Reports from Summit on Wrongful Convictions

Here is an excerpt from a report from Gloria Rubac from yesterday's Summit on Wrongful Convictions:

Six of us with the Abolition Movement went to Austin today for the Summit on Wrongful Convictions sponsored by Texas Senator Rodney Ellis.

Today was an amazing day -- meeting 9 exonerees, meeting the Dallas DA that has the courage to do the right thing, speaking with legislators who agree with us that DA's that commit misconduct should go to jail. We met with Jeff Blackburn, attorney and founder of the Innocence Project of Texas who is working with the Dallas DA and has agreed to work with us to get help for Howard Guidry, an innocent man on death row.

Regina Guidry did an interview with German TV, in German, I assume, about Howard.

The few people not enjoying the day were Roe Wilson, Harris County DA who handles post conviction capital murder appeals. Also Rissie Owens, chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Sen John Whitmire made Roe Wilson look like she needed Pepto Bismol, according to Ester King. And Lee Greenwood took both of Rissie Owens hands in hers and spoke to her about her allowing the murder of her son, Joseph Nichols, a man who had killed no one. I hope that keeps Ms. Owens awake tonight and every other night. Looking into the eyes of a mother in pain whose child you have murdered couldn't be easy if you have any sense of humanity. And we don't know if she does or not.

We got a commitment from State Rep. Terri Hodge to attend the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston on October 25.

From the AP:

Perhaps the most notorious case of bad eyewitness ID came from James Waller, who was identified by a rape victim by his eyes and the sound of his voice. The rapist in that case was described as being 5-foot-8. Waller, who is 6-foot-4, spent 10 years in prison.

Among the more intriguing reforms mentioned was a crime lab oversight group that would have the same sort of authority health inspectors wield at restaurants. Judge Barbara Hervey of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals referred to the idea as a pet project of hers, adding that Texas would be the first state in the nation to enact such a plan.

Along the same lines was the idea of regional crime and DNA labs operated independently of police departments, a topic broached by Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt. That idea was also favored by state Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Cheryl Johnson, who acknowledged that crime labs run by police departments can present conflicts.

Reforms in Dallas County also drew praise. Under District Attorney Craig Watkins, Dallas has begun a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, are reviewing hundreds of requests by inmates for post-conviction DNA testing.

"It can be argued that Texas ... may have one of the worst criminal justice systems in this country," Watkins said. "We have to start where we have the most problems."

Jeff Blackburn, the chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, also suggested overhauling how the courts deal with writs filed by inmates. Blackburn pointed out that James Woodard, who was released last week, was labeled an abuser of the system after filing six writs and two requests for DNA testing.

But the event's most powerful moments belonged to those who had been exonerated. Billy Smith talked about how he considered suicide once or twice a year during his 19-year prison stay for a rape he did not commit. Waller spoke of his wife, who was eight months pregnant, dying in a car accident on the way to one of his court hearings.

"I'm 52 years old and I have no kids," Waller said. "Texas took that away from me."

The applause was loudest when Giles tore up his sex offender registration card, something he had to carry for 15 years while he was on parole before getting exonerated. He ripped it up, he said, because he had a new card to carry: a voter registration card.

"You talk about being afraid, being scared, being locked up, going to jail," Giles said. "That's a nightmare that sometimes you never overcome."

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Tonight: Nation's 1st Post De-facto Moratorium Execution

The nation's first execution since Sept 25, 2007 is scheduled for tonight in Georgia. According to the AP, "the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday denied William Earl Lynd's request for a stay of execution, paving the way for him to become the first inmate in the nation to face execution since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that lethal injection is constitutional."

The first execution in Texas is scheduled for June 3 when people will gather at the capitol in Austin to protest the resumption of executions.

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Four Upcoming Executions in Texas

Derrick Sonnier June 3
TDCJ Info on Charles Sonnier

Charles Hood June 17
TDCJ Info on Charles Hood

Lester Bower July 22
TDCJ Info on Lester Bower

Larry Davis July 31
TDCJ Info on Larry Davis

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Summit on Wrongful Convictions May 8 at Tx Capitol

(Austin, TX; April 29, 2008) – State Senator Rodney Ellis today announced that a day-long Summit on Wrongful Convictions will be held May 8 at the State Capitol in Austin to determine the causes of wrongful convictions in Texas and identify reforms that can prevent them.

Today's release of James Lee Woodard in Dallas — based on DNA tests showing that he did not commit a murder 27 years ago for which he was wrongfully convicted — comes just one week after Thomas McGowan was freed based on DNA results showing he did not commit the Dallas County rape and burglary for which he spent 23 years in prison. Woodard is represented by the Innocence Project of Texas; McGowan is represented by the Innocence Project. Eighteen people have now been freed based on post-conviction DNA testing in Dallas, and more than 30 people in Texas have been fully exonerated based on DNA results.

As a result of the unprecedented number of exonerations in Texas, key leaders from across the state will gather in Austin on May 8 for a landmark Summit on Wrongful Convictions. Judges, lawmakers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, exonerees, professors and many others will come together for the Summit. The Summit will mark the first time any state's criminal justice leaders have initiated a high-level meeting themselves to address wrongful convictions. Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis is spearheading the Summit, and Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck will attend. The Summit will be open to the public.

