A few months ago, we wrote a post asking “After Todd Wilingham and Sharon Keller debacles, where are the Democratic candidates challenging members of the Court of Criminal Appeals?” The CCA allowed an innocent person to be executed – Todd Willingham. It is the all-Republican court that one of its own current members says became a national laughingstock years before Sharon Keller said “we close at 5”. Keller, its presiding judge, is charged with incompetence and misconduct and could be removed from office before she faces re-election in 2012.

The three incumbents on the CCA up for re-election in 2010 are: Lawrence Meyers, Michael Keasler and Cheryl Johnson. At least one of those three judges will receive a strong challenger in next year’s election. Keith Hampton, who was the lawyer who convinced the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Perry to commute the death sentence of Kenneth Foster, Jr to life in prison, is running for Place 6 on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The seat is currently held by Michael Keasler, one of the most conservative members of the court. Grits for Breakfast has said, “There is no liberal wing on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. There’s a conservative wing, to which Judge Johnson belongs, and a more or less totalitarian wing, in which Keasler and Meyers reside along with Presiding Judge Sharon Keller.”

You can visit Hampton’s website at http://www.hamptonforjudge.com.

Hampton’s prospects will largely depend on the closeness of the gubernatorial contest. We have not seen a well-qualified Democrat running a strong race for the Court of Criminal Appeals in many years. The currently all-Republican CCA has become so discredited that Hampton will be able to campaign that he will bring a measure of much-needed integrity and professionalism to the court. He stands a good chance of winning. At a time when many people in Texas are concerned that the justice system is inadequately protecting innocent people from being wrongfully convicted and even executed, we need Keith Hampton on the Court of Criminal Appeals in order to restore integrity and public confidence in an institution that has become a national laughingstock.

His website says that

If elected, Keith Hampton will be the only judge who has handled death penalty cases in all stages of litigation – from accusation, trial, appeal and all post-conviction proceedings, including appearing before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Growing up in Texas, a life-long Democrat, Keith Hampton began his career at age 17, as the youngest precinct chairperson for the Texas Democratic Party.

For the last twenty years, Keith has defended the Texas Constitution and the Constitution of the United States in hundreds of cases. As an active member of the criminal defense bar, a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and a member of the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, Keith has tirelessly worked for fairness, integrity and justice for all Texans.

A Celebrated Career
1989 – J.D., St. Mary’s University

1989-90 – Briefing Attorney, Judge Sam Houston Clinton

1995-2005 – Legislative Director for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association

1991 – present – Author/Speaker/Course Director, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association

2008 – Percy Foreman Lawyer of the Year

2003-2009 – Texas Monthly “Super Lawyer”

Winner of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association President’s Awards for 7 straight years

Now, we need other Democrats to step up and run for the other seats on the CCA, especially the seat currently held by Lawrence Meyers.

Meyers made a laughable, dishonest claim that the CCA has a reputation for fairness in his re-election annoucement. “I am seeking re-election to the Court to continue to be an objective voice and ensure that we maintain our reputation for delivering fair and just opinions,” said Meyers in announcing his candidacy for re-election. Tell that to the family of Todd Willingham, whose last appeal based on actual innocence was denied on the day he was executed, “We have reviewed the subsequent application for habeas relief and find that it does not meet the requirements for consideration under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 11.071, § 5 as a claim of newly discovered evidence of actual innocence.”

The Dallas Morning News blog said “try not to laugh” at Meyers’ claim that the CCA has a reputation for fairness. Meyers deserves an opponent.

Khristian Oliver was executed Thursday, November 5, 2009 in Huntsville, Texas. He was the 20th person executed in Texas in 2009, the 204th executed since Rick Perry became governor and the 443rd executed in Texas since 1982.

From KTRE:

At the Huntsville Walls Unit Execution 999.301 occurred. That’s the official state title the State of Texas gave the lethal injection of Khristian Oliver, 32.

“He was very calm. Eight minutes after the lethal injection began he was pronounced deceased tonight,” Jason Clark, public information spokesman for TDCJ. Families and local officials including District Attorney Nicole LoStracco, Sheriff Thomas Kerss and Texas Ranger Tom Davis were among the witnesses.

At six o’clock, right before the lethal injection, Oliver took time to speak to both families. He first spoke to the victim’s family of Joe Collins Sr. He told them tonight’s execution would not bring them closure. Oliver told them he was sorry and had prayed for them.

