Here is a link to an audio report from Houston Indy Media on the march.
It contains comments from Eugenia Willingham and Mary Arredondo.

They also have some pictures up.

Execution of the innocent is the focus of 7th Annual Texas March to End the Death Penalty

by Renee Feltz Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006 at 2:16 PM
reneefeltz@gmail.com
Hundreds of Texans took to the streets of the state capital this weekend to call attention to three death row prisoners who were executed, and later found to be innocent. Renee Feltz reports:

audio: MP3 at 3.6 MB

Mothers like Sandra Reed delivered powerful speeches in support of their children. Reed, the mother of Rodney Reed, spoke about her son and his case, the injustices of the system, and her determination to get him out of death row.

Rally at gates of Governor’s Mansion

After DPS troopers refused to take her letter for Rick Perry, Mary Arredondo, sister of Carlos De Luna, dropped it through the gate of the governor’s mansion.

Above photos from the 7th Annual March to Stop Executions
by Gislaine

Eugenia Willingham, mother of Todd Willingham and Joshua Easley, nephew of Todd Willingham

The El Paso Times has a longer article in today’s paper regarding the moratorium resolution. It points out that District Attorney Jaime Esparza sent someone to plead with the Commissioners Court not to pass the moratorium resolution, but the commissioners ignored his argument and passed it anyway. A few years ago, the Commissioners Court passed a similar moratorium resolution, but one week after it passed Esparza got them to reverse it. This time it looks like it will not be reversed. The big difference this time may have been the three cases of innocent people being executed that have come to light in the past two years: Ruben Cantu in San Antonio, Cameron Todd Willingham in Corsicana and Carlos De Luna in Corpus Christi. The crisis in the Texas death penalty system has reached epic proportions. People are willing to support a moratorium now, because they want to be sure that innocent people are not at risk of execution.

Powerful testimony from a former death-row inmate and the several family members of murder victims about justice gone awry and forgiveness preceded the El Paso County Commissioners Court’s 4-1 vote Monday for a resolution against the death penalty.

The vote made El Paso County the second Texas county behind Austin’s Travis County to endorse the resolution, which actually calls for a moratorium on executions until a commission studies the administration of the death penalty.

Carmen Velasquez told how her brother, Raymond, became a probation officer and was tortured and murdered at the age of 34 in 1990.

“It has taken me decades to realize there is no peace in someone else’s death,” she said.

Juan Roberto Melendez, 65, said he spent nearly 18 years in hellish conditions on Florida’s death row before a copy of another man’s confession to the crime was found in the prosecutor’s files, where it had been for a year before Melendez was sentenced to die.

“It happens all the time,” he said of prosecutorial misconduct.

El Pasoan John Tures, husband of Carol Tures, who has campaigned for a moratorium for years, read a supporting letter from former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Milsap. He said he used to be a strong supporter of capital punishment but turned against it after learning than an executed man he convicted was innocent.

District Attorney Jaime Esparza’s first assistant, Marcos Lizarraga, pleaded with commissioners to not approve the measure, saying it stands little chance of broad approval in Texas but will put doubt in the minds of El Paso jurors in murder cases.

“I’m worried that with this resolution, people will think what we do as part of our job is wrong,” he said.

And while the resolution calls for a moratorium on executions, Lizarraga said, Commissioners Court would actually be taking a stand against the death penalty for the worst crimes.

Commissioner Larry Medina told Lizarraga he was right.

“The state has no business in the revenge business,” Medina said.

Commissioner Miguel Terán said part of the problem is that money buys justice and more money buys more justice.

“We live in a racist society that condemns people on the basis of the color of their skin,” he said.

County Judge Dolores Briones said she supported the resolution because she is pro-choice on abortion, while Commissioner Dan Haggerty said he would oppose it because he is pro-life.

Congratulations to Carol Tures and El Pasoans Against the Death Penalty. Carol told me that Juan Melendez was there to testify and that they also read a letter from Sam Milsap. This should greatly increase our chances of similar successes in San Antonio, Austin and other places.