"We've reached a tipping point on wrongful convictions in Texas. Nobody can seriously doubt that there's a problem, and next week leaders from across our criminal justice system will come together to start solving it," Senator Ellis said today. "We will bring a wide range of leaders, experts and exonerees together for a full day to develop concrete, common-sense remedies to make our system of justice more fair and accurate. We won't solve these serious problems in one day, but we will make historic strides toward restoring confidence in our criminal justice system."

The Summit on Wrongful Convictions will be held on the Senate Floor at the State Capitol from noon to 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 8. Additional details will be circulated early next week

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Dallas DNA Exoneration on "60 Minutes" Sunday, May 4

Tune in to CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, May 4 to learn more about the Innocence Project of Texas's involvement in securing the release of James Lee Woodard, who served more than 27 years in prison for a Dallas County murder that he has always maintained he did not commit. Woodard's release came about as a result of more than 1000 man hours spent by IPOT and the Dallas County District Attorney's office investigating his claim of actual innocence. His story will be told in a compelling segment about the efforts of Dallas County's Conviction Integrity Unit and its collaboration with the Innocence Project of Texas to review more than 400 cases where post-conviction DNA testing was denied by previous Dallas D.A. Administrations.

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And then the deluge...

From the New York Times, May 3, 2008:

Experts say the resumption of executions is likely to throw a strong new spotlight on the divisive national — and international — issue of capital punishment.

“When people confront a new wave of executions, they’ll be questioning not only how people are executed but whether people should be executed,” said James R. Acker, a historian of the death penalty and a criminal justice professor at the State University at Albany.

Texas leads the list with five people now set to die here in the Walls Unit, the state’s death house, between June 3 and Aug. 20. Virginia is next with four. Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Dakota have also set execution dates.

Some welcome the end of the moratorium.

More inmates whose appeals have expired are certain to be added to execution rosters soon, including, in all likelihood, Jack Harry Smith, who, at 70, is the oldest of the 360 men and 9 women on Texas’ death row (though hardly a row any more, but an entire compound). Mr. Smith has been under a death sentence for 30 years for a robbery killing at a grocery in the Houston area.

“If it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go,” said Mr. Smith, who maintains his innocence and was delivered by guards for a prison interview in a wheelchair.

Yet public support for capital punishment may be dwindling. Death sentences have been on the decline, and a poll last year by death penalty opponents found Americans losing confidence in the death penalty.

“There will be more executions than people have the stomach for, at least in many parts of the country,” said Stephen B. Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, a leading anti-death-penalty litigation clinic.

Last year, Texas accounted for 26 of the 42 executions nationwide. That includes the last two people executed before the Supreme Court signaled a moratorium on executions while considering whether the chemical formula used for lethal injection in Kentucky inflicted pain amounting to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The justices ruled 7 to 2 on April 16 that it did not, while allowing for possible future challenges.

But the scheduling of executions comes as prosecutors and juries have been turning away from the death penalty, often in favor of life sentences without parole, now an option in every death-penalty state but New Mexico.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, death sentences nationwide rose from 137 in 1977, peaked at 326 in 1995 and fell steadily to 110 last year.

“We’re seeing a huge drop-off,” said Mr. Bright, attributing the decline to the time and trouble of imposing death sentences, and a recent wave of exonerations after DNA tests proved wrongful conviction.

Close to 35 people have been cleared in Texas alone, including, just days ago, James L. Woodard, who spent more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder he did not commit.

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Darlie Routier's Mother Asks Public to Sign Petition for Daughter

If you would please take a few minutes to read this petition and sign it for Darlie, I would appreciate it. I hope to gather enough signatures to present this to the District Attorney here in Dallas this summer.Perhaps we will succeed in getting her DNA tested or a new trial OR BOTH.

I will have it available on the web site later this week but please circulate among your friends and family members as soon as you can.

You may also post this link on web sites.

Thank you,

Darlie Kee

http://www.fordarlieroutier.org
http://www.justicefordarlie.net

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Protest the First Texas Execution in 9 Months at Rick Perry's Home

There will be protests of the first execution in Texas after the Supreme Court ruling allowing executions to resume after a de facto moratorium since Sept 25. The protests will occur prior to the first execution. Currently, the first execution is on June 3rd. If another one is scheduled before that date, then the protests will be adjusted accordingly.

Derrick Sonnier, is scheduled to be executed in Huntsville on June 3rd.

This will be the first execution in Texas since Sept 25th when Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller said, "we close at 5" and refused to accept an appeal 20 minutes late for a man later executed that night. Around 1900 people signed on to a complaint that we submitted asking the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to remove Keller for her unethical action.

Monday, June 2nd at Governor Rick Perry’s temporary home. He has moved out of the governor's mansion while it is being renovated. The address where Perry is living is 8113 Hickory Creek Drive.

Tuesday, June 3rd at 5:30PM at the Capitol
On the steps at Congress and 11th

The Supreme Court recently decided a case allowing the use of the current method of execution by lethal injection to stand. Executions are already scheduled in a handful of states, including Texas.

Events sponsored by Campaign to End the Death Penalty and Texas Moratorium Network. If your group or organization would like to co-sponsor and/or help plan this event, let CEDP know at 494-0667 or cedpaustin@gmailcom.

The rent at Governor Perry's temporary home is paid for with tax payer money. The state is paying almost $10,000 a month for Gov. Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, to live in this Hickory Creek Drive home for a year.