The family questions Oliver’s sincerity. “I felt it was more self-healing for him than for us,” Joe Collins Jr. Said shortly after the execution. “He didn’t admit to much. He wanted us to feel better and have some closure. But it’s kinda hard.”

The only sister of five children, Elsie Walker had mixed emotions about witnessing the execution. “I will be there for my brothers,” Walker said the day before the execution. Shortly after watching a man die Walker said, “It was pretty hard, but I made it.”

It was difficult for the Oliver family as well. At 5:58 p.m. Oliver’s parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law made a short walk across the street to the Wall’s Unit to hear Khristian’s final words. “He told his mother and father that he loved them,” Clark described.

Watching their son’s passing was hard. It was quite the opposite for the Collins. “There wasn’t nothing difficult. I looked at him. I didn’t see any real remorse in his eyes. It was very easy to stand there,” said Collins Jr.

From the Dallas Morning News:

Khristian Oliver, 32, lost an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court just more than an hour before he was scheduled for lethal injection for the March 1998 slaying of Joe Collins, 64. Collins was killed when he interrupted the break-in of his rural home outside Nacogdoches.

State and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, earlier upheld Oliver’s conviction and death sentence, but Oliver’s attorney renewed his appeal to the high court and urged Gov. Rick Perry to invoke a rarely used authority and issue a one-time 30-day reprieve.

There was no immediate response from the governor’s office.

The execution would be the 20th this year in Texas.

A witness to the beating attack on Collins compared it to someone getting bashed with an ax or a golf club. Oliver’s lawyers argued jurors who improperly brought Bibles with them into deliberations without the knowledge of the trial judge in Nacogdoches County likened the rifle to a biblical iron object. In Chapter 35 of Numbers, a murderer who uses an iron object to kill “shall surely be put to death.”

Oliver’s lawyer, David Dow, said there was nothing wrong with people bringing their religious values into the jury room.

“But they must take great care to insure that, in sentencing a murderer, they follow Texas law rather than religious law, and in this case, the jurors did not do so,” he said.

At an evidentiary hearing, jurors gave various accounts, ranging from one Bible to several being present in the jury room. One testified they had them because they went to Bible study after court proceedings. Another said any reading from the books came after they reached a decision. A third said the reading of Scripture was intended to make them feel better about their decision.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said evidence was contradictory on whether jurors consulted the Bible before or after deliberations and that several jurors testified the Bible “was not a focus of their discussions.”

Watch video on YouTube.

In the first of five executions scheduled in Texas in November, Khristian Oliver is scheduled for execution on Thursday, November 5 (Execution Schedule). He was sentenced to death by a jury whose members consulted the Bible during their deliberations on whether Oliver should receive the death penalty.

If someone is to be sentenced to death, the decision of the jury should be based on the laws of the State of Texas and not the Bible. Khristian Oliver had a right to be sentenced in accordance with the laws of Texas, not those of the Bible. People can of course pray and consult their faith values individually whenever they want, but jurors should not read scripture to each other in the jury room to justify a death sentence, they should only consult the laws of Texas as explained to them by the judge.

During deliberations on sentencing, one of the jurors apparently read the following passage aloud to his fellow jurors: “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.” Another juror, a death penalty supporter, later told the media that “about 80 per cent” of the jurors had “brought scripture into the deliberation”, and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. And he said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, “I would have left the courtroom.”

In recent weeks, a new juror has also come forward to acknowledge the role that the Bible played in their deliberations. Juror Teresa L. Short (formerly Schnelzer) has confirmed that jurors consulted the Bible at the very outset of their deliberations on the question of whether Oliver should be sentenced to death. Like the others, she recalls which Bible passages were read, and she specifically notes that jurors looked to and took comfort from the Bible in reaching their decision. (A copy of her affidavit has been provided to the Governor’s office by Mr. Oliver’s counsel.)

Call Governor Perry at 512 463 1782 or by sending him an email through his websiteto stop the execution of Khristian Oliver by issuing a 30-day stay of execution. You can explain that you are not seeking to excuse violent crime or to downplay the suffering caused to its victims, but that you think jurors unfairly sentenced him to death based on scripture and not solely on the Laws of the State of Texas, as they were required under Texas law and the U.S. Constitution.

Governor Rick Perry

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 12428 Austin, TX 78711-2428

Fax: 512 463 1849

Salutation: Dear Governor Perry

According to the Houston Chronicle’s Lisa Gray:

Every death penalty case raises big, Biblical themes: vengeance versus mercy, punishment versus redemption, the Old Testament versus the New.

