The state of Texas administers another turn of the screw to Anthony Graves

Administrative madness on a grand scale, Texas style!

Anthony Graves

The injustices just keep on coming for exonerated death row inmate Anthony Graves, freed last year after 18 years' imprisonment for a 1994 capital murder conviction produced by false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct.

After his release, the Texas Comptroller's Office refused to pay the 45-year-old Graves $80,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment compensation because a judge neglected to put the magic words "actual innocence" in the order dismissing charges against him.

Gov. Rick Perry and special prosecutor Kelly Siegler, who helped exonerate Graves, have both acknowledged that he's innocent. But a spokesperson for Comptroller Susan Combs claimed her office did not have the authority to approve the payment. Graves is now suing the state to collect the money.

As the Chronicle's Harvey Rice reports, the Texas Attorney General's Office also is garnisheeing $175 a month from the former inmate's salary as a legal investigator for nearly $5,500 the state claims he owes in back child support while he was behind bars.

The state also seized a $250 honorarium that Graves was to be paid for a presentation to political science students at Prairie View A&M University about his prison ordeal.

"The state of Texas tried to kill me for something I didn't do, and now they are trying to get child support out of me," Graves told Rice. "I feel powerless."

According to a spokesperson for Attorney General Greg Abbott, because a judge ordered then-prisoner Graves to pay the child support in 2002, the AG's office has a legal obligation to collect the money. He did express sympathy for Graves, adding, "his experience is truly troubling and deeply compelling."

Obviously not troubling or compelling enough for the governor, the comptroller and the attorney general to get their heads together and try to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and remedy the continuing effects of a truly horrible miscarriage of justice.

The state took away Graves' freedom for much of his adult life, dismissed on a technicality the compensation owed him by law, and now bills him for the consequences of his wrongful imprisonment. It's a truly sickening situation.

Where there's a will to right an injustice, the most powerful officials in the state must find a way. If they had real sympathy for what this man has suffered, they'd promptly set things right.

Source: Houston Chronicle, Editorial, April 29, 2011

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Texas science panel adopts arson recommendations

Todd Willingham
and daughter

A state panel on Friday recommended more education and training for fire investigators following its review of a case involving a Texas inmate executed after a fire labeled arson killed his three daughters.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission also recommended establishing procedures for revisiting old cases.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004. Prosecutors accused the 36-year-old unemployed mechanic of setting the fire at his home in Corsicana, about 60 miles south of Dallas. A jury convicted him of capital murder and sent him to death row. His conviction was upheld nine times on appeal.

Willingham didn't testify at his trial but always insisted _ even in an obscenity-filled tirade the moment before his death _ that he was innocent. He suggested the fire could have been started accidentally by his 2-year-old daughter, Amber, who died along with her 1-year-old twin sisters, Karmon and Kameron.

Death penalty opponents have questioned arson investigators' testimony that led to Willingham's conviction and suggest he may be the first person wrongly executed in the U.S. since capital punishment resumed more than three decades ago. Several experts have since concluded the fire at his home was of undetermined cause or accidental but not arson, as two fire marshals at the scene ruled in 1991.

The commission on Friday completed an often tedious review of its nearly 50-page draft report based on Willingham's case and settled on the 16 recommendations for fire investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys and lawmakers.

"We're suggesting somebody else is going to have to carry these things out," said Commission Chairman John Bradley.

The panel said Thursday that it wouldn't decide whether arson investigators were negligent or guilty of professional misconduct in Willingham's case until the Texas attorney general's office decides whether the panel has that authority.

The state commission can't exonerate Willingham or reopen his case but determines whether forensic science in such cases was sound. The eight-member panel won't make a ruling on negligence or professional misconduct by the fire's initial investigators until it gets word from the attorney general, a decision not likely until July. John Bradley, a suburban Austin district attorney and the commission chairman appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2009, had requested the legal opinion. After courts rejected appeals in Willingham's case, Perry refused to stop Willingham's execution.

