Footage of comedian Jeff Ross’ 2015 Texas prisoner roast has been used to sentence Gabriel Paul Hall to death. However, the convict’s lawyers claim that it was misused as evidence during his trial against him.
While filming Comedy Central’s Jeff Ross Roasts Criminals: Live at the Brazos County Jail, the 57-year-old personality interviewed convicted murderer Gabriel Hall, along with several other inmates.
Hall was arrested in 2015 for the murder from retired college professor Edwin Shaar, Jr., and for brutally stabbing his disabled wife, Linda, (who survived) in 2011. Gabriel was then an 18-year-old student at A&M Consolidated High School. He confessed to the crime and was sentenced to death by a Texas court.
Gabriel Hall’s lawyers petition the Supreme Court arguing that before sentencing him to death, jurors were shown the clip of Jeff Ross’s 2015 roast, which violated Gabriel Hall’s Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury .
Gabriel Paul Hall has been on Texas death row since 2015
Born on February 18, 1993, Gabriel Paul Hall was born in Cebu City, Philippines, and lived in Cebu daycare until he was six. He was adopted at the age of 11 by Wes Hall and Karen Kruse Hall. Before that, his original family name was Espinosa-Cañada.
Wes happens to be a justice of the peace in Brazos County and a former attorney, while Karen was head of the Orphan Mission in Central Texas. They also adopted Gabriel’s biological sister, Eralyn. According to Everybody Wiki, Gabriel’s biological father, who lives in the Philippines, is also a convicted murderer.
As previously mentioned, Hall was convicted of the murder of Edwin Shaar, Jr. in 2015. in 2011 and the attempted murder of his wife. Following this, a grand jury indicted him in December 2011 for capital murder.
Hall was assisted by the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund (FALDEF) in his legal proceedings of the murder trial, which was scheduled for October 2013. Despite multiple attempts by his lawyers, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. As of 2015, Hall has been sentenced to death in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Texas.
Twitter shows mixed reactions to Jeff Ross’s video used against Gabriel Hall
On Dec. 28, Hall’s attorney, McKenzie Edwards, took over her Twitter account to file a petition filed with the Supreme Court to review the convict’s “constitutionality”.
Several Twitter users reacted to the situation, some siding with Hall, while others blamed Jeff for interacting with the convict and making him face the death penalty.
Jeff Ross’s interaction with Gabriel Hall has been used against the latter
In 2015, Jeff Ross visited the Brazos County Jail in Texas to film some footage for a Comedy Central special. The shooting lasted three days, where Ross interacted with people behind bars. The comedian explained that he was visiting the jail because he believed in giving people second chances and seeing if the prisoners were joking about their conditions.
One of the inmates Jeff Ross interviewed was Gabriel Hall, who was awaiting trial for a murder committed in 2011 at the time. The interaction between the two did not make it to the finals. However, prosecutors subpoenaed Comedy Central and obtained footage of the interaction between the two, showing it to the jury at the time of Hall’s trial.
According to the court documents, the clip showed Ross and Hall talking, with the latter making a racist joke and asking:
“What do you stand for? Hack someone’s computer?”
Hall said, “Something like that,” before another inmate pointed out, “hacking is the operative word.” Gabriel then jokingly replied that he brought a machete to someone’s screen.
When Jeff Ross called it “scary,” Hall replied that he “wouldn’t hurt a fly.” When the comedian asked, “What about a human?” Hal said:
“Ah, they’re annoying.”
The prosecutors in the case used the video to claim that Hall had no regrets for his actions, even after committing them for four years.
In 2019, Hall’s lawyers argued that the footage had been used improperly and that the violated the convict’s Sixth Amendment law, as he was not allowed to speak to anyone without his lawyers being present. They also stated that the interaction between Ross and Hall resulted in a misinterpreted portrayal of the latter as he was joking with the former. However, the appeal was rejected.
The Supreme Court has scheduled the criminal appeal against Gabriel Hall at a conference on January 6, 2023.