But never have those themes been plainer than they are in the case of 32-year-old Khristian Oliver, who — pending a last-minute stay of execution — will be executed this evening.

During his murder trial in Nacogdoches, jurors brought four Bibles into the jury room. To decide his fate, they turned to the Old Testament, to eye-for-an-eye verses including Numbers 35:19: The revenger of blood shall himself slay the murderer; when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.

Of course, jurors are supposed to interpret state law, not the Bible. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that those jurors “had crossed an important line” by using specific Bible verses to decide whether Oliver would live or die, that the U.S. Constitution prohibits that sort of “external influence.” And last month, Amnesty International called to have Khristian’s sentence commuted.

But so far, the Old Testament penalty stands.

Genesis

Biblical themes have long been the domain of Khristian’s father, Kermit Oliver, a well-known painter and the first African-American artist represented by a major Houston gallery.

Kermit often used his family as models in his allegorical paintings: His fans recognize his wife, Katie, who is also a painter, and their three children. Khristian, the youngest, is the blond one, the boy who looks white, lighter-skinned even than his light-skinned parents. Not long after his birth, he was the central figure in Young Mitras in Gown Designed for His Presentation to the Temple.

In 1984, when Khristian was about 7, the Olivers left Houston for Waco, where Katie had inherited a house. Khristian didn’t fit easily with either the black kids or the white kids in that black-and-white town, and he found little in-between. But he made OK grades, ran cross-country and belonged to a Catholic church.

Somewhere around his high-school graduation, though, he lost his bearings. He fought with his parents and fell in with a bad crowd. A roommate taught him burglary. He fathered a child. He smoked pot. No longer baby Mitras in grand robes, he became a different figure entirely: a prodigal son.

Sin

Every tragedy has a point of no return, and Khristian’s came on March 17, 1998, when he was 21. He smoked a joint with Sonya Reed, the 23-year-old mother of his baby girl, and with two teenage brothers, Lonny and Bennie Rubalcaba. Then the four of them drove around Nacogdoches, looking for an empty house to break into. Khristian carried his gun but didn’t plan to use it.

At a promising-looking house, they broke a window, making a lot of noise to see whether anyone would come investigate. No one did, so Khristian and Lonny ventured inside. Sonya and Bennie stayed in the car.

Soon, all hell broke loose. When the house’s owner, 64-year-old Joe Collins, returned home, Khristian and Lonny ran for the back door. But it was locked from the outside.

Collins, carrying a rifle, had the boys cornered. He shot Lonny in the leg.

Khristian shot back.

Judgment

Charged with killing Collins, Khristian stood trial in Nacogdoches. Collins was white, and so was the jury.

The state designated Khristian’s as “white,” too, but the jury was free to draw its own conclusions. His darker-skinned parents sat behind him every day.

Khristian never denied shooting the homeowner, but among the issues in the trial was what happened immediately afterward. Collins was beaten with the butt of his own rifle, and the coroner couldn’t say for sure what killed him: the shot to the torso or the blows to the head.

Khristian maintained that he didn’t beat Collins, and no physical evidence connected him to the beating. After the shot, Khristian testified, he picked up Lonny, whose leg was bleeding, and carried him out to the car, where only Sonya remained.

At Khristian’s trial, the Rubalcaba brothers testified that it was Khristian who beat the old man. Bennie now says that the prosecutors coached him and his brother. In return for their cooperation, the Rubalcabas received light sentences: 10 years for Lonny; five for Bennie.

Khristian was sentenced to die.

Salvation

In his 10 years on death row, Khristian earned a paralegal degree. He illustrated books for his daughter. And he began reading the classics that his father loves: the works of Plato, the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Significantly, the once rebellious son of painters began to paint, working with the cheap watercolor sets available in prison. On visits, his parents would give him “challenges” to sharpen his skills.

Alvia Wardlaw, who curated Kermit Oliver’s 2005 retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, says that as Khristian developed as a painter his works filled with color and light. Like Kermit, he began to paint the allegories.

Supporters have sent letters to Gov. Rick Perry pleading for a stay of execution — time to run DNA tests on the rifle — or that his sentence be changed to life in prison.

On Wednesday, Houston friends of the family were considering where they could gather to wait for tonight’s news. One possibility was Trinity Episcopal Church’s Morrow Chapel, where the altarpiece is a painting Kermit made a few years after Khristian’s trial. Resurrection is one of his most powerful works.