"In general, I'm satisfied," said Stephen Saloom, policy director for the Innocence Project, which first raised questions about the case. "They were constrained by the AG's opinion and have had to overcome the chairman's relentless efforts to keep a lot of issues down. In the areas they're permitted to address, they've made some significant progress and deserve credit for that."

He called it a great improvement over the draft report released Thursday.

"They've gotten much more specific," he said. "It responds to the allegations as much as possible. This gives a chance for all those past cases."

The panel's recommendations also include establishing a code of ethics for investigators and making procedure for involving the state fire marshal's office in fatal home fires. The commission acknowledged the Texas Legislature controls the money needed to implement a number of its recommendations.

Another wants the fire marshal's office to adhere to standards established by the National Fire Protection Association and become a model for local fire investigators in Texas. They also urged investigators to keep original files of their cases and forward copies of documentation to other interested parties like prosecutors and defense attorneys. In Willingham's case, the Forensic Science Commission can't see arson investigators' files because they've been lost.

The commission spent lengthy time Friday debating a review procedure they said fire investigators should establish for resolved cases, a re-examination process common in medical settings.

Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan called it central to the overall report, saying results and interpretations like Willingham's from 1991 may not be valid years later. They needed to be looked at and "stakeholders" impacted by any new interpretations be informed, she said.

"If the answer is 'no,' then we're really in trouble," she said.

"Conceptually, I don't disagree," Bradley said. "But in practice if we say something about this we have to be very careful. You've got adversaries in these cases and adversaries make wildly different claims that are decided by a jury."

After prolonged wrangling but in a direct reference to the Willingham case, they agreed to a recommendation that urges the state fire marshal's office develop standards similar to accredited disciplines of forensic science that "promote the re-examination of cases when science has evolved to create a material difference in the original analysis or result." Under its recommendation, the state fire marshal's office had a "duty to correct, duty to inform, duty to be transparent" and implement corrective actions.

The panel noted the evolution of fire standards never was disclosed by the fire marshal's office or Corsicana Fire Department as Willingham's case moved through the legal system.

Bradley came to the panel days before it was to hear from Craig Beyler, a Baltimore, Md., fire expert critical of the original investigation. Beyler's appearance was stalled until early this year. Bradley has denied allegations of bias and has labeled criticism directed toward him as "politics and circus sideshow." At the same time, his confirmation as board chairman is stalled before the Texas Senate and likely doomed after a contentious appearance before a senate committee. He can remain on the board through the end of the legislative session next month.

In its report, the commission determined investigators at the scene reasonably concluded Willingham's theory about his oldest daughter setting the fire was only a remote possibility because the children were so young and because no lighters were found near their bodies. The report also pointed out no uniform standard of practice existed for state or local fire investigators in the early 1990s.

Source: AP, April 22, 2011

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Texas commission’s report on Cameron Todd Willingham arson case avoids central questions

A state panel’s draft report on the 1991 arson investigation that led to Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution, released Thursday, avoids central questions raised by fire experts and advocates.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission began a 2-day meeting with discussion of the report, which was limited because of a pending request filed with the attorney general’s office that questions whether the commission has authority to investigate the case.

For now, the report addresses only standards of fire investigations based on expert testimony and documents collected over the last 2 years.

Opponents of the death penalty have touted the case of Willingham — executed in 2004 for the deaths of his three daughters in the fire — as a likely case in which an innocent person was executed because now-discredited science was used to declare the blaze to be arson. Others question that, saying Willingham’s guilt was proved by other factors.

The report could be the final, and inconclusive, chapter in the saga, if the attorney general agrees with the Corsicana Fire Department and the state fire marshal’s office that the commission does not have the power to determine negligence or misconduct in the case.

“If they fail to respond to the actual allegation filed, which this report does, then it will have failed to provide the public confidence in forensics that the Legislature intended,” said Steven Saloom of the New York-based Innocence Project, which filed the original complaint.

Some commission members said that parts of the report “dance around the issue” by not specifically tying fire investigation standards to the Willingham case.

“It looks at the history and progress of fire science,” said the commission’s general counsel Lynn Robitaille, who drafted the language of the report based on input from the nine commissioners.

