, from 1977 to 1979.

Fortunato Benavides was a judge of the Hidalgo County, Texas Ninety Second District Court, from 1981 to 1984.

Fortunato Benavides was a justice of the Thirteenth Court of Appeals of Texas, from 1984 to 1991.

Fortunato Benavides was a judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, from 1991 to 1992.

Fortunato Benavides was a visiting judge of the Supreme Court of Texas in 1993.

Fortunato Benavides was nominated by President Bill Clinton on January 27,1994, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee.

Fortunato Benavides was confirmed by the Senate on May 6,1994, and received his commission on May 9,1994.

Lawyers who practiced before Fortunato Benavides considered him an ideological moderate.

Fortunato Benavides's opinions were distinguished by their attention to the importance of precedent.

In 2000, Benavides sat on a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit to hear the case of Burdine v Johnson.

Fortunato Benavides wrote that it shocks the conscience that someone could be sentenced to death after being represented by a lawyer who slept through substantial portions of his trial.

Fortunato Benavides' views were later vindicated when the entire Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, took up the case and reversed the panel's judgment.

In Tennard v Cockrell, Benavides applied longstanding precedent of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to an esoteric issue of death penalty law: He affirmed Tennard's death sentence, holding that Texas' capital sentencing law adequately took into account Tennard's evidence of low IQ before he was sentenced to death.

The United States Supreme Court took up the case, and in a sharply-worded opinion, held that the Fifth Circuit law Fortunato Benavides had used was wrong.

On remand, Fortunato Benavides, writing for the majority of a three-judge panel, reversed Tennard's death sentence using the Supreme Court's rule, holding that Texas law had failed to attach sufficient import to Tennard's low IQ evidence.

In TDP v Benkiser, Benavides weighed in on a controversial election-year ballot dispute.

Fortunato Benavides, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit that included conservative Republican appointee Edith Brown Clement, ruled in favor of the Democrats.

Fortunato Benavides' opinion was hailed both by academics and by the press.

Fortunato Benavides was survived by his wife, Evelyn Benavides, daughters Amanda Laura Carter and Adelaide Pilar Benavides, and grandsons Noah George Carter and Milo Harrison Carter.