Joan Cheever reports on The Huffington Post in an article entitled “Fifty Years later, the Oldest Survivor of Death Row USA Casts Ballot for Obama” that Moreese “Pops” Bickham is voting for Barack Obama. Ms. Cheever accompanied Mr Bickham to our 2007 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break. He is pictured at left with some of the students.

From Joan Cheever’s article:

Moreese Bickham spent 13, 695 days behind bars; 37 years and six months in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He stayed 14 years and 10 months on Louisiana’s death row.

But the 91 year-old Bickham is not looking back. He’s focused on living in the Free World in a country he hopes will soon be governed by the first African American president .

“In all my life, I never thought I’d see this day. A black American going to be the next president of the United States of America,” Bickham said. “I am the grandson of a slave. Born in Tylertown, Mississippi and farmed my grandma’s land. And then we had the poll tax.”

Between 1889 and 1910, 11 Southern states adopted a poll tax, targeted to disenfranchise black Americans. The poll tax wasn’t eliminated until 1964 when the 24th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

But one month ago, on a crisp fall afternoon in late September, I drive Mr. Bickham to the Obama headquarters in the small Pacific Northwest town where he currently resides, to make sure he is registered to vote. I have known Moreese Bickham since 1996, the year he was released from prison. He is a subject in my book, Back From the Dead: One woman’s search for the men who walked off America’s death row. (John Wiley & Sons 2006).

In the past 18 months, Mr. Bickham and I have often talked of the 2008 presidential election. During a fishing trip in mid-June, after the Democratic primary, our conversation turned to the very real possibility of an Obama presidency. And the impact it would have on all Americans.

After the recent media reports of voter intimidation, especially in regards to convicted felons, I became alarmed that this former Death Row inmate might not be allowed to vote – a man who survived seven execution dates, three heart attacks, prostate cancer, and a questionable conviction for murder, in the first place.

Three weeks after visiting Mr. Bickham, with more news of voting list purges and intimidation primarily in six swing states, I call a family meeting and tell my two teenagers and husband, that we must make an emergency trip to North Carolina. That’s how we ended up last week in the Cary, NC Obama office for our dual “family political vacation” and on site civics lesson.

But on the afternoon with Mr. Bickham, he does not share my fear about whether he can vote. He knows that he can. He voted in the 2004 presidential election. He has confidence in the 2008 electoral process and the patience of a 91-year-old African American.

The campaign office is empty when we walk in at 3 pm. Angela and Ann, Obama volunteers, are busy organizing stacks of campaign literature.

“Good afternoon, ladies. My name is Bickham. Moreese Bickham,” he says, and tips his black felt hat. “I’m here to make sure I’m registered to vote. Was born in Tylertown, Mississippi in 1917.”

The two women jump up and grab a folding chair, opening it and asking the World War II Navy veteran to sit down.

“I got here my Veterans Administration ID card. Now here’s my Social Security card. Miss Joan here told me to bring proof of address. So I have.”

Mr. Bickham became eligible to vote the day he was released from prison. He has never been on parole. In January 1996, he walked out as a free man, after serving almost 40 years. During his time inside, Mr. Bickham had an no disciplinary infractions; he received his GED and became an ordained Methodist minister. During the last two years in Angola, Mr. Bickham worked as the caretaker of the prison cemetery. On the last day in Angola, he went to a funeral for a fellow inmate.

Mr. Bickham was sent to Death Row for the July 12, 1958 murders of two white police officers in Mandeville, Lourisiana, an area where Jim Crow segregation prevailed in the 1950s and where there was an active chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

In the early morning hours of July 12, Mr. Bickham and his girlfriend got into a fight at Buck’s Bar in Mandeville; one of the officers broke up the fight and gave Mr. Bickham’s girlfriend a ride home. The then 41-year-old Bickham, who had no prior record, said the officer called him a “Nigger” and threatened to kill him. But prosecutors maintained that Mr. Bickham returned to his home and waited to ambush the two officers.

Mr. Bickham says when they arrived, he put his hands up to surrender. But one of the officers shot him in the chest and then both officers continued to shoot. He then returned fire and moments later, both officers were dead.

“I pray all the time for forgiveness. It always weighs heavy on my mind. I didn’t feel like I had a choice that night. It was me or them.”

Mr. Bickham was more surprised that he was still alive on the day of his trial.

“My two great grandfathers were lynched. So I was surprised that I didn’t end up at the lynching tree.”

In closing arguments, his own lawyer called him “a darky on a Saturday night.” The all-white male jury took only two hours to find Moreese Bickham guilty and sentence him to death.

Joan Cheever, with Moreese Bickham in background, at the 2007 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break.

Visit Joan Cheever’s Website for her book “Back From the Dead”.

Every session since 2001, there has been legislation introduced in the Texas Legislature to enact a moratorium on executions. In 2009, when the Legislature convenes in January, the results of the election on Nov 4 may have given new impetus to the drive to enact a moratorium since Republicans may lose their majority in the Texas House. TMN will be making a major push next Spring for a moratorium. Today, Austin was visited by several survivors of death row from around the country.

From the AP:

AUSTIN — A group of death row survivors called on the Texas Legislature on Friday to halt executions in the nation’s most active death penalty state and establish an innocence commission to free other wrongfully convicted inmates.

“There have been some innocent people that have been executed right here in Texas,” said Clarence Brandley, who spent nine years on death row in Texas before being exonerated in the murder of a Conroe teenager. “But the politicians are not going to say that.”

Brandley was joined at the state capitol by 19 other men who had been released from death row in various states. They want the Texas Legislature to declare a death penalty moratorium while experts examine how capital punishment is carried out in the state.

Former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap said Texas, which has executed 419 people since the reinstatement of the death penalty, has the “most efficient death machine in the free world.”

Millsap, who once supported capital punishment but now believes he probably sent an innocent man to the death chamber, said he joined the opposition movement because he lost faith in the justice system.

Click here 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. 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.

You have to go to 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.

We were all moved by the family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row. We want to use one half of any prize money we get through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death row have young children who rarely get to visit them.

If we win the first place prize of $5,000, then $2500 will be reserved to help with trips to death row for families of people sentenced to death who need financial help to visit their loved ones. The other $2,500 would be used for activities during the upcoming Texas legislative session, such as a big anti-death penalty rally in Austin and other projects. If we only win third place, then we would have $1000 for the families and $1,000 for other expenses. But let’s aim for first place!

From the AP:

Proclaiming his innocence, an unemployed trucker was executed Thursday for the fatal stabbing and robbery of a woman he said had given him food, clothing and money after she spotted him on a street corner holding a cardboard sign offering to work for food.

As he had done for years, Gregory Wright pinned the murder of Donna Vick on John Adams, a fellow homeless man also convicted of murdering Vick and sentenced to die.

“My only act or involvement was not telling on him. John Adams was the one that killed Donna Vick,” Wright said from the death chamber gurney. “… I was in the bathroom when he attacked. I ran into the bedroom. By the time I came in, when I tried to help her with first aid it was too late.”

Wright was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., nine minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow,

Sign up to receive text alerts on execution days on your cell phone. We just texted our list to urge them to call the governor for Greg Wright. We only use this list to send texts to remind people to call the governor on an execution day. We actually started sending text alerts back in 2003, so we were early adopters.

http://www.upoc.com/group.jsp?group=SXT