It outlines recommendations for arson science, based on the review of the Willingham case.

“The commission has to be cautious not inferring or concluding negligence or misconduct until we have jurisdiction on this issue,” said Chairman John Bradley.

Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan questioned why members of the panel, none of whom are arson investigators, are making suggestions to the state fire marshal’s office about the standards of practice.

The hearing is likely to be the last led by Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney, because his nomination lacks sufficient support in the Senate.

Gov. Rick Perry shook up the commission in 2009, firing its chairman, just before it was to hear from a fire expert who criticized the fire science used to convict Willingham.

Source: Dallas Morning News, April 14, 2011

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Texas: More than 90 Faith Leaders Call for Clemency for Timothy Adams

Timothy Adams

Today more than 90 Christian faith leaders from communities throughout Texas called on the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry to grant clemency to Timothy Adams. Adams is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on February 22, 2011. His family, who is also the family of the victim, Timothy Jr., has asked for mercy, noting that an execution will do nothing to repair the loss and anguish they have experienced since the time of the crime.

TCADP is deeply grateful to all of the faith leaders who joined this call for mercy. We also wish to express our appreciation to Bishop Joe Wilson and Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger for their participation in today’s press conference to release the letter.

For Immediate Release: February 16, 2011 Religious Leaders from Across Texas Join Victim Family Members at State Capitol to Urge for Clemency, Saying Crime was an Aberration in Veteran’s Life

3 Jurors Also Supporting Clemency for Timothy Adams

(Austin, Texas, Wednesday, February 16, 2011) Today, in the largest outpouring of faith leader support in a Texas death penalty case in recent years, a group of 91 prominent religious leaders from across the state called on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry to grant clemency to Timothy Adams. Mr. Adams is an army veteran with no criminal history, not even an arrest, prior to the tragedy where he killed his son while planning his own suicide in 2002. His execution is scheduled for Tuesday, February 22.

Faith leaders from 8 Christian denominations and from within the Unitarian Universalist community, including Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza of the Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston; Reverend Raymundo J. Pena, Bishop Emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville; Bishop Michael Rinehart, TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Reverend Bobbi Kaye Jones, Austin District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church; and Doctor Joe S. Ratliff, Pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church, the largest African-American church in Houston, announced their support for clemency in a letter that was delivered to state officials this morning.

In their letter to the parole board and the Governor, they state: “We join the victim’s family in asking that you spare Mr. Adams from death. You have an extraordinary opportunity to show mercy to a family that has already suffered greatly and to uphold the sacredness of human life. We pray that you grant life to Timothy Adams.”

Several of the faith leaders, including Bishop Joe Wilson of the United Methodist Church and former Bishop to the Central Texas Conference, Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, and Reverend Lawrence L. Scott of New Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, where the Adams family worships, attended a press conference at the Capitol Building in Austin to announce their support for clemency along with the victim’s family, including the grandmother, grandfather and aunt who are also related to Mr. Adams.

“Our family lost one child. We can’t bear to lose another. After my grandson’s death, we lived through pain worse than anyone could imagine. Nothing good will come from executing my son Tim and causing us more anguish,” said Columbus Adams, Mr. Adams’ father and a 30-year veteran of the Houston Fire Department. “We pray that God will fill Governor Perry’s heart with compassion. If not for Tim, then at least for our family."

Three jurors from Mr. Adams’ trial have come forward to request a commutation of Mr. Adams’ death sentence to one of life. They believe they were not presented at trial with a complete picture of Mr. Adams’ character and religious background. They believe that information relating to Mr. Adams’s upbringing, deep devotion to religion, and mental state would have caused them to stick with their initial inclination, which was to spare Mr. Adams and sentence him to life in prison.

Mr. Adams is loved and supported by members of his church, work supervisors, fellow soldiers from the military, and many others. For example:

-Mr. Adams was raised in a Christian home and was active member of New Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Houston. His Sunday school teacher, Verlene Edmond, remembers Mr. Adams as “quiet” and “polite” as a teenager and supports a commutation of Mr. Adams’ sentence.

