http://www.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 102 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.

http://www.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.

UPI:

Lawyers for Madison Hobley say the former Illinois death row inmate is moving ahead to collect $6.5 million in a legal settlement with the city of Chicago.

Hobley served 13 years in prison for a 1987 arson fire that killed seven people, including his wife and infant son. He was pardoned by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in 2003.

The city of Chicago paid Hobley $1 million last year after he filed a wrongful-conviction suit. An additional $6.5 million was withheld pending the outcome of a new federal investigation into the arson, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

The Austin City Council in 2003 settled lawsuits for more than 14 million dollars in the cases of two men wrongfully convicted in Austin. In Dallas, there have been 20 exonerations in recent years of people wrongfully convicted.

If Texas city councils do not start considering the broken death penalty system a matter for local governments, then more and more local taxpayers in Texas will have to foot the bill for these type of lawsuits.

One of the executions that had been scheduled in January has been moved to April 7, Jose Garcia Briseno. So, now there are six executions in January. The six Texas people set to die in January are among at least 14 with execution dates in Texas already this year. Three more are set to die in early February, four in March and another in April. Nationwide, they are among more than two dozen with dates already in 2009.

Curtis Moore January 14
TDCJ Info on Curtis Moore

Mental Illness on death row is a serious problem, as shown by this incident, reported in the Austin American-Statesman. Mr. Thomas, 25, had already pulled out his other eye in 2004 while awaiting trial in Sherman. He was ruled competent to stand trial.

By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON — A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye, authorities said Friday.

Andre Thomas told officers he ate it.

Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant’s death.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary.

“”Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it,” agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston.

“He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1,” Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas’ trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. “He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one.”

At his trial, defense lawyers also argued he suffered from alcohol and drug abuse.

Thomas does not have an execution date.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October upheld his conviction and death sentence for the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes. Also killed March 27, 2004, were his wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their son, 4-year-old Andre Lee.

Thomas, from Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher he had just murdered the three and had stabbed himself in the chest.

Thomas told police how he put his victims’ hearts in his pocket and left their apartment, took them home, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trash.

Court documents described the three victims as having “large, gaping wounds to their chests.”

Reginald W. Perkins is scheduled for execution in Texas on January 22, 2009.

-If you’re in the USA, contact Rick Perry (Gov. of TX) using the form at http://governor.state.tx.us/contact

-Fax the Office of the Governor at (512)-463- 1849

-Phone the Office of the Governor on (800)-252-9600 if you’re in TX, or (512)-463- 1782 if outside of TX/outside of USA

-Phone the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on (512)-406- 5852

-Fax the TX Parole Board on 512)-467- 0945

-Email the TX Parole Board at bpp-pio@tdcj.state.tx.us

If you are not sure what to say when phoning, keep it short and simple,
———— ——— ——

I am calling to voice my concern about the upcoming execution of Reginald W. Perkins (TDCJ inmate number #999407). Then mention a couple of the facts below:

Mr. Perkins has a very low IQ which is the sign of diminished intelligence; he met the definition of a retarded person following the conclusion of an achievement test before he reached the age of 18. There has been unfairness of the process of evaluating his claim of mental retardation and a failure of his defense attorneys and the courts to accept the quality and quantity of mitigating evidence that was not presented to the jury.

There was neglect and emotional abuse and child physical maltreatment Mr. Perkins and his sibling were beaten by their mother, their father had abandoned his children and left for Texas ), they spent nights under the porch to avoid more beating. His family lived in abject poverty . His mother never showed affection toward her children. His mother told him many times that she didn’t want him and did everything to abort.

Mr. Perkins was disserved at the punishment stage for the reasons above.
Dr. Mark D. Cunningham, a forensic psychologist of national reputation, testified that it was actuarially unlikely that Mr. Perkins would be a future danger while serving a life sentence.

Mr. Perkins is rehabilitated, he has been always an inmate without any problems and he deserves his sentence to be commuted to life without parole.

I urge you to grant a commutation of Mr. Perkins’ death sentence.

I am grateful for your consideration of this matter.