View Larger Map

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Democrats Against the Death Penalty Caucus

“Democrats Against the Death Penalty Caucus” will meet at the Democratic State Convention in Austin at the Austin Convention Center in Room 6A, from 12:00-1:00pm on Friday, June 6, 2008.

This caucus was founded in 2004 and also met at the 2006 state convention.

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2 New Execution Dates Set in Texas

After 7 months without executions, Texas has scheduled two people for execution. Meanwhile, we are still waiting on a response from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to the complaint against Judge Sharon Keller that we sent them that was signed by around 1900 people regarding Keller's unethical behavior on Sept 25, the last time a person was executed in Texas and in the entire U.S.

From the Houston Chronicle:

At least two condemned Texas inmates already have execution dates following last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the lethal injection process.

Charles Dean Hood, convicted of a double slaying in the Dallas suburb of Plano more than 18 years ago, and Larry Donnell Davis, condemned for a 1995 robbery-slaying in Amarillo, are set to die, said the Texas Attorney General's Office, which handles federal appeals involving capital murder cases.

Hood, 38, was set for lethal injection June 17 by State District Judge Curt Henderson. Davis, 40, was set to die July 31 by State District Judge John Board.

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"America is viewed with horror"

The New York Times has an article on the number of people in prison in the U.S. compared to other countries. “Far from serving as a model for the world, contemporary America is viewed with horror,” James Q. Whitman, a specialist in comparative law at Yale, wrote last year in Social Research. “Certainly there are no European governments sending delegations to learn from us about how to manage prisons."

The end of the article offers one explanation, “Unfortunately, a lot of the answer is democracy — just what Tocqueville was talking about,” he said. “We have a highly politicized criminal justice system.”

Some highlights:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

...

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison.

...

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England’s rate is 151; Germany’s is 88; and Japan’s is 63.

...

People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks, Mr. Whitman wrote.

Efforts to combat illegal drugs play a major role in explaining long prison sentences in the United States as well. In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.

Those figures have drawn contempt from European critics. “The U.S. pursues the war on drugs with an ignorant fanaticism,” said Ms. Stern of King’s College.

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Special Screening "At the Death House Door" May 20 Austin

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
San Jose Catholic Church
(South Austin off of Oltorf St.)
2435 Oak Crest Avenue (map)

through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville. During Pickett's remarkable career journey, he presided over 95 executions, including the world’s first lethal injection. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of his trip to the death chamber.

The film also focuses on the story of Carlos De Luna, a convict Pickett counseled and whose execution troubled Pickett more than any other. He firmly believed De Luna was innocent, and the film tracks the investigative efforts of a team of Chicago Tribune reporters who have turned up evidence that strongly suggests he was.

From award-winning directors Steve James ("Hoop Dreams") and Peter Gilbert ("Vietnam: Long Time Coming").

“Broadcast debut of At the Death House Door on IFC May 29^th at 8pm”

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Inmate Dreads LWOP more than execution

The Austin American Statesman is reporting that an Austin man sentenced to death wants to drop his appeals and be executed because living in prison is too hard. His complaint makes a good argument for abolishing the death penalty and sentencing people to life in prison.

Sentenced to die for the 2006 killing of his girlfriend's mother, Selwyn P. Davis told a judge in Travis County on Friday that he wants to waive most of his appeals because he is guilty and he doesn't want to spend his life in prison.

"I'm certain of what I want," Davis told state District Judge Julie Kocurek. "The quality of life is not, basically, to my standards, you know what I am saying? Basically, jail sucks."

He talked about death row in Huntsville: He is confined 23 hours a day to a tiny cell, can't watch television and hasn't had any visitors since he arrived last year. He said a life of listening to the radio, writing poetry, reading and corresponding with a few pen pals does not appeal to him.

Davis said that since he's been back in Travis County, he read in the newspaper about a death row inmate who was executed though some think he may have been innocent.

"I'm guilty of my crime," he said. "They did not let him go; why would they let me go?"

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Supreme Court Justice Wants End to Executions

ABC News is reporting more on what we noticed already about yesterday's supreme court ruling on lethal injection, which is that Justice Stevens gave notice in his dissent that he in favor of abolishing the death penalty, making him the newest, and currently only abolitionist Justice on the Supreme Court.

Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's most senior member, took aim at the entire system of capital punishment Wednesday, writing in an opinion that it was a "pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes."

Stevens' stance came to light in his opinion on Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, which the court, including Stevens, upheld Wednesday in a 7-2 decision. There had been an unofficial moratorium on executions while the court mulled the case.

It is the first time 87-year-old Stevens has called on states to stop executions entirely.

Stevens wrote, "the risk of executing innocent defendants can be entirely eliminated by treating any penalty more severe than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as constitutionally excessive."

In essence, Stevens has sent a signal that, while he recognizes the court has, in the past, found the death penalty to be constitutional, he thinks it's now time for state legislatures, Congress and the courts to reconsider.

He wrote how current attempts to "retain the death penalty as part of our law" are the "product of habit and inattention, rather than an acceptable deliberative process" that weighs the costs of administering the penalty against its benefits.

In 1976, only months after he had been nominated to the high court by President Gerald Ford, Stevens voted to reauthorize the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia. Four years earlier, the court had invalidated it.