-When Mr. Adams graduated from high school, he enlisted in the army and served his country. Mr. Adams’ friend Roger West, a Sergeant First Class in the United States Army, Purple Heart recipient, and about to be deployed on his 5th tour in Iraq, said that he wishes he could have “a whole platoon of guys like Tim.” Mr. Adams was honorably discharged in 1989.

-Mr. Adams was always a hard worker who wanted to support his young family. He worked as a security guard at Greenway Plaza in Houston. He was such a good worker that he was quickly promoted to supervisor of all security shifts. Tim’s supervisor, Diane Garcia, received “many, many positive comments and feedback on Tim’s performance."

-Mr. Adams was a role model to his younger siblings. Chadrick Adams, Mr. Adams’ brother, said his older brother taught him his work ethic and inspired him to earn a scholarship to and graduate from college.

From the beginning, Mr. Adams accepted responsibility for what he did. He pleaded guilty in open court and before the jury, even though he was not offered anything in return for his plea.

Mr. Adams has spent his time on death row reflecting on what he did, seeking forgiveness from his family, friends and God, and deepening his faith in Jesus Christ. He has been a model prisoner without a single disciplinary write-up on his record – not even for a minor infraction – during his 8 years in prison.

Mr. Adams is not a danger to anyone and never will be. If the Governor commutes his death sentence, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

In conclusion, the faith leaders stated that “[w]e firmly believe that Mr. Adams must be held accountable for his actions. We simply pray in doing so, we ourselves do not lose sight of the humanity and compassion that Christ calls us to."

###

Mr. Adams’ clemency petition and additional background material about the case is posted at http://www.timothywayneadams.com

Source: Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, February 17, 2011

Parole board rejects plea from Timothy Wayne Adams

HOUSTON — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected a clemency petition Friday from a convicted killer set to die next week for the shooting death of his 19-month-old son.

More than 90 clergy members from around the state had signed a letter to Gov. Rick Perry and the parole board appealing for clemency for Timothy Wayne Adams.

The seven-member board voted 7-0 twice - first against a 120-day reprieve and then against a recommendation to commute the sentence to life in prison.

Adams, 42, was set to die Tuesday evening in Huntsville for the slaying of his son, Timothy Adams Jr., in 2002 at the family's southwest Houston apartment. Evidence showed the shooting was in retaliation for Adams' wife leaving him.

In an appeal Friday to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, the inmate's lawyers contended his death sentence was unconstitutional because a 2007 ruling from the court said a mother with no criminal history who murders her child because of stress and depression was not a future danger for purposes of sentencing.

The appeal argued Adams was not a future danger, that his stress and depression were similar to the case of the woman in 2007 and that under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment the only difference was that he was a man. Also, the prediction of future danger, a question Texas jurors must consider when deciding on a death sentence, is "inherently unreliable," according to the appeal.

"The prediction of future dangerousness has been belied by the nearly eight years that Mr. Adams has peaceably resided on death row," his attorneys said.

Prosecutors will have the opportunity to respond to the petition.

Adams pleaded guilty to killing his son with two shots from close range during a police standoff. The jury at his 2003 trial in Houston was given the choice of life in prison or death by injection.

Source: Star Telegram, February 19, 2011
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Texas executes Michael Wayne Hall

Michael Wayne Hall

A 31-year-old North Texas man has been executed for the 1998 torture-slaying of a mentally challenged 19-year-old Arlington woman exactly 13 years ago.

Michael Wayne Hall's lethal injection came less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution and was the 1st of the year for the nation's busiest death penalty state.

Hall was condemned for the murder of Amy Robinson, who was abducted en route to work at an Arlington supermarket. Hall and Robert Neville were convicted in her 1998 slaying.

The 2nd man convicted in her death, Robert Neville, was put to death 5 years ago.

Lawyers for Hall argued that he was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under a Supreme Court ruling that bars capital punishment for those with an IQ under 70.

"Mr. Hall's history of mental retardation reaches back to his childhood," attorney Bryce Benjet said earlier Tuesday.