In the painting, a risen Christ faces the viewer. His head is wreathed in lilies; burial cloths float around him. Behind him is an apocalyptic-looking orange cloud: something horrible, but something past.

In a statement for the church, Kermit spent four pages explaining the painting’s dense symbolism, its visual representations of rebirth, of triumph over death, of Original Sin atoned for, of fallen mankind redeemed.

But the statement didn’t mention the most striking symbol: As the model for Christ, Kermit used Khristian.

In the first of five executions scheduled in Texas in November, Khristian Oliver is scheduled for execution on Thursday, November 5 (Execution Schedule). He was sentenced to death by a jury whose members consulted the Bible during their deliberations on whether Oliver should receive the death penalty.

If someone is to be sentenced to death, the decision of the jury should be based on the laws of the State of Texas and not the Bible. Khristian Oliver had a right to be sentenced in accordance with the laws of Texas, not those of the Bible. People can of course pray and consult their faith values individually whenever they want, but jurors should not read scripture to each other in the jury room to justify a death sentence, they should only consult the laws of Texas as explained to them by the judge.

During deliberations on sentencing, one of the jurors apparently read the following passage aloud to his fellow jurors: “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.” Another juror, a death penalty supporter, later told the media that “about 80 per cent” of the jurors had “brought scripture into the deliberation”, and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. And he said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, “I would have left the courtroom.”

In recent weeks, a new juror has also come forward to acknowledge the role that the Bible played in their deliberations. Juror Teresa L. Short (formerly Schnelzer) has confirmed that jurors consulted the Bible at the very outset of their deliberations on the question of whether Oliver should be sentenced to death. Like the others, she recalls which Bible passages were read, and she specifically notes that jurors looked to and took comfort from the Bible in reaching their decision. (A copy of her affidavit has been provided to the Governor’s office by Mr. Oliver’s counsel.)

According to the Waco Tribune:

Lawyers for Oliver argued in their appeals that the jury had been improperly swayed by Bibles that some jurors had brought with them into their deliberations. The case became the subject of a documentary Eye for an Eye and a book by Danish journalist Egon Clausen.

But the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August 2008 that while the Bibles should not have been allowed into the deliberation room, there was no clear evidence to indicate they had affected the jurors’ decision. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Oliver’s appeal, and on June 29, 145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox set a Nov. 5 execution date.

Call Governor Perry at 512 463 1782 or by sending him an email through his websiteto stop the execution of Khristian Oliver by issuing a 30-day stay of execution. You can explain that you are not seeking to excuse violent crime or to downplay the suffering caused to its victims, but that you think jurors unfairly sentenced him to death based on scripture and not solely on the Laws of the State of Texas, as they were required under Texas law and the U.S. Constitution.

Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428 Austin, TX 78711-2428
Fax: 512 463 1849
Salutation: Dear Governor Perry

More on the case from the Guardian:

The Texas jury didn’t hesitate to find Khristian Oliver guilty of shooting and bludgeoning an elderly man to death. Oliver had stood over his bleeding victim, repeatedly hitting him in the head with a rifle butt before robbing his house.

But then came the difficult decision over whether to sentence Oliver to death, and that’s when the Bibles came into their own.

A clutch of jurors huddled in the corner with one reading aloud from the Book of Numbers: “The murderer shall surely be put to death” and “The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer.”

Another juror highlighted passages which she showed to a fellow juror: “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, the murderer shall surely be put to death.”

Ten years later Oliver, now 32, is just three weeks from execution. Two appeals courts have rejected his pleas for the jury’s death sentence in 1999 to be overturned on the grounds it was improperly influenced by references to the Bible. Some of the jurors have made no secret of the part their religious beliefs played in reaching their decision but the US supreme court has refused to take up a case that has been condemned as “a travesty”.

Amnesty International has said the use of biblical references “to decide life or death in a capital trial is deeply, deeply troubling” and called on the authorities in Texas, which has carried out nearly half of the 39 executions in the US this year, to commute the sentence.

Oliver’s lawyers called four members of the jury that convicted him to testify at an appeal hearing. At the hearing, one of them, Kenneth McHaney described how another juror, Kenneth Grace, read the Bible aloud to a group of jurors.

Donna Matheny showed McHaney a Bible in which she highlighted passages including one that “says that if a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, then he is a murderer and should be put to death”.

