Protest the Execution of Curtis Moore in Texas Today, Jan. 14

Call (512) 463-1782 or email Governor Perry

Curtis Moore’s execution date today is the first of numerous scheduled lethal injections in Texas this year.

Texas has 14 executions scheduled through April, six in January.

A Fort Worth man who had an extensive criminal record before being convicted in the robbery and killing of three people in 1995 is scheduled for execution tonight. Curtis Moore, 40, would be the first condemned inmate executed this year in the United States and among six scheduled to die in Huntsville over the next 15 days. Moore’s appeals are exhausted. His lawyers cited his possible mental retardation as the reason the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles should commute his sentence to life in prison. However, on Monday the board unanimously rejected a clemency request. Moore has already made one trip to the Huntsville death house. In 2002, less than three hours before he was to receive a lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped his scheduled execution so claims from his attorneys that he was mentally retarded and ineligible for execution could be reviewed. In October, the high court turned down his appeal, clearing the way for today’s execution date to be set. — The Associated Press

The post below is by Terri Been, who is the sister of Jeff Wood.

Hello everybody. I thought I would write just a few lines to give you an update on Jeff. I was able to see him a couple of days ago, and I am happy to report he is in much better spirits than the last time I saw him. (He is still being harassed, and he is still without his property, but @ least he is ALIVE!!!)

He has gained back about 5 pounds of the 30 + pounds he lost when they starved him during the Texas prison lockdown…yeah!!! I wish I could report that the harassment of the inmates and their families was over, but it is NOT.

The harassment Jeff is still facing by Polunsky staff is a direct result of false accusations. (The “boss men” believe Jeff owns and possesses a cell phone; which he doesn’t…nor has he ever.) In an effort to divert attention elsewhere, Tabler gave a list of people who had phones, and people he “thought” had phones (Jeff’s name was on the list that Tabler provided).

Jeff has had his property taken on several occasions, and has been “searched” himself for “contraband”. In addition to the body “searches”, they have x-rayed him on several occasions as well. Not once have they found anything because he has NO contraband… Yet they keep searching him and his cell. He yet AGAIN has No radio, NO hotplate, NO fan, NO Nothing…oh, but hey…he got his mattress back after several weeks of sleeping on cold steel so he should be happy right??? (If you didn’t catch it, that sentence was DRIPPING with sarcasm!)

He faces hell on the best day, but the last couple of months have been really hard on him…and many others.

I feel that my brother needs some positive attention to “divert” his attention away from all of the negative he is facing; so if you have a few extra minutes…I humbly ask that you drop him a few lines or a card.

SADLY, Jeff STILL faces execution for a murder he DID NOT COMMIT, and the media still refers to him as “condemned inmate Jeffrey Wood.”

Currently, Jeff’s competency is being evaluated by professionals hired by his lawyers. The results from the evaluation and a petition for Jeff will be filed by his lawyers on January 20th, 2009. Once this happens, a competency hearing will be scheduled. We will let you know when we hear the date.

Until then, we have been urged to continue looking for public support. Jeff has just over 1300 signatures, and we need around 20,000 to make a difference…so we have a long way to go!!!! WE NEED SIGNATURES. (This can be done: Currently Eric Cathey has over 16,000 signatures…and we need that kind of support as well.) We also need letters of support for Jeff, and we need you to contact the Texas Law Makers about the Law of Parties…especially now since there is a BILL up for review to end the Law of Parties – AS IT APPLIES TO THE DEATH PENALTY!!! (But we can’t do this without your help or support.) We need these lawmakers to hear our voices and our concerns!!! One of the problems that I see with the law is that it will NOT be retroactive; so it will NOT help those who have already been convicted of this (my brother for instance); BUT I have been informed that there is a possibility that someone could make an amendment to that bill to “cover” the retroactive…if there was public support for it…SO PLEASE CONTACT THE TEXAS LAWMAKERS!!!

I am starting to collect letters once again in support for Jeff. It does NOT matter if you have previously written…we need more as we had to “start over”. I ask that you not send them directly to the Board of Pardons or Paroles as of yet. Please send me your letters via my e-mail @ mystrus@hotmail.com and address it as Clemency Letter for Jeff in the subject Box and I will make sure that Jeff’s lawyers has these for the hearing and the future clemency package. I do ask however that you please keep a copy on file so when it comes closer, you can directly send your letter to the Governor via the link on Jeff’s page in addition to our submitting it by paper!

If anybody has any ideas on how to help…I would love to hear them!!!!

I’d like to switch gears here for just a minute if you don’t mind.

I humbly ask each of you to consider joining amaze in an effort to help out families of Texas Death Row Inmates. This will not cost you any money and will only take about 5 minutes of your time!

amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

Click above to join the “Abolish the Death Penalty Project” on Amazee.com and help us win the membership contest. We could win up to $5,000 to use against the death penalty. The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins.

Right now, we are only 80 members behind the first place group!

We plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row. We will use the other half of the prize money to fight against the death penalty, including a big anti-death penalty rally in Austin at the capitol this spring.

amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

Once you are on the project page, click on “join project” on the right hand side, then click on “register”. Then to qualify as one of the members who count towards the contest, you have to upload a profile picture or avatar of yourself. You don’t have to do anything else to help us win the membership contest, but if you want, you can contribute content to the project.

