Exonerees Leading March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Death row exonerees Gary Drinkard, Ron Keine and Shujaa Graham leading the 2010 March to Abolish the Death Penalty. marchforabolition.org
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Click for a list of upcoming scheduled executions in Texas.
Innocence

Innocence

The death penalty puts innocent people at risk of execution.
Todd Willingham

Todd Willingham

Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed under Governor Rick Perry on February 17, 2004.

John Bradley and TFSC Minions Preparing Final Cover-up Report in Case of Todd Willingham

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If you are incensed that Rick Perry is succeeding in covering up the execution of an innocent person, then attend the meeting this Friday of the Texas Forensic Science Commission in Dallas at 9:30 AM. The meeting will be devoted to the discussion of the case of Todd Willingham. Members of the public will be allowed to make comments to the commission during the public comment period near the end of the meeting. 



September 17, 2010 – Dallas, TX – 9:30 A.M.

From the AP:

DALLAS — A state commission that planned last year to review a report finding fault with an arson investigation that led to a Texas man’s execution — until Gov. Rick Perry reshuffled the panel — is now considering a report with a much different conclusion.
A revamped Texas Forensic Science Commission, led by a Perry appointee, meets Friday in Dallas to debate a report that finds fire investigators did not commit professional negligence or misconduct. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report through an open records request.
If approved, the report would end the commission’s inquiry into the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Willingham was put to death in 2004 on Perry’s watch 12 years after being convicted of deliberately setting a fire that killed his three young children.
The new report concludes Texas fire investigators adhered to professional standards that existed at the time, while acknowledging standards have evolved. The report also says the state fire marshal’s office should adopt standards published by the National Fire Protection Association for all current fire investigations.
The commission “concludes that the fire investigators met the standard of practice that an ordinary fire investigator would have exercised at the time the original Willingham investigation and trial took place,” according to the report.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, selected by Perry to replace Austin defense attorney Sam Bassett as head of the commission, was one of four commission members who wrote the report.
“This is a proposed draft, but no one should assume that the contents of it are in any way something the commission as a whole is predisposed to adopt,” Bradley said in a telephone interview. “My expectation is we will have a long, intensive discussion about its contents all day long … with the goal of trying to adopt something.”
The report contradicts one written for the commission last year by fire expert Craig Beyler, chairman of the International Association of Fire Safety Science. He wrote that the investigators didn’t follow standards in place at the time.
“I would characterize their interest in my opinion as next to zero,” Beyler said of the current commission.
Beyler also said the opinions of a state fire official in the case were “nothing more than a collection of personal beliefs that have nothing to do with science-based fire investigation” and that the deputy state fire marshal appeared “wholly without any realistic understanding of fires and how fire injuries are created.”
The testimony of fire investigators was the primary evidence against Willingham, who was convicted by a jury in Corsicana, south of Dallas, in 1992. They said they found pour patterns and puddling on the floor, signs someone had poured a liquid accelerant throughout Willingham’s home. The defense didn’t present a fire expert of its own, because he also concluded the fire was caused by arson.
Willingham’s conviction was upheld nine times.
The report to be considered Friday says Beyler failed to show how he concluded investigators didn’t follow the professional standards of their day. It also says Beyler declined to elaborate when asked to be more specific.
“His answer was disappointing in that he did not take the opportunity to provide any details or explanation, but just referenced his previous work,” Bradley said.
Beyler, however, said he cited 15 textbooks referring to professional standards of the time and specifically pointed out how those standards weren’t met in the Willingham case.
“If they didn’t read how I backed up how they didn’t follow the standards, then they didn’t read very closely,” Beyler said. Beyler maintains there is not enough evidence for an arson finding.
The Innocence Project, a New York group that specializes in wrongful conviction cases, has argued Willingham was wrongly executed.
The state commission was to question Beyler about his report last year, but that meeting was canceled when Perry removed Bassett and two others, saying their terms were up. The re-examination of Willingham’s case has since slowed as the commission questioned whether it had jurisdiction to proceed and focused on policies and procedures in how it handles future cases.
Perry says the commission under Bradley is “moving at the appropriate pace.”
“I feel confident that they’re going to have the right answers,” Perry said. “At the end of this, I think what you will find, that an absolute monster who killed his own kids and the science is going to be there to back it up. … And I think at the end of the day, this is what Texans will see and agree with, that this was a very, very bad man who killed his kids.”
Associated Press Writer Jamie Stengle contributed to this report.

Ron Carlson to Speak at 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on Oct 30 at Texas Capitol

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Ron Carlson speaking out against
the death penalty in Houston on
August 16, 2010.

Ron Carlson will be one of the speakers at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin at the Texas Capitol on October 30, 2010 at 2 PM. Ron is one of the most powerfully eloquent speakers in the Texas movement to end the death penalty.  Ron will be speaking at the march on the penultimate day of his participation in a multi-city speaking tour against the death penalty with members of the Journey of Hope … From Violence to Healing.

For more information on the march visit: www.marchforabolition.org.

Ron Carlson’s sister, Deborah Ruth Carlson Davis Thornton, and Jerry Lynn Dean were murdered with a pick ax by Karla Faye Tucker and Daniel Ryan Garrett on June 13, 1983. Both Tucker and Garrett were sentenced to death. Ron originally supported their sentences, telling the prosecutors, “I think they got what they deserved.” Ron lost his stepfather and natural father within a year of Deborah’s death. “You can’t imagine the anger that was in this body,” he says now. For many years, Ron treated his pain with alcohol and drugs, until becoming a Christian and turning his life “over to the Lord” in 1990. Ron ultimately forgave Karla and Dan and worked hard to commute their death sentences.