Maxine Symmank told the court that she too had read a passage from the Book of Numbers: “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.” Another juror, Michael Brenneisen, told a journalist in 2002 that he asked himself “Is this the way the Lord would decide the case?” But Brenneisen also said that in discussing the Bible the jury “went both directions in our use of the scripture – forgiveness and judgement”.

McHaney said there were about four Bibles in the jury room.

A Texas state appeal court rejected Oliver’s plea to strike down the sentence because, it said, he had not “presented clear and convincing evidence” that the Bible influenced the jury’s decision. The court acknowledged that there was reference to the Bible by the jurors but said it was not improper. It said “a conscientious, dedicated” jury was “uninfluenced by any outside influence of any kind shown to the court in this hearing”.

A federal appeal court disagreed, saying that references to the Bible inside the jury room were improper but it still refused to overturn the death sentence on the grounds that Oliver’s lawyers had not proved that the readings influenced the death penalty decision. The court ruled that the jurors would have applied their own moral judgements which would, in any case, have been influenced by their religious beliefs.

Oliver’s lawyer until last month, Winston Cochran, said the rulings are the result of an impossible situation in which he was prevented at the first appeal hearing from directly asking the jurors if the Bible readings had an influence on their decision. The federal court then turned down a subsequent appeal on the grounds that the jurors had not explicitly said they were swayed by the Bible.

“We were prohibited from asking the question we were later being asked to prove,” he said.

Cochran also criticised the appeal court view that jurors were merely applying moral beliefs they already held.

“The problem is there was testimony the Bible was passed around and shown to people. It was part of the discussion. It wasn’t just used by individuals to reinforce their existing belief,” he said.

With the supreme court refusing to take up Oliver’s case, his remaining options are the Texas board of pardons and the state governor, Rick Perry. The board of pardons rarely recommends clemency and Perry is unlikely to set aside a death sentence in a deeply religious state on the grounds that jurors referred to the Bible.

One of Khristian’s artworks was included in TMN’s art show “Justice for All?: Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty“. TMN’s Scott Cobb has spoken with Khristian’s mother several times in the last week. Khristian’s parents attended the art show when it was exhibited both in Austin and Houston in 2006 and 2007. Please help them try to stop the execution of their son by contacting the governor.

Last week, three exonerated, innocent former death row prisoners (Curtis McCarty, Shujaa Graham and Ron Keine) attended the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. While they were here, they delivered a petition with 6,000 names to Rick Perry urging him to acknowledge that Todd Willingham was innocent and to establish a moratorium on executions. Click here to read the extensive worldwide media coverage of the march on October 24 when nearly 500 people descended on the Texas capitol in the largest display of the strength of the Texas anti-death penalty movement in many years.

The annual march was organized 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 Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center and Kids Against the Death Penalty. It was sponsored by many other organizations.

Now, another exonerated, innocent former death row prisoner is coming to Texas in November.

We support the following event and encourage everyone to attend!

It is very important that people hear the stories of innocent people who have survived death row. Last week, Curtis, Shujaa and Ron spent five days in Austin telling their stories during their visit to Texas for the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Now, we encourage everyone in the Valley to try to attend one of the events and hear Juan Melendez’ story of surviving death row.

From November 8-12, 2009, TCADP will be traveling throughout the Rio Grande Valley with “Witness to Injustice: A Speakers’ Tour Featuring Death Row Survivor Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon.”

Juan Melendez spent 17 years, 8 months, and 1 day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit. Juan was exonerated and released from death row on January 3, 2002. At the time of his release, the State of Florida sent him into the free world with a pair of pants, a shirt, and $100.

A native of Puerto Rico, Juan Melendez has shared his extraordinary story about the injustices of the death penalty with tens of thousands of people throughout the world. His powerful message of hope, courage, and survival will advance TCADP’s efforts to build support for abolition and mobilize constituents to effect change at the state legislature. Juan‘s visit also will further our aim to increase and strengthen TCADP’s presence in the Valley.

“Witness to Injustice” will visit 12 venues in 7 cities, including 6 faith communities, 3 college/university campuses, and 3 high schools! This tour is co-sponsored by the Diocese of Brownsville, Pax Christi Brownsville, Valley Civil Rights Team, Pax Christi Rio Grande Valley, UTPA Criminal Justice Department, People for Peace and Justice in the Rio Grande Valley, and Witness to Innocence. Check out the full schedule of events on the TCADP website.