In speeches, Stevens has hinted that he found problems with the way the death penalty was administered, but Wednesday marked the first time he has used an opinion to clarify his position.

In an August 2005 speech before the American Bar Association, Stevens cited reports that death sentences had been imposed erroneously. "That evidence is profoundly significant," he said, "not only because of its relevance to the debate about the wisdom of continuing to administer capital punishment, but also because it indicates that there must be serious flaws in our administration of criminal justice."

Stevens joins only three other justices in history  William J. Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun  who voiced their opposition to the death penalty.

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Justice Stevens Says Abolish the Death Penalty

In a day of unfortunate but not unexpected news from the Supreme Court, which ruled that lethal injections are not unconstitutional, one of the Justices on the Court for the first time called for the abolition of the death penalty.

From the NY Times:

Another member of the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens, said in his separate opinion that he felt bound by the court’s precedents to uphold the constitutionality of the Kentucky protocol. But he went on to call for abolishing the death penalty, both as a matter of policy and of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. “State-sanctioned killing,” Justice Stevens said, was “becoming more and more anachronistic.”

Justice Stevens voted with the majority that restored capital punishment in 1976, his first year on the court. But he said he had changed his mind, based on “my own experience” in seeing how the death penalty is actually carried out in a changing climate. Among the factors he singled out was a series of decisions that he said had “endorsed procedures that provide less protections to capital defendants than to ordinary offenders.”

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Lethal injections could resume in Texas

KXAN Article
April 16, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN/AP) -- Texas and dozens of other states soon may resume executions after the Supreme Court's rejection of challenges to Kentucky's lethal injection.

Use of the death penalty has been on hold for seven months while the high court considered inmate complaints about Kentucky's three-drug method of execution.

The justices issued their ruling Wednesday. Scott Cobb of the Texas Moratorium Network said the opinion was not unexpected. Cobb said he anticipated at least one district attorney in the state would file the paperwork to reopen the death penalty in Texas by the end of the week.

The Texas Moratorium Network, on the other hand, is pinning more of its hopes on the November general elections. The last time a moratorium on the death penalty seriously was considered in the Legislature was 2001; by no coincidence, that was the last year the Democrats held the majority in the House. Cobb points out Democrats are only five seats away from a majority.

Even a new Speaker of the House could make a difference, Cobb said. Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) was the sole Republican in the House to vote in favor of a death penalty moratorium in 2001. Right now, McCall is one of a number of potential candidates who may challenge current Speaker of the House Tom Craddick next session.

The recent exoneration of multiple Dallas County prison inmates -- based on DNA tests requested by new DA Craig Watkins -- may be just the push to encourage lawmakers to take a moratorium and study committee on the death penalty seriously, Cobb said.

The nation's last execution was Sept. 25, when Texas inmate Michael Richard was put to death. Cobb noted the intervening months -- seven -- would have been more than enough time to make seriously inroads on a study committee. Cobb says the months on hold without an execution also prove the sky will not fall if the death penalty is put on hold.

Texas leads the nation in death penalty convictions, and Harris County leads the state in executed inmates. The death penalty was an issue in the recent district attorney's race. Only Rick Reed said he would say "no" to the death penalty. Rosemary Lehmberg won the recent runoff election in the Democratic primary. She faces no opponent in November.

Gov. Rick Perry said the court's ruling affirms Texas' method of execution and that he supports continued use of capital punishment.

"Texas is a law-and-order state, and I stand by the majority of Texans who support the death penalty as it is written in Texas law," Perry said in a released statement. "It is an appropriate response for the most violent crimes against our fellow human beings."

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he is grateful the court rendered the decision it did.

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Rusty Hubbarth responds to Supreme Court Ruling: "Let the Games Begin"

Rusty Hubbarth of the Houston-based pro-death penalty group Justice For All called and left a message on the TMN voice mail this morning gloating about the Supreme Court decision today in the Baze case. He called to say "I just want you to have a real nice day" and to let us know that the Court "said that it is not unconstitutional or cruel and unusual for capital punishment to take place through lethal injection, so let the games begin".

Rusty is apparently eager for executions to resume after the 7 month moratorium while the states waited for today's Supreme Court ruling, but he does his pro death penalty cause a great disservice by describing the probable resumption of executions with the phrase that traditionally is used to start the Olympic Games.

If an aide to John McCain or one of the other presidential candidates had responded to the Supreme Court news this morning by saying, "Let the games begin", that aide would probably be fired.

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Video from Alternative Spring Break

The 2008 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break was a great success. Students attended from many colleges throughout the U.S. We expect many of the participants will remain active and make an impact in the human rights field after they leave college. Already one of the students has started a new chapter of Students Against the Death Penalty at Washington College in Maryland. Here is their new FaceBook site.

One of the events the students held was a "Peoples' Tribunal Against the Death Penalty" at the Texas Capitol. Below is a video of it.

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Host a Screening of New Film "At the Death House Door"

We took a group of students from the anti-death penalty alternative spring break to see this film on March 12 at the SXSW Film Festival. It is a very powerful film. If you would like to host a screening of the film in your area, contact us at 512-302-6715 and we will help you apply. You have to act quickly though, before they run out of hosting kits.