In appeals, Benjet questioned an assessment from one mental health expert who shifted from an earlier finding and said Hall was not mentally impaired. Three others who examined Hall said he was impaired.

Hall's lawyers went to the Supreme Court a day after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - the state's highest criminal court - refused to stop the punishment. Similar appeals also failed in other courts.

Hall's attorneys had argued that he, too, was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring executions of those with IQs of less than 70.

Hall becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 465th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. He becomes the 226th condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became governor of Texas in 2001.

Hall was 18 when evidence showed that he and Neville, a 23-year-old paroled burglar, decided to abduct and kill Robinson, who worked at a Kroger store in Arlington, just west of Dallas. The men had been fired from jobs at the same supermarket.

Robinson had a genetic disorder called Turner's syndrome, a rare chromosome condition found only in women and characterized by short stature and lack of sexual development at puberty. Prosecutors described her as mentally challenged and trusting.

Authorities said Hall and Neville stopped Robinson along the bike route they knew she took to work and offered her a ride. She accepted.

They drove her about 12 miles to a remote area of Tarrant County where Neville shot at her repeatedly with a crossbow but missed. They also shot her numerous times with a pellet gun and a .22-caliber rifle, prosecutors said.

"Target practice," they bragged to reporters after they were arrested 2 weeks later trying to cross into Mexico near Eagle Pass. They also told reporters how they laughed as Robinson pleaded for her life.

After their arrests, Neville told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he and Hall wanted to become serial killers whose victims were racial minorities. Robinson was part Native American.

"We had a bet going to see who could shoot and kill the most people between the 2 of us," Neville said.

Hall said they returned to her body a few days later when he removed her keys and $4 or $5 from her pocket, then he and Neville shot her several more times.

Last year when Hall's execution date was set, Amanda Robinson, the victim's sister, told the Star-Telegram that the punishment would allow her sister to finally rest in peace.

"I'm sad for his family, but he's got to pay the price," she said. "You can't go out and kill people."

Bill Harris, one of Hall's trial lawyers, said he believed Neville was the person who killed Robinson and "cooked up the whole scheme."

"I'm personally convinced Michael is mentally retarded, that he fits the classic definition," Harris said. "If you got to know Michael for very long, you got to understand he was pretty profoundly limited. Half the time he didn't remember my name."

Harris said even if Hall was taken from death row and put in the general prison population, life would not be easy. "People with his mental limitations frequently are targets of some abuse and can be taken advantage of by other prisoners," he said.

"I would like to give my sincere apology to Amy's family," Hall said as he was strapped to the death chamber gurney. "We caused a lot of heartache, grief, pain and suffering, and I am sorry. I know it won't bring her back."

Speaking just above a whisper, his voice shaking and eyes watery, Hall said he wasn't the same person and repeatedly asked for forgiveness. Relatives of his victim stood a few feet away, looking through a window.

"I am not crying for myself, I am crying for the lost and those that are dying for their sins," he said. "I've been locked up 13 years. I am not locked up inside. All these years I have been free. Christ has changed me. Here I am, a big strong youngster, crying like a baby. I am man enough to show my emotions and I am sorry.

"I am sorry for everything. I wish I could take it back, but I can't."

Nine minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

At least 4 other Texas inmates have executions scheduled in the coming months. Timothy Wayne Adams is set to die next week for fatally shooting his 19-month-old son during an argument with his estranged wife at their apartment in Houston.

Hall becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1240th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Associated Press, Rick Halperin, February 15, 2011

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URGENT APPEAL for Timothy Adams due to be executed in Texas on 22 Feb. 2011

Timothy Adams, a 42-year-old African American man, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 22 February. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his young son in 2002. Three of the 12 jurors who voted for death at his trial in 2003 are among those now appealing for clemency.