Witness to Injustice: A Speakers’ Tour Featuring Death Row Survivor, Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon

English Flyer Spanish Flyer

Donate to Help Fund the Tour

November 8 – November 12, 2009, Rio Grande Valley

Sponsored by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP)

Cosponsors: Diocese of Brownsville, Pax Christi Brownsville, Valley Civil Rights Team, Pax Christi Rio Grande Valley, UTPA Criminal Justice Department, People for Peace and Justice in the Rio Grande Valley, and Witness to Innocence

Schedule of Events

Sunday, November 8th: Weslaco & Brownsville

3:30-5:00PM: St. Pius X Parish – Weslaco; 600 S. Oklahoma Ave.; 78596.
Contacts: Lydia Riojas (lydiar@spiusx.com or 956-968-7471) or Becky Gonzales (BecLomas@aol.com)

7:00-9:00PM: El Buen Pastor United Methodist Church; 435 W. Boca Chica; Brownsville; 78520. 956-542-4145. Coming on 281, proceed directly to the church on the left; coming on the Expressway, exit on Boca Chica and go right about two miles to the church on the right. Note that this is west Brownsville Contact: Joe Krause, Pax-Christi Brownsville, Jjrkrause@aol.com or 956-831-4354.

Monday, November 9th: Weslaco & Edinburg

11:30 – 1:00PM: South Texas College – Mid-Valley Campus, 400 N. Border
Weslaco, TX 78596. 956-447-6600 Contact: Nick Braune (braune@att.net)

4:00-5:30PM: University of Texas – Pan American; 1201 W University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539. Sponsored by the UTPA Criminal Justice Department. Contact: Sylvia Garza (sylviagza@aol.com or 956-475-4046)

7:00-9:00PM: St. Joseph’s – Edinburg; 122 W. Fay; 78539; (956)383-3728. Contact: Rev. Msgr. Robert E. Maher, V.G. (stjoseph-edinburg@catholic.org)

Tuesday, November 10th: Rio Grande City

10:00-11:00AM: Rio Grande City, South Texas College – Starr County Campus, 142 FM 3167; Rio Grande City, TX 78582; 956-488-8181. The event will take place in the auditorium.
Contact: Ruben Saenz, Campus Coordinator (rsaenz@southtexascollege.edu)

2:00-3:00PM: Rio Grande City, South Texas College – Starr County Campus, 142 FM 3167; Rio Grande City, TX 78582; 956-488-8181. The event will take place in the auditorium.
Contact: Ruben Saenz, Campus Coordinator (rsaenz@southtexascollege.edu)

6:00-8:00PM: Immaculate Conception Church; 101 E. Third St.; Rio Grande City, 78582. (956) 487-2317. Contact: Fr. Amador Garza (garzadsaro@rgv.rr.com) or Sister Nancy Boushey (sanbenito@granderiver.net or 956-486-2680)

Wednesday, November 11th: Pharr/McAllen

8:30 AM: PSJA North High School – 500 E. Nolana Ave.; Pharr, TX

10:30 AM: PSJA High School – 805 Ridge Road; San Juan, TX

1:30 PM: Buell Central High School – 218 E. Juarez; Pharr, TX

Contact: Sylvia Garza (sylviagza@aol.com or 956-475-4046)

4:00PM-6:00 PM: South Texas College-Pecan Campus (3201 W. Pecan; McAllen, TX 78501). The event will take place in the Rainbow Room, which is located on the 2nd floor of the library. It is co-sponsored by the Mexican American Studies Program and NACCS Student Organization. Contact Professor Victor Gomez at vgomez@southtexascollege.edu or 956-872-2070.

Sample Posting for Community/Event Calendars

“Witness to Injustice: A Speakers’ Tour Featuring Death Row Survivor Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon” will visit St. Pius X Parish (600 S. Oklahoma Ave.; Weslaco, 78596) on Sunday, November 8, 2009, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM in the Parish Hall. Mr. Melendez spent 17 years, eight months, and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit. He was exonerated and released from death row in 2002.

The tour is sponsored by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP), the Diocese of Brownsville, Pax Christi Brownsville, Valley Civil Rights Team, Pax Christi Rio Grande Valley, UTPA Criminal Justice Department, People for Peace and Justice in the Rio Grande Valley, and Witness to Innocence

Contacts: Lydia Riojas (lydiar@spiusx.com or 956-968-7471) or visit www.tcadp.org for details.