The Independent Film Channel (IFC), is preparing to release a new documentary titled At the Death House Door which addresses the most pressing issues surrounding debate on capital punishment including: lethal injection, wrongful conviction, morality and religion. The movie tells the story of Carroll Pickett, who served as the Chaplin for the Texas Department of Corrections from 1982-1995 and counseled 95 inmates executed by lethal injection. It chronicles Pickett’s experience counseling Carlos De Luna, who was executed for a crime he didn’t commit, and tracks Pickett’s ideological transformation from supporting to opposing the death penalty.

We are writing to offer you the exclusive opportunity to host a screening of this film in your community. We have developed free “Screening in a Box” kits which have all the tools necessary to organize a screening in your area. Kits contain:

· DVD of the film
· Invitations for the screening including postage
· Promotional posters
· Event planning/discussion guide
· Snack voucher
· Customizable press release
· Sample letter to the editor
· Postcard to promote tune-in for the film premiere on IFC in May

We designed the kits to help make the events turn-key and easy for you to plan and host. We hope the kits will help you generate further discussion and debate about the death penalty in your area, and we invite you to use the screenings as educational tools to expand your membership, grow your organization, generate media attention, or accomplish any other organizational goal you have.

While the kits are free, they are very valuable, and we want to ensure we find partners who will be motivated and responsible hosts. We are seeking partners who will promote the screening to their membership and community, and will organize events for 50 or more people.

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Lehmberg, Cobb and LaCresha Murray

ROSEMARY LEHMBERG - A TALE OF TWO CHILDREN
by Barbara A. Taft, President
People of the Heart

Gary Cobb, one of the perpetrators of the travesty launched against an innocent child, LaCresha Murray, in 1996, has been eliminated from the race for District Attorney. Rosemary Lehmberg, however, still holds a smoking gun. In the interest of changing the guard and securing perhaps a more just, merciful and law-abiding person in the office of Travis County District Attorney, I offer the following.

In 1996, Rosemary Lehmberg and Gary Cobb filed capital murder charges against an 11-year-old, with no physical, eye witness or forensic evidence physically linking either the home or anyone there with the numerous injuries suffered by a deceased two and a half year old. Lehmberg, Cobb and/or their subordinates assisted three seasoned APD detectives assigned to the case by advising them in circumventing the Magistrate Law, which demands that a child in police custody, before a statement is taken, be presented to a judge, who explains the ramifications of talking to the police and generally assigns an attorney. Based on advice received from the D.A.’s office, the detectives arranged for Child Protective Service (CPS) to leave this child alone in an empty building on CPS’ campus to be “found” by the detectives, thereby eliminating any charge that she was in police custody and, in effect, waiving her rights under the Magistrate law.

No evidence, no confession, no case. Desperate, the detectives interrogated the 11-year-old for three hours, continually suggesting a scenario to explain the baby’s injuries, badgering and bullying her, pounding on the table, threatening her grandparents, threatening her with incarceration, a child without an attorney, parent or advocate of any kind, a child who hadn’t spoken with a family member for five days. 39 times Murray denied any knowledge of the baby’s injuries. They frightened her into signing a statement manufactured and typed on site by the detectives, a statement that failed to explain the injuries; that she couldn’t read, that she was “forced” to sign.

Because they used an illegally obtained statement from a child, because the circumstances indicated it may have been coerced, the conviction was reversed for the second time by the 3rd Court of Appeals. In using that statement, Cobb and Lehmberg knowingly sanctioned breaking the law and exploiting the ignorance, fear and youth of a child in lieu of real evidence in order to get their indictment, a conviction and a sentence of 25 years; however, like so many lawbreakers, they left behind evidence of their crime – the interrogation tape, memoranda from the D.A.’s office regarding the question of police custody and the courtroom testimony of the homicide detectives, more than willing to pass the buck for illegally obtaining a statement to the district attorneys on the case.

Further, Lehmberg and Cobb failed to pursue the truth of what happened to Baby Jayla. Available evidence indicated she had been injured 12 to 14 hours before her death, but neither the D.A. nor APD ever went to the baby’s home to investigate. They ignored apparent old injuries and that Baby Jayla was “off the charts” in size and weight; but a child abuse case would not have garnered the state and nationwide headlines Earle secured with a child-killer case during a hotly contested re-election campaign.

How many other children have been wrongfully imprisoned, children who didn’t happen to have a champion as did Murray, a champion who, thanks to the grace of God, got the attention of the New York Times and 60 Minutes? Two months after 60 Minutes aired “Juvenile Injustice?” Murray was home and the Texas legislature had moved to close the loophole Cobb and Lehmberg used to incarcerate an innocent child, a loophole which for Murray resulted in three excruciating, damaging years in prison and two more years threatened with prosecution and
hounded by the press.

If we cannot depend on our prosecutors to exercise some caution, perhaps a little mercy before consigning a child to the justice system, to wrongful prosecution; if we cannot depend on them to pursue the real perpetrators and not the expedient or convenient scapegoat, what kind of society are we preparing for other children as they reach adulthood? Rosemary Lehmberg failed to exercise due diligence, acted to circumvent Texas law and in so doing caused irreparable damage to a very young child and her family. At the very least, she should not be District Attorney.

For more information on this case, including a transcript of the Interrogation of LaCresha Murray, see www.peopleoftheheart.org.

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Schedule for Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break March 10-14

Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break is next week, March 10-14. Below is the schedule. All the events are free and open to the public.

Monday, March 10

5:15-5:45 PM -- Meet at Garrison 1.126 for snacks and socializing before the first speaker.