Six Executions in Texas in January

Curtis Moore January 14

Frank Moore Jan 21

Reginald Perkins Jan 22

http://www.petitiononline.com/rwp2904/petition.html
Clemency for Reginald W. Perkins Petition More than 16,500 have signed!

Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28791345398

Larry Ray Swearingen Jan 27
(Swearingen IS INNOCENT and facing EXECUTION in 2 weeks. Please read my notes section entitled the science of Murder for more information on him…another innocent life is at stake!!!)
http://www.larry-swearingen.com

Virgil Martinez Jan 28

Ricardo Ortiz Jan 29

To send the Governor of Texas an email denouncing these executions, go to:

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact

You can also call and leave him a voice message:

Telephone numbers for Governor Rick Perry of Texas

* 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

* Office of the Governor Main Switchboard [office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST] : (512) 463-2000

* Citizen’s Assistance Telecommunications Device
If you are using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD), call 711 to reach Relay Texas

* Office of the Governor Fax:
(512) 463-1849

Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Jeff and I both thank you for all of your continued help and support!
——————–

www.savejeffwood.com

According to the AP:

A white man on Texas death row for nearly 30 years could be freed because an appeals court has ruled that prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from his jury in the belief that blacks empathize with defendants.

Jonathan Bruce Reed was convicted and condemned for the November 1978 rape-slaying of Wanda Jean Wadle at her Dallas apartment.

But now the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Dallas County prosecutors improperly excluded black prospective jurors from Reed’s trial and ordered him released unless prosecutors choose to retry him quickly.

Reed has been on death row since September 1979, making him among the longest-serving prisoners awaiting execution in Texas.

The 5th Circuit said Reed’s case mirrored the capital murder case of Thomas Miller-El, on Texas death row for nearly 20 years until the Supreme Court overturned his verdict, citing racial discrimination during jury selection. Miller-El last year took a life prison sentence as part of a plea deal.

The Supreme Court cited a manual, written by a prosecutor in 1969 and used for years later, that advised Dallas prosecutors to exclude minorities from juries. Documents in Miller-El’s case described how the memo advised prosecutors to avoid selecting minorities because “they almost always empathize with the accused.”

Hamburg, 13 January 2009: intent – negligence – lack of time – poverty. Are these the reasons that should cost a man his life, a life which he has been deprived of for already more than twelve years?

Since 5 January 1996, Anthony (Tony) Medina (pictured with his grandparents) has been kept imprisoned in Texas on account of an alleged double murder. He’s been on Death Row since 13 September 1996, expecting his execution.

Anthony Medina’s innocence has been proven by testimonies and evidence in cold print. He’s guilty indeed – guilty of not being able to pay a lawyer who would really try to defend him in court.

Doubtless, Anthony Medina is neither a saint nor a dark horse. However, he’s also a human being like anybody else, endowed with the right to be treated fairly and according to the law. ”In dubio pro reo” – this principle does not seem to count for US courts and solicitors, especially when the defendant is poor.

But you can help to do Tony justice. You can raise your voice in order to force courts to re-examine his case. The first step into this direction was taken on 21 November 2001. Due to the support of his appeal lawyer Morris Moon, who defends him without pay, the 238-page Habeas Corpus appeal could be submitted to the State Court, which has not decided neither to reopen the hearings nor to decline the appeal yet. Should the appeal be allowed, a trial would be called in on short notice. In this case, more expertises and research would become necessary. Such legal opinion, however, is excessively expensive in the US. – but expertises from abroad, as another possibility, are not accepted by US courts of justice.

In January 2008, Ilona Leverenz, organizing support for Tony Medina in Germany, achieved another success: a group of criminality students at the University of Ontario, Canada, agreed to go into the details of the case again. By now, the results obtained so far prove grave procedural errors in connection with Tony’s conviction. That is why his case has found even more supporters, e.g. the Houston, Texas-based organization TCADP, as well as ALIVE, the “Coalition against Death Penalty”, which has opened a donations account for Tony Medina.

There are fingerprints on the murder weapon and these can be presumed to be those of the murder. But these prints are not Tony Medina’s. In fact, another person was initially arrested by the police for the murders.

Only after the person agreed to testify against Tony, were the charges dropped and Tony was charged instead. This witness and both of the other state witnesses, Valdez and Moore, contradicted themselves and each other continually in all of their 11 statements. The only common point was that Tony was the murderer.

Crown witnesses, who were present at the crime scene, can testify that two black people carried out the shooting. Tony Medina is white. These witnesses were never heard during the trial.

Tony Medina was not at the scene during the crime. Rather, he was miles away at a party. Many witnesses can testify to this, but they have not been called to testify. Other important witnesses were not called before the court as the district attorney held back crucial evidence. As a result, Tony’s defense attorney was not in a position of being able to subpoena these witnesses. Finally, the judge who presided over the proceedings was, at this time, not yet sworn in.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. If you are interested?

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,
Ilona Leverenz

Contact:

Ilona Leverenz – Germany

Fax: ++ 49 (0) 41 04 – 91 97 98

E-mail: info@tony-medina.info

Homepage: www.tony-medina.info