Tanner Horner files appeal days after being sentenced to death

WISE COUNTY, Texas (TCN) — Less than a week after Tanner Horner was sentenced to death for the 2022 slaying of 7-year-old Athena Strand, his attorney has filed an appeal.

CBS News reports that the Texas Court of Appeals confirmed that the appeal was filed on May 11. In addition, an appeal automatically allowed under state law was filed on May 6.

Horner pleaded guilty to the murder of Strand on April 7. At trial, jurors were shown video and audio from the inside of Horner’s delivery van after he kidnapped the child from outside her home in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30, 2022. Strand’s naked body was found in a river the following day. After three hours of deliberations, Horner was sentenced to die by lethal injection and was transferred to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in West Livingston, Texas, where male death row inmates are housed. 

KDFW reports that according to Russell Wilson, a defense attorney who is not associated with the case, every death penalty case in Texas is reviewed by the state’s highest court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Wilson said it is likely that a court reporter has been working on compiling record of Horner’s trial so that a brief can be written by Horner’s attorney.

Wilson said it will take the attorney a few months to write the brief. The state can then respond with its own brief if it is determined by the appeals court that any errors occurred during the case. If Horner’s conviction is affirmed, the case can be appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

Wilson said that if all direct appeals fail, Horner’s team can file a writ of habeas corpus, in which new evidence may be introduced.

According to KDFW, it was the first death penalty case for Wise County Prosecutor James Stainton.

Horner’s execution details have not been set.