5:45 - 6 PM -- Introduction to the Alternative Spring Break by Hooman Hedayati of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty and Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network.

6 :-6:45 PM -- A talk with Rick Reed, a former Dallas and Austin assistant district attorney who opposes the death penalty.

6:45-7:00 "Live Phone Call from Inside a Prison" event organized by the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty featuring a live phone call from an inmate whose death sentence was commuted to life by former Governor Ryan in Illinois. Victor Safforld (AKA Cortez Brown), one of the Death Row 10, will call in and speak to us on the phone from inside a supermax prison in Illinois.

7:00 – 7:10 PM Break

7:10 - 8:15 PM Alan Clarke, a lawyer who has handled death penalty cases and co-author of a new book entitled "The Bitter Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty". Room to be announced.

Evening Time on your own for enjoying Austin, including the SXSW film festival.

Tuesday, March 11 - Meet at Garrison 1.126

1:00 - 2:15 PM Workshop: "Lobbying and Influencing Legislators" led by Doug Lewin, chief of staff for Texas State Rep. Lon Burnam. During the workshop, participants will learn how to interact effectively with legislators or legislative aides and plan for the next day's lobbying activity.

2:15- 2:30 PM BREAK

2:30 - 3:20 PM Workshop "How to Debate the Death Penalty" led by Bryan McCann, coach of UT's nationally-ranked speech and debate team. Bryan is a member of Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

3:20 - 3:30 BREAK

3:30 - 4:30 Mental Illness and the Death Penalty led by Kristin Houlé, who served for five years as the Program Associate for Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. She was involved with Amnesty International for more than 12 years and held several volunteer leadership roles (including State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for Kentucky) before joining the staff in 2002. Kristin was the lead organizer of AIUSA's National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty (NWFA). In 2007, Kristin received a Soros Justice Fellowship to work on the issue of the death penalty and mental illness in Texas.

5 PM - Petition Signature Gathering Competition: We will divide into teams and fan out throughout Austin to collect signatures on a petition against the death penalty. People can collect signatures at places such as where SXSW events are taking place, outside certain bookstores or other stores if they allow it, on the streets in downtown Austin and wherever else the teams want to try. The team that collects the most petition signatures (with names, addresses, email addresses and possibly phone numbers) will win a prize of $100. We will decide as a group what size the teams can be. Options are 1, 2, 3, 4, or more person teams.

7 PM: Meet back at Goodall Wooten to see who won

Wednesday, March 12 Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day and MVFR Panel - Meet at Texas Capitol

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM: Murder Victim Family Member panel.

Location: The Texas State Capitol in room E2.016, which is in the underground level of the Capitol.

Panelists include:

Renny Cushing, Founder and Executive Director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. His father's murder in 1988 has shaped his work as an advocate for crime victims and as an opponent of capital punishment. As a victim-abolitionist Renny has been a pioneer in the effort to bridge death penalty abolition groups and the victims' rights movement)

Jeanette Popp, mother of a mother victim. Jeanette's duaghte, Nancy was murdered in Austin in 1988 and two innocent men were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life. Later, the real killer confessed and the innocent men released after 12 years spent in prison. Jeanette asked the Travis County DA not to seek the death penalty against Nancy's killer.

11:30 Lunch Break

12:00 Get in line for 1 PM Film Showing at the SXSW Film Festival. Bring $10 for admission. We will see the documentary, "At the Death House Door ", which follows the remarkable career journey of Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous 'Walls' prison unit in Huntsville, Texas. During that time he presided over 95 executions, including the very first lethal injection done anywhere in the world. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of that fateful day. The film also tells the story of Carlos De Luna, a convict whose execution bothered Pickett more than any other. Pickett firmly believed the man was innocent and two Chicago Tribune reporters turn up evidence that strongly suggests he was right.

3 PM: Visits to Legislative Offices

4 PM "A People’s Tribunal Against the Death Penalty". Location: South Steps of the Texas Capitol . Everybody from spring break and others from the public will have an opportunity to put the death penalty "on trial." It will be conducted as a sort of public "trial" at which the "defendant" is the death penalty. Everyone will be able to "testify' against the death penalty as a "witness" saying why the death penalty should be abolished.

Thursday, March 13: Protest and Rally Day

1 PM-2:45 PM Meet at Garrison 1.126Skills Building Workshop: "Winning Step-By-Step: How to Organize and Win Moratorium and Abolition Resolutions at the Grassroots Level" led by Sarah Craft. This workshop will cover how to convince student governments, city councils, churches and othe:r organizations to pass resolutions. Sarah Craft works for Equal Justice USA (www.ejusa.org). EJUSA is a national leader in the movement to halt executions, providing hands-on technical assistance, grassroots organizing support, and capacity building to state and local campaigns across the country. UTC 1.146 on the UT-Austin campus. Map.UTC is next to the PCL Library.

2:45 to 3:00 PM Break

3:00 - 4:00 "Youth Media Workshop" led by Campus Progress.

4:00 - 6 PM Organize and Carry out a protest around the case of Rodney Reed. Rally for an innocent man on Texas' death row beginning at the Capitol (11th and Congress) and marching down Congress, Sixth, and then back tot he Capitol. The exact type, location and message of the protest will be decided on by the students. Coordinated by Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

7PM - Meet back at Goodall Wooten for discussion of the protest as well as the entire spring break. Fill out feedback forms. We can all go out to eat together afterwards.

