Robert Jean Hudson is scheduled for execution in Texas on November 20. If all the executions scheduled in Texas between now and Hudson’s scheduled date, he will be the twelfth person executed in Texas within a six week period. Hudson’s supporters are asking for his death sentence to be changed to life in prison.

A petition for Hudson has been signed so far by more than 2000 people. To sign click here. His supporters have created a group for him on Facebook explaining why his sentence should be commuted to life:

Robert has always admitted to the murder, which he has repeatedly said was wrong, plead guilty in court, and has shown deep personal remorse and sorrow for the crime.

He had a troubled childhood and the murder *WAS NOT* premeditated, meaning he *should not* have been charged with capital murder, as non-premeditated murder *IS NOT a capital offense* in Texas, where it was committed.

Robert has a family and children of his own, who will have to face the loss of their father if his execution goes ahead.

Robert’s lawyers during the sentencing phase of his trial did not perform as they should have, and failed grievously in their task.

The sentencing phase of Robert’s trial was defective; he was on antidepressants and thus unable to testify/stand trial.

Due to his troubled childhood, he has had pyschiatric treatment since he was young, and he spent several years in special education. His Vietnam-veteran father was alcoholic.

Robert went through a long cycle of depression as a child, which hindered his chance to have a fair start in life.

NOTE: Neither this group nor Robert Jean Hudson’s profile are edited by him. The group and his profile are maintained by his supporters on behalf of him. He has no access to the Internet, but we can send messages to the prison (the notorious Polunsky Unit).

IMPORTANT: As we are requesting only a COMMUTATION, if this is granted, Robert WILL NOT be released — he just won’t be executed. So please don’t think we’re requesting a pardon or the like. Robert will remain imprisoned, but he will be able to rebuild his life, and won’t face the barbaric, torturous death penalty.

As one group member said, “I AM JOINING THIS GROUP BECAUSE A PARDON IS NOT BEING ASKED FOR AND THE VICTIM IS NOT BEING FORGOTTEN; SO I HOPE A STAY OF EXACUTION IS GRANTED; JUSTICE WILL STILL BE DONE.”

CEDP is organizing a caravan to travel from Austin to Houston for the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions this Saturday Oct 25. We will meet at 10 am this Saturday at the H.E.B. Hancock Center parking lot. We will be meeting on the side of Sears that faces I-35. So between Sears and the I-35 access road. Call 494-0667 with any further questions.

This Saturday, Oct 25 in Houston, Texas, the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions will be held. Since 2000, we have been marching every year to abolish the death penalty in Texas.

More people from Houston have been executed than from any other city in the U.S. If Texas carries out the two executions it has scheduled this week, then it will have executed 418 people since 1982.

In just October and November, Texas is planning to execute twelve people. In this political season, we need as many people as possible to march with us or to support the march in order that politicians get the message that there is support for abolishing the death penalty in Texas.

The march starts at 2 pm. We will gather in Houston at S.H.A.P.E. Harambee Building at 3903 Almeda Road. Then we will march to S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, 3815 Live Oak, for a rally.

If you can not attend the march in person, please help us with a donation.

The March to Stop Executions is sponsored by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.

On Tuesday, Oct 21, Joseph Ries, 29, is the first of two people set to die this week. He was convicted of breaking into a rural home in Hopkins County in northeast Texas and fatally shooting and taking the car of Robert Ratliff, 64, who was asleep.

On Thursday, Oct 23, Bobby Woods, 43, is scheduled to be executed.

If these executions are carried out, Texas will have executed 418 people since 1982.

Please call the Governor of Texas on the Day of an Execution at 512-463-2000
Office of the Governor Fax: (512) 463-1849
Tell the Governor that You Oppose these Executions.

Send an Email to Governor Perry

Huntsville – Corner of 12th Street and Avenue I (in front of the Walls Unit) at 5:00 p.m.

Austin – At the Governor’s Mansion on the Lavaca St. side between 10th and 11th St. from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

Beaumont – Diocese of Beaumont, Diocesan Pastoral Office, 703 Archie St. @ 4:00 p.m. on the day of an execution.

College Station – 6 to 7 PM on execution days, corner of Texas Avenue and University Drive.

Corpus Christi – at 6 PM in front of Incarnate Word Convent at 2910 Alameda Street

Dallas – 5:30 pm, at the SMU Women’s Center, 3116 Fondren Drive

Houston – To learn location or if a stay has been granted before you come out, call Burnham Terrell, 713/921-0948.

Lewisville – St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, 1897 W. Main Street. Peace & Justice Ministry conducts Vigils of Witness Against Capital Punishment at 6:00 pm on the day executions are scheduled in Texas.

McKinney – St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Community located at 110 St. Gabriel Way. We gather the last Sunday of the month, following the 11:00 Mass to pray for those men/women scheduled to be executed in the next month and to remember the victims, their families, and all lives touched, including us as a society.

San Antonio (Site 1) – Archdiocese of San Antonio, in the St. Joseph Chapel at the Chancery, 2718 W. Woodlawn Ave. (1 mile east of Bandera Rd.) at 11:30 a.m. on the day of execution. Broadcast on Catholic Television of San Antonio (Time-Warner cable channel 15) at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on the day of execution.

San Antonio (Site 2) – Main Plaza across from Bexar County Courthouse and San Fernando Cathedral – Noon

Spring – Prayer Vigil at 6 PM on evenings of executions at St Edward Catholic Community, 2601 Spring Stuebner Rd for the murder victim, for family and friends of the murder victim, the prison guards and correctional officers, for the family of the condemn man/woman, for the man/woman to be executed and to an end to the death penalty.

This Saturday in Houston the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions will be held. It starts at 2 PM at S.H.A.P.E. Harambee Building, 3903 Almeda Road. The crowd wil march to S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, 3815 Live Oak.

