Northeast Texas Man on Death Row Loses at U.S. Supreme Court

HOUSTON (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from a Hopkins County man on death row for strangling his girlfriend 18 years ago. The high court decision, without comment, upholds a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last year rejecting arguments that Daniel Acker, 46, was innocent of the March 2000 killing of Marquetta George, 32, of Sulphur Springs. Attorneys also contended Acker’s trial court erroneously excluded evidence of his innocence, that appeals he previously lost were based on false evidence and that he had poor legal help in earlier appeals. Prosecutors said Acker killed George and dumped her body on a Hopkins County road. Trial attorneys said she jumped from Acker’s truck and then was hit. Acker doesn’t yet have an execution date.