Commissioners pass death penalty resolution (1:06 p.m.)
David Crowder / El Paso Times
Article Launched:10/30/2006 01:08:13 PM MST

El Paso County Commissioners Court today approved a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in Texas.

The resolution passed four to one with Miguel Teran, Larry Medina, Betti Flores and Dolores Briones voting in favor of the resolution. Dan Haggerty opposed it.

A similar resoultion was presented years ago and was passed by Commissioners Court before District Attorney Jaime Esparza at that same meeting went back to the Commissioners Court and convinced them to rescind the resolution.

Travis County has adopted a similar resolution.

In other action, it appears that the proposal to alter the method of appointments to Thomason Hospital’s board will be deleted from agenda and no action taken.

Accompanied by 300 supporters standing outside the gates of the Texas Governor’s Mansion Saturday October 28, the family of Cameron Todd Willingham delivered a letter to Gov Perry asking him to stop executions and investigate the case of Cameron Todd Willingham to determine if he was wrongfully executed. Willlingham’s stepmother, Eugenia Willingham, slipped the letter, along with a copy of an article from the Chicago Tribune that concluded that her son was innocent, through the bars of the front gate of the mansion and left it lying on the walkway leading to the front door of the mansion. They had asked a DPS trooper on duty to take the letter, but the officer refused to accept it. The action was part of the 7th Annual March to Stop Executions.

The 300 supporters standing beside the Willingham family carried signs saying, “THE DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM IS BROKEN” on the top of the signs and different slogans at the bottom listing various problems with the Texas death penalty system that can lead to innocent people being executed, including “NO STATEWIDE PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICE”, “PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT”, “NO INDEPENDENT COMMISSION TO REVIEW THE SYSTEM” and other problems.

After delivering the letter, the Willingham family joined the crowd in a march to Austin City Hall for a rally against the death penalty.

The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of Texas
Austin, Texas

October 28, 2006

Dear Governor Perry,

We are the family of Cameron Todd Willingham. Our names are Eugenia Willingham, Trina Willingham Quinton and Joshua Easley. Todd was an innocent person executed by Texas on February 17, 2004. We have come to Austin today from Ardmore, Oklahoma to stand outside the Texas Governor’s Mansion and attempt to deliver this letter to you in person, because we want to make sure that you know about Todd’s innocence and to urge you to stop executions in Texas and determine why innocent people are being executed in Texas.

Todd was not the only innocent person who has been executed in Texas. There have been reports in the media that Ruben Cantu and Carlos De Luna were also innocent people who were executed in Texas. It is too late to save Todd’s life or the lives of Ruben Cantu or Carlos De Luna, but it is not too late to save other innocent people from being executed. We are here today to urge you to be the leader that Texas needs in order to make sure that Texas never executes another innocent person. There is a crisis in Texas regarding the death penalty and we ask you to address the crisis. Because the public can no longer be certain that Texas is not executing innocent people, we urge you to stop all executions.

Strapped to a gurney in Texas’ death chamber, just moments from his execution for setting a fire that killed his three daughters, our son/uncle, Todd Willingham, declared his innocence one last time, saying “I am an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do.” Todd is now dead and can no longer speak for himself, so we have come to Austin to speak for him.

Before Todd’s execution, you were given a report from a prominent fire scientist questioning the conviction, but you did not stop the execution. The author of the report, Gerald Hurst, has said, “There’s nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire.”

Another report issued in 2006 by a panel of national arson experts brought together by the Innocence Project concluded that the fire that killed Todd’s three daughters was an accident. The report says that Todd’s case is very similar to the case of Ernest Willis, who was convicted of arson murder and sentenced to death in 1987. Willis served 17 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2004 – the same year Todd was executed. The report says that neither of the fires which Todd and Ernest Willis were convicted of setting were arson. The report notes that the evidence and forensic analysis in the Willingham and Willis cases “were the same,” and that “each and every one” of the forensic interpretations that state experts made in both men’s trials have been proven scientifically invalid. In other words, Todd was executed based on “junk science”.