The March to Stop Executions has been held each October since 2000. It is sponsored by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.

One of the saddest aspects of the death penalty is the effect on the family of the person being executed. Kevin Watts, who is scheduled for execution in Texas today, has an 8 year old daughter. She is mentioned in this report from the San Antonio Express News

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied both an application for clemency and a 30-day reprieve request from death row inmate Kevin Watts, clearing the way for the state to execute him today.

The board acted Tuesday. Watts was sentenced to die in 2003 for the execution-style shootings of three employees of a Northeast Side Korean restaurant and the rape of a worker’s wife.

By his own admission, during a robbery at the Sam Won Garden restaurant in March 2002, Watts shot restaurant manager Hak Po Kim, 30, and employees Chae Sun Shook, 59, and Yuan Tzu Banks, 52. Testimony and evidence showed he also kidnapped and sexually assaulted Kim’s new bride.

Watts said from prison last week that he was not ready to face his execution. His time on death row has gone quickly, he said; inmates typically have 10 years or more awaiting execution. Lawyers on both sides of the case said the overwhelming evidence against Watts, along with his confession, led to fewer delays.

On Wednesday, family members including his 8-year-old daughter tried to see Watts for a last visit, said his aunt, Linda Watts.

Call the Governor of Texas Today!

Citizen’s Opinion Hotline [for Texas callers]: (800) 252-9600
Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers]: (512) 463-1782.

Greg Wright’s supporters are circulating the following appeal requesting that people write the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Governor:

Gregory Edward Wright is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas October 30, 2008 for the murder of Donna Vick on March 21, 1997 in Desoto, Texas. Mr. Wright was one of two defendants sentenced to death in this case in separate trials. A petition for Commutation of his death sentence or in the alternative, a 180 day Reprieve has been submitted by his attorneys.

We are requesting that letters of support be sent to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking them to recommend these actions to the Governor, and to the Governor asking him to commute the death sentence to life or to grant a 180 day reprieve.

Some of the issues in Mr. Wright’s case have never been considered on appeal because his State Habeas attorney did virtually no work on his behalf leaving these issues unpreserved and preventing them from being raised in further appeals. This attorney is no longer on the list of attorneys approved to represent capital defendants in their appeals.

The other defendant in this case made confessions to the murder to a number of individuals both before the trial and after conviction. However he has never confessed under oath. One such confession was to an individual working at a 24 hour video story on the evening of the murder. The other defendant then asked him to call 911 for him. Both of them made calls to 911, but the tapes, which might have been helpful to Mr. Wright’s defense, have disappeared.

Mr. Wright’s attorneys were unable to find this witness to interview him, and the prosecutor’s office claimed they did not know his whereabouts. An affidavit by this witness confirms that the prosecutor’s office maintained contact with him prior to the trial.

There was another person to whom the other defendant confessed shortly after the murder while driving the victim’s car that the defense was never aware of until after the trial.

The prosecution made an undisclosed deal with another person who testified against Mr. Wright at his trial, providing information not available from any other source that was very damaging to Mr. Wright such as a cheerful demeanor after the murder. Although this witness testified to actions that would have subjected him to a lengthy prison sentence, he was never charged with a crime. Upon questioning by the defense attorney, both the witness and the prosecutor denied the existence of any deal. However testimony during the trial of the other defendant in the murder confirms the existence of a deal made prior to Mr. Wright’s trial.

A lot of emphasis was placed on the testimony of this witness during both the trial and the punishment phase. Failure to disclose a deal rendered the defense unable to point out the bias of this witness. Not only did the prosecution deny a deal but repeatedly insisted that none existed.

Items related to the crime, papers and clothing, such as jeans containing Mr. Vick’s blood, were found in a shack in Desoto. Although the police and the prosecutor were aware that both men had access to this shack, at trial the information was withheld that paperwork belonging to the other defendant was also present, and access was attributed only to Mr. Wright. In the other defendant’s trial, the shack was described as being shared by both men. There remain questions about the ownership of the jeans, which have questionable DNA inside a pant leg, and DNA testing is ongoing. Further testing is being opposed by the prosecution.

The state presented as their only physical evidence against Mr. Wright a partial bloody fingerprint on a pillowcase lifted by a crime scene officer not trained to handle evidence and who has now been indicted for murder in another case and is currently a fugitive from justice. Members of the Dallas Co. Sheriff’s Office with extensive experience and training in fingerprint identification did not find the print comparable to those of any suspects. A retired print examiner, who had worked in the past with the other examiners, testified to the match to Mr. Wright’s known prints without showing the points of comparison and told the jury they would have to take his word for it. A forensic scientist who recently reviewed the materials found that no scientific comparison could be made on the materials submitted at trial.

In conclusion, Mr. Wright did not have a fair trial. Witnesses were hidden, key evidence was suppressed, and testimony was bought and paid for. The State “shopped” for a fingerprint expert who would testify to a match.

There are serious doubts that Gregory Wright is guilty of the crime for which he is scheduled to be executed. There is NO doubt that he did not receive a fair trial

Using the information in this summary and any other factors you think should be considered, please write your letters to the Governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Remember to include in your letter your awareness of the severity of the crime and the harm done to Ms. Vick and the loss to any of her relatives or loved ones.

Please send your letters as soon as you are reasonably able to do so as the petition has already been submitted.

Here is the contact information

Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles & other Board Members
Executive Clemency Section
8610 Shoal Creek Boulevard
Austin, Texas 78758

Fax (512) 467-0945

Dear Mrs. Owens and other Board Members:

Governor Rick Perry
Governor of the State of Texas
Office of the Governor
P. O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711

Fax: (512) 463-1849