Dan died in prison of natural causes in 1993. Despite widespread appeals on her behalf, Karla Faye Tucker was executed on February 3,1998, in Huntsville, Texas. Ron was invited by Karla to witness the execution as one of her representatives. When he did so, he become the first known victim’s family member to witness an execution on behalf of the murderer. Ron’s decision caused rifts within his family that remain to be healed. But most family members still offer their love and support. And Ron knows he made the right decision. “I drew strength from the Lord, and I knew he was here. God reached out of heaven to hold us in his hands and cradle us with his love and compassion. Karla died with a smile on her face. They took her body, but they didn’t kill her spirit.”

“The world is not a better place because the State of Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. Even though Karla murdered my only sibling — my sister, Deborah, who had raised me after our mother died — I stood with her as one of her witnesses when she was executed. I was there to stand up for the Lord, for the strength of his love. Karla and I had both done a lot of wrong in our lives. We had both turned to drugs to heal our pain; we had both hurt a lot of people. But the love of Jesus Christ transformed us. We were able to forgive ourselves and each other. “I love you Ronnie,” was one of the last things Karla said. I still carry that love with me”.

Each October since 2000, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries have taken a day out of their year and gathered in Austin to raise their voices together and loudly express their opposition to the death penalty. The march is a coming together of activists, family members of people on death row, community leaders, exonerated prisoners and all those calling for abolition.

Last year’s march was the largest anti-death penalty rally in Texas since the first ever march in 2000. We will be joined this year by the Journey of Hope, which is an organization led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated, and others with stories to tell, that conducts public education speaking tours and addresses alternatives to the death penalty.

The annual march is 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, Death Penalty Free Austin, and Kids Against the Death Penalty.

Review Panel to Hear Sharon Keller Arguments at 1:30 PM on Sept 20 in Austin at Texas Supreme Court

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From the Austin American-Statesman:

The special court of review next Monday will hear Judge Sharon Keller’s request to summarily dismiss a public reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The hearing on Keller’s motion to dismiss will be at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Texas Supreme Court in downtown Austin. Each side will have up to 45 minutes to argue.
The commission, which investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, ruled in July that Keller violated Court of Criminal Appeals procedures when she closed the court clerk’s office at 5 p.m., allowing rapist-murderer Michael Richard to be executed later that night without his final appeal being heard in court.
Keller appealed the rebuke, and the three-judge court of review was created by a random drawing of state appeals court justices to hear her arguments.
Keller’s motion to dismiss asks the special court to void the reprimand and drop all charges, arguing that the commission exceeded its authority, violated the judge’s due process rights and rebuked Keller for violating a court rule that was nothing more than an unwritten protocol.

Paul Burka on "psychodrama" of Sharon Keller case: "she shows no respect for the law that she is sworn to uphold"

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Paul Burka of Texas Monthly has this to say about the continuing “psychodrama” (his word) of the Sharon Keller case:

I am fascinated by this case. Even after the Supreme Court rules against her, Keller cannot accept that she did something terribly wrong when she shut down the Court of Criminal Appeals rather than keep it open to receive a last-minute appeal in a death penalty case. She could have accepted the Commission’s public warning, apologized for her mistake in judgment, and salvaged her career. Well, there is still that not-so-little matter of a $100,000 fine by the Texas Ethics Commission for failing to properly report her assets.

This has become a psychodrama. What sort of person cannot accept the considered decisions of two bodies that she acted wrongly? Among her other foibles, she shows no respect for the law that she is sworn to uphold. She has become an embarrassment to her Court and to herself. Her desperate attempts to find exoneration remind me of an old English ditty about Queen Anne:

Most gracious queen, we thee implore,
To go away and sin no more,
But if this effort be to great,
To go away at any rate.

11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty – Oct 30, 2010 at the Capitol in Austin Texas

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The 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty will be held in Austin at the Texas Capitol on October 30, 2010. Contact us if you would like to volunteer or if your organization would like to be listed as a co-sponsor. (Pictured are Todd Willingham’s stepmother and nephew at the annual march in 2006.)




11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 2 PM

Austin, Texas

Texas State Capitol Building South Side (11th and Congress)

Confirmed guests this year include exonerated former death row prisoners Shujaa Graham, Ron Keine, Curtis McCarty and Greg Wilhoit. Curtis spent 21 years in prison – including 19 years on death row – in Oklahoma for a crime he did not commit. Shujaa spent 3 years on death row in California for a crime he did not commit. Ron spent two years on death row in New Mexico for a crime he did not commit. Greg spent five years on death row in Oklahoma for a crime he did not commit.
“This is fast becoming one of the biggest events in the country. I’ll be there”, said death row exoneree Ron Keine.
Each October since 2000, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries have taken a day out of their year and gathered in Austin to raise their voices together and loudly express their opposition to the death penalty. The march is a coming together of activists, family members of people on death row, community leaders, exonerated prisoners and all those calling for repeal of the Texas death penalty.
Last year’s march was the largest anti-death penalty rally in Texas since the first ever march in 2000. We will be joined this year by the Journey of Hope, which is an organization led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated, and others with stories to tell, that conducts public education speaking tours and addresses alternatives to the death penalty.
Todd Willingham was an innocent person executed by Texas. The Texas Forensic Science Commission has admitted that the science used to convict Todd Willingham was “seriously flawed”.
Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has been issued a “Public Warning” for judicial misconduct for saying “we close at 5″ on the day of a person’s execution instead of accepting an appeal from his lawyers.
There are people on death row who did not kill anyone or intend for anyone to be killed, but who were convicted under the “Law of Parties”.
The annual march is organized by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Death Penalty Free Austin, and Kids Against the Death Penalty.
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