Please look into our son/uncle’s case and ask the District Attorney in Corsicana to reopen the investigation into the crime for which my brother was wrongfully executed. You should also establish an Innocence Commission in the next session of the Texas Legislature that could investigate my brother’s case, as well as other cases of possible wrongful executions, such as Ruben Cantu and Carlos De Luna.

Please ensure that no other family suffers the tragedy of seeing one of their loved ones wrongfully executed. Please enact a moratorium on executions and create a special blue ribbon commission to study the administration of the death penalty in Texas. Texas also needs a statewide Office of Public Defenders for Capital Cases. Such an office will go a long way towards preventing innocent people from being executed. A moratorium will ensure that no other innocent people are executed while the system is being studied and reforms implemented.

We look forward to hearing from you and we pledge to work with you to ensure that executions of innocent people are stopped.

Yours sincerely,

Eugenia Willingham
Stepmother of Cameron Todd Willingham who raised him from the age of 13 months

Trina Willingham Quinton
Niece of Cameron Todd Willingham

Joshua Easley
Nephew of Cameron Todd Willingham

Choking back tears and accompanied by 300 supporters standing outside the gates of the Texas Governor’s Mansion, the sister of Carlos De Luna delivered a letter to Gov Perry on October 28, 2006 asking him to stop executions and investigate the case of her brother to determine if he was wrongfully executed. Mary Arredondo slipped the letter, along with a copy of an article from the Chicago Tribune that concluded that her brother was innocent, through the bars of the front gate of the mansion and left it lying on the walkway leading to the front door of the mansion. A DPS trooper on duty refused to take the letter, so Mary left it on the walkway. The action was part of the 7th Annual March to Stop Executions.

The 300 supporters standing beside Mary Arredondo carried signs saying, “THE DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM IS BROKEN” on the top of the signs and different slogans at the bottom listing various problems with the Texas death penalty system that can lead to innocent people being executed, including “NO STATEWIDE PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICE”, “PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT”, “NO INDEPENDENT COMMISSION TO REVIEW THE SYSTEM” and other problems.

After delivering the letter, Mary joined the crowd in a march to Austin City Hall for a rally against the death penalty.

The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of Texas
Austin, Texas

October 28, 2006

Dear Governor Perry,

My name is Mary Arredondo. Carlos De Luna was my brother. He was an innocent person executed by Texas on December 7, 1989. I have come to the Texas Governor’s Mansion today to personally deliver this letter to you. It is too late to save my brother’s life, but it is not too late to take steps to prevent other innocent people from being executed. I am writing to ask that you provide the leadership to make sure that Texas never executes another innocent person.

My brother claimed his innocence from the time of his arrest until his execution. He named another man as the real killer. The Chicago Tribune has recently published the results of their investigation that concluded that my brother was the victim of a case of mistaken identity and the most likely killer was a man named Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez’s relatives and friends have recounted how he repeatedly bragged that my brother went to Death Row for a murder Hernandez committed. I am enclosing a copy of the Tribune article for you to read.

Please look into my brother’s case and ask the District Attorney in Corpus Christi to reopen the investigation into the crime for which my brother was wrongfully executed.

I also ask you to support a moratorium on executions and to create a special blue ribbon commission to study the administration of the death penalty in Texas in order to prevent other innocent people from being executed and to propose reforms to ensure the fair and accurate administration of the death penalty in Texas. In addition, I ask you to support an Innocence Commission that would be charged with investigating claims of innocence from people before they are executed and cases of people that have been wrongfully executed, as well as cases of innocent people who have been exonerated in order to determine what went wrong in the system that resulted in an innocent person being convicted.

There are other reforms that will help prevent innocent people from being convicted and executed, such as establishing a statewide Office of Public Defenders for Capital Cases and increasing the amount of money paid to attorneys representing indigent defendants and the amount of money available to them to conduct investigations. Of course, the best way to prevent innocent people from being executed is to end the use of the death penalty and instead sentence people convicted of capital crimes to life without the possibility of parole.

Thank you for reading my letter. I hope that you will do whatever is necessary to prevent other innocent people from suffering the fate of my brother.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Arredondo