8 Pm - 9PM Last Supper - Spring Breakers will go out and eat their last supper. Location will be decided by the students.

Friday, March 14: Fun Day

This is Spring Break, so today we will have some fun and take a break after all the hard work we have done all week. Everyone is free to choose their own activities. Some things people could do are: Go swimming at Barton Springs Pool, attend a SXSW film or music event , go shopping, take a Segway tour of Austin, go jogging around Town Lake, go bike riding, visit a museum or do something else. Some of these activities cost money, so plan accordingly.

11 AM -- UT Campus tour for anyone interested - Each day, they offer two student-guided walking tours of campus for prospective students and families that begin at the Main Building ("UT Tower") and cover the center of campus from the unique perspective of a current student. This is one of the best ways to get a feel for campus, and we recommend that all prospective UT students sign up for the tour. Wear comfortable clothes and walking shoes, and feel free to bring your camera. You can also register for info sessions and other tours.

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Rick Reed at Tres Amigos Tonight in South Austin

Rick Reed and family and supporters will be watching the election returns tonight at Tres Amígos Restaurant & Cantina, 1807 W. Slaughter Ln. (at Manchaca Rd.) in Austin.

http://www.tresamigos.com/

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Rick Reed for Travis County DA

Our choice in today's election for Travis County District Attorney is Rick Reed.

As we have said before, if Reed is elected, he will probably be the most progressive DA Texas has ever seen. In a time when Texas has just surpassed California as being the state with the most people in prison and when the United States has more people in prison than China, it is time for us to elect a district attorney who will find ways to reduce the number of people behind bars by diverting many more non-violent drug offenders to diversion programs where they will get treatment.

Reed does not believe sending drug offenders to prison is the most effective and efficient use of tax dollars, especially if it is that person's first drug-related offense and no one else was harmed.

Reed is the best person to elect to put in charge of the Public Integrity Unit to make sure that politicians who do wrong are held accountable. Reed led the push to indict Tom Delay when others in the DA race were either not involved or even opposed to seeking an indictment. If Reed had not possessed the judgement, legal reasoning skill and tenacity to convince his boss to indict Delay, then justice would not have been done and Delay would still be in office up to his old shenanigans of using corporate money to influence elections.

Reed is the only DA candidate who opposes the death penalty and has said that he would never ask a jury to sentence someone to death. Instead, he would ask juries to use the newly created sentence of life without possibility of parole in capital trials.

Reed's endorsers include The Daily Texan, The Nation, Mike Farrell, Kinky Friedman, Texas Moratorium Network and most importantly many people among Travis County voters who identify with progressive values.

Probably the most well-respected blog on criminal justice issues in Texas is Grits for Breakfast, which Friday endorsed Rick Reed. Grits says in "Rick Reed top choice in Travis County DA's race":

Reed wants to institute an "open file" policy, allowing defendants and their counsel full access to prosecution files, even putting the information password-protected online, following the model in Tarrant County - to let both prosecutors and defense attorneys access it paper free with less hassle. That's been needed for years, and other counties have done it already: I'd like for that change to be made.

Finally, Reed's most prominent stance has been against the death penalty; he's said that if elected he won't implement it as DA, either in ongoing cases (Travis has five people on death row) or in new murders. I had a chance to talk to Reed face to face about this, and he said that he might believe in the death penalty theoretically, but because we know sometimes Travis prosecutors make mistakes in extremely serious cases, and just as importantly, because it diverts so many dollars and office resources from pretrial diversion, drug courts, and other prosecutorial strategies the community supports, he decided to simply oppose capital punishment altogether and let the chips fall where they may.

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Republican Williamson County DA Donates $1,000 to Mindy Montford

The Austin American-Statesman reports today that one of Mindy Montford's supporters is the Republican District Attorney of Williamson County John Bradley, who gave her $1,000.

Two of Mindy's opponents also have some suspect supporters, which she brought up herself during the recent debate on News 8 Austin.

Roy Minton, Tom Craddick's attorney, is suppoting Rosemary Lehmberg.

And Steve Brittain, Tom Delay's attorney, is supporting Gary Cobb.

The only candidate for DA who will not have to write a thank you note to any Republican District Attorneys or to lawyers for Delay or Craddick is Rick Reed.

If Rick Reed wins, he can thank Austin's progressive voters, because if he wins, it will be because change-oriented, progressive voters heard about his progressive stances on the issues and voted for him.

Probably the most well-respected blog on criminal justice issues in Texas is Grits for Breakfast, which Friday endorsed Rick Reed. Grits says in "Rick Reed top choice in Travis County DA's race":

Reed wants to institute an "open file" policy, allowing defendants and their counsel full access to prosecution files, even putting the information password-protected online, following the model in Tarrant County - to let both prosecutors and defense attorneys access it paper free with less hassle. That's been needed for years, and other counties have done it already: I'd like for that change to be made.

Finally, Reed's most prominent stance has been against the death penalty; he's said that if elected he won't implement it as DA, either in ongoing cases (Travis has five people on death row) or in new murders. I had a chance to talk to Reed face to face about this, and he said that he might believe in the death penalty theoretically, but because we know sometimes Travis prosecutors make mistakes in extremely serious cases, and just as importantly, because it diverts so many dollars and office resources from pretrial diversion, drug courts, and other prosecutorial strategies the community supports, he decided to simply oppose capital punishment altogether and let the chips fall where they may.

