Editor's note, July 8: State District Judge Lela Mays in July set an Oct. 10 execution date for Randy Halprin. But his appeal regarding former judge Vickers Cunningham is still pending.

An inmate condemned to die for his role in the Texas 7 prison escape says the Dallas judge who put him on death row is a bigot and a racist who should have recused himself from the case, according to a federal court filing appealing the man's conviction.

Randy Halprin filed the appeal saying that former state District Judge Vickers "Vic" Cunningham was prejudiced against him because he is Jewish and routinely used derogatory and offensive language about Jewish people, Catholics, African Americans and Hispanics. Halprin said the courts should grant him a new trial.

Vickers "Vic" Cunningham spoke during an interview at The Dallas Morning News in 2018. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Halprin's attorneys wrote in the appeal, called a writ of habeas corpus, that Cunningham regularly spoke the N-word, condemned "the [expletive] Jews" and used other slurs to describe racial minorities.

The Dallas Morning News reported last year that Cunningham, who is white, rewarded his children with a trust if they married someone who is white, Christian and of the opposite sex.

Cunningham, 57, denied the allegations in the appeal Tuesday in a brief statement to The News. Last year, he denied racial bigotry in an interview, but he did confirm the trust he set up for his children.

"The fabrications contained in the writ are more of the same lies from my estranged brother and his friends," Cunningham said Tuesday, referring to his brother Bill Cunningham, who is married to a black man. "I have not communicated with him since our father's funeral. I will not be commenting further."

Halprin, 41, was a member of the Texas 7 gang of prison escapees who murdered Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins during a robbery on Christmas Eve 2000.

Cunningham sentenced Halprin to death in 2003.

His attorneys allege in the appeal filed last month that the judge's anti-Semitic beliefs and statements violated the Constitution's due process requirement guaranteeing fair treatment at trial. They say Halprin is entitled to a new trial no matter how strong the evidence is against him.

Halprin has said he did not fire his gun the night Hawkins was shot 11 times and run over behind an Oshman's sporting goods store. Halprin was convicted and sentenced based on Texas' law of parties, which allows for anyone participating in a crime to be held accountable for Hawkins' murder.

"Before, during, and after Randy Halprin's trial, Judge Cunningham harbored deep-seated animus towards and prejudices about non-white, non-Christian people. He expressed these views frequently in private and they informed his thinking about his public service in the law," Halprin's attorneys Tivon Schardl, Timothy Gumkowski and Paul Mansur wrote.

"Judge Cunningham had a duty not to preside over a case in which he considered the defendant a ... '[expletive] Jew.'"

The Dallas County district attorney's office did not respond to a request for comment. Toby Shook, the lead prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, declined to comment.

Halprin's attorneys said in the filing that they were not aware of the allegations against Cunningham until The News' report about the trust and other allegations of bigotry. Then they conducted their own investigation, they wrote.

Halprin does not have a scheduled execution date.

Halprin was a victim of child abuse who went on to be a child abuser. While baby-sitting for a friend he met at a homeless shelter, he broke a 16-month-old's arms and legs, fractured his skull and beat his face until one eye filled with blood. He pleaded guilty to injury to a child and was serving a 30-year sentence when he escaped Dec. 13, 2000, from the Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas.

'Level of hatred'

In the appeal, Halprin's attorneys quote Tammy McKinney, who grew up with Cunningham and knows him as an adult, as saying that the judge "did not like anyone not of his race, religion or creed, and he was very vocal about his disapproval."

McKinney said that Cunningham's "level of hatred" grew as he aged but that he was always prejudiced and that prevented them from ever becoming "truly good friends," according to the court filing.

The trial of Texas 7 ringleader George Rivas was presided over by Molly Francis. Rivas was sentenced to death and has been executed, along with three other escapees. Another committed suicide to avoid capture in Colorado, and the gang's lookout won a reprieve in March from the U.S. Supreme Court.

When Francis was appointed to a state appellate court, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Cunningham as her replacement.

Cunningham was proud of the role he played in sentencing five of the Texas 7 to death, including Joseph Garcia and Michael Rodriguez, who were Hispanic. Rodriguez was also Jewish and attended services with Halprin in prison. Garcia and Rodriguez have been executed.

In this Dec. 3, 2003, file photo, Texas death row inmate Randy Halprin, then 26, sat in a visitation cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. Halprin, a Jewish death row inmate who was part of the "Texas 7" gang of escaped prisoners, has filed an appeal claiming former District Judge Vickers Cunningham was anti-Semitic and frequently used racial slurs. Halprin argues that Cunningham should've recused himself. (File Photo / The Associated Press)

McKinney said the judge would talk about the cases at parties and, when he lost his inhibitions at parties, McKinney said, Cunningham "aired his prejudices." She recalled him using racial slurs when he suggested blacks or other minorities "walking into his courtroom knew they were going to go down."

When Cunningham resigned after 10 years on the bench to run for Dallas County district attorney, he privately said "he was running for DA so that he could return Dallas to a Henry Wade style of justice."

Wade served as Dallas' DA for decades and has been criticized for what some call his "convictions at all costs" policies, well-documented racial discrimination during jury selection, as well as wrongful convictions on his watch.

Cunningham has criticized Dallas County's exonerations, which now number more than 30, according to the court filing. Most of the men cleared were freed based on DNA evidence that proved they could not be the perpetrator.

A photograph of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins sits between then-state District Judge Vickers Cunningham and then-Dallas County prosecutor Toby Shook during Shook's closing arguments during Randy Halprin's capital murder trial in 2003 . Halprin, who is Jewish, says in a federal appeal that Cunningham's anti-Semitic remarks and beliefs should have prevented him from presiding over his trial. Halprin is on death row. (File Photo / Staff)

Halprin's attorneys say campaign volunteer Amanda Tackett, described in the appeal as a friend of Cunningham's estranged brother, recalled that the judge referred to Halprin as "the Jew" at campaign events.

Tackett, a former D Magazine writer, also told Halprin's attorneys that Cunningham believed God chose him to preside over the Texas 7 trials and that he was "entitled to be" district attorney because of those cases. She also described bigoted behavior to The News.

He ultimately lost his bid for DA in the 2006 Republican primary. He also lost a runoff in 2018 for county commissioner after The News reported on the trust and other allegations of bigotry.