If Reed is elected, he will probably be the most progressive DA Texas has ever seen. In a time when Texas has just surpassed California as being the state with the most people in prison and when the United States has more people in prison than China, it is time for us to elect a district attorney who will find ways to reduce the number of people behind bars by diverting many more non-violent drug offenders to diversion programs where they will get treatment.

Reed does not believe sending drug offenders to prison is the most effective and efficient use of tax dollars, especially if it is that person's first drug-related offense and no one else was harmed.

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Kinky Friedman Endorses Rick Reed at State Capitol Press Conference

For Immediate Release
February 29, 2008

Austin—Today, Kinky Friedman, renowned Texas author, musician, humorist, and former independent candidate for Texas Governor, announced his endorsement of Rick Reed for Travis County District Attorney.“

Rick Reed has impressed me with the candor and courage that he has exhibited, both while serving as an assistant district attorney and while campaigning for Travis County District Attorney.”

“Rick Reed was heavily involved in the investigation of the Tom DeLay case, and over the vehement objections of several other prosecutors involved in the investigation he was the only one with the courage to push the Travis County DA to present the case to the grand jury.”

“Rick Reed is the only candidate for Travis County District Attorney who has had the courage to stand up and candidly tell the voters of Travis County that, if elected, he will uniformly seek imprisonment for life without parole, rather than the death penalty, in all capital murder cases.”

“I am honored to have the endorsement of Kinky Friedman,” remarked Reed. “Kinky and I have both given considerable thought to this issue, he as a potential 2010 gubernatorial candidate, and I as a candidate for Travis County District Attorney.”

“We agree that now that Texas law provides the option of imprisonment for life without parole in capital murder cases, it no longer makes sense for the Travis County District Attorney to seek the death penalty in any case where that punishment is an option.”

“I don’t care about polls when it comes to the death penalty,” Kinky said. “It’s really holding Texas back from what it could become. Absolutely, it’s got to go, and the time has come for Travis County voters to elect a district attorney with the courage to stand up and say so.”

--30--

For more information: Rick Reed, 512.351.1897

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What sets Rick Reed apart...

Rick Reed has the smarter, more progressive stance on the issue of capital punishment...

No doubt about it ... heinous, horrific crimes occasionally take place in Travis County. When they do, Rick Reed understands and respects the pain felt by the victims' friends and family members.

But Rick Reed also believes the procedure of strapping human beings to a table and injecting them with a chemical cocktail that anesthetizes them, paralyzes them and then sends them into cardiac arrest, is never an acceptable way for a civilized society to respond to the crimes those human beings committed.

Especially when we consider the fact that some of the persons strapped to that table may not have committed the crime for which they are being executed.

Rick Reed wants to make one thing very clear -- under his leadership, the Travis County District Attorney's office will not seek the death penalty in any case. Why not?

In addition to being incredibly inhumane, the execution procedure is incredibly expensive
A 1991 study of capital punishment in Texas found that the costs associated with a death penalty case amounted to more than $2.3 million. But the cost of housing a prisoner in a Texas maximum-security prison single cell for 40 years was $750,000.

Rick Reed believes the extra hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pursue the death penalty would be more wisely applied toward prosecuting many other murder cases, capital murder cases and other crimes involving violent offenders. Read More

A more sensible alternative to capital punishment now exists
In 2005, the Texas State Legislature approved "Life without Parole" as a sentencing option in capital murder cases.

This option guarantees the safety of our citizens. It also eliminates the possibility of our executing an innocent person and saves the taxpayers the exorbitant costs associated with pursuing and carrying out the death penalty. Read More

Just because we have the right to pursue a lethal injection, does not mean it is the right thing to do.

Read more about Rick Reed's smarter and more progressive stance on the issue of capital punishment.

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Travis district attorney candidate Rick Reed shakes up race

Today's Austin American-Statesman has a profile on Rick Reed: "Travis district attorney candidate Reed shakes up race: Longtime prosecutor invokes DeLay case, wouldn't seek death penalty".

Reed has pledged that if elected, he would never seek the death penalty. "I've never had a burning desire to kill another human being," he said.

Reed has attacked fellow candidate Rosemary Lehmberg, the first assistant district attorney. He said that while he pushed District Attorney Ronnie Earle to present the case against then-U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, to a grand jury in 2005, Lehmberg advised Earle against it.

Most recently, the 52-year-old Reed said that as part of the same investigation — into the use of corporate money in the 2002 Texas elections — he advised Earle that a dismissal agreement struck with four corporate defendants in the case was unethical. He warned that it could lead to charges that prosecutors illegally coerced or extorted money that the businesses agreed to give to an educational program as part of the deal.

With the comments, Reed, who resigned as an assistant district attorney after speaking to reporters about the DeLay case, has emerged as the maverick in the field of contenders in the March 4 Democratic primary.

and

Sandy Leeds, a UT finance lecturer who in the early 1990s was a young prosecutor working under Reed in Dallas, said Reed stood out among lawyers for his integrity.

"Rick was a guy who I really respected," Leeds said. "He wasn't trying to put the most years on anyone that he could. He was trying to give them fair sentences."

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