Timothy Adams

Timothy (Tim) Adams shot his 19-month-old son Timothy ("TJ") during a stand-off with police in Houston, Texas, on 20 February 2002. After surrendering, he gave police a statement admitting to the murder. He pleaded guilty at his trial. The jury convicted him, and after a sentencing phase voted that, even though he had no prior criminal record, he would likely commit future acts of violence that would "constitute a continuing threat to society" – a prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas – and that there was insufficient mitigating evidence to warrant a life sentence.

Although the defense lawyers presented a number of character witnesses at the sentencing, they presented only one family member, the defendant's mother. Other relatives of Tim Adams – who are also members of the murder victim's family – are now appealing for clemency. For example, Tim Adams's father – the grandfather of the victim – has said: "Losing TJ was especially hard for me... However, I cannot imagine losing my son to this tragedy as well... I do not know what I will do if we lose Tim". The brother of Tim Adams has said "It's hard to explain why Tim did what he did... It was totally out of character... I still have a strong relationship with him. I often break down when I leave the prison after our visits. I cannot imagine losing my brother". His sister states: "It's going to affect my family in a bad way if he is executed. I would never wish this on anyone, even my worst enemy... This would just be another huge loss to our family". Tim Adams has a 23-year-old son from a previous relationship who has said: "I can't put my finger on why my father would do something like that. Yet, my father was very loving and taught me right from wrong when I was growing up. He was a good father. He is not a bad person. I wish I had had the opportunity to say something in support of my father at his trial".

Three of the jurors from the original trial are also supporting clemency. One of them has said that she initially voted for a life sentence, but "felt pressured by the other jurors to change my vote". She said that she has "carried the guilt around for years knowing that I sentenced Adams, a man who had done wrong but who was otherwise a good, religious, and hard-working person, to death". Another former juror recalled that "Adams was so remorseful during the trial, and I could tell that he was hurting a lot". However, she said that he too had felt "pressured" by other jurors "into believing that Adams was a cold-hearted man" and had voted for death. Both jurors said that they had learned more about Tim Adams since the trial that confirmed their original leaning to vote for a life sentence.

Tim Adams is reported not to have committed a single disciplinary infraction during his eight years on death row.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A few days before the 20 February 2002 shooting in Houston, Tim Adams's wife had moved out of their flat, taking the baby with her. On 20 February, she returned to the apartment to collect her belongings. Confronted by her husband, she telephoned the police. Tim Adams fired a shot at her, and she fled the home, leaving the child behind. In the ensuing stand-off, Tim Adams told police that he was suicidal and would kill himself if anyone tried to enter the apartment. He was eventually talked into surrendering. His young son had already been shot.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally, regardless of the crime or the offender. To end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive, diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values. It not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly, in social and psychological terms as well as to the public purse (a fact which is drawing increasing public concern in the USA in the current economic climate). It has not been proved to have a unique deterrent effect. It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way, on grounds of race and class. It denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation. It promotes simplistic responses to complex human problems, rather than pursuing explanations that could inform positive strategies. It diverts resources that could be better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it. The death penalty extends the suffering of the victim's family to that of the condemned prisoner.

Today, 139 countries are abolitionist in law or practice, a clear majority. Such countries have concluded either that the death penalty is unnecessary, or that it is incompatible with modern standards of justice, or both. While international law recognizes that some countries retain the death penalty, this acknowledgment of present reality should not be invoked "to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment", in the words of Article 6.6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2007, 2008 and 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed resolutions calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions, pending abolition.

There have been 1,239 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977, including five so far this year. Of the 464 prisoners put to death in Texas (37 per cent of the national total), 115 were convicted in Harris County, where Tim Adams was sentenced to death. If Harris County was a state, it would account for more executions than any other state in the USA apart from the rest of Texas. See USA: One county, 100 executions: Harris County and Texas - a lethal combination, July 2007, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/125/2007/en; also USA: Too much cruelty, too little clemency: Texas nears 200th execution under current governor, April 2009, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/057/2009/en. There have been 225 executions in Texas since Governor Rick Perry took office in December 2000.

Arbitrariness, discrimination and error mark the death penalty in the USA, along with its inescapable cruelty. Public and political support for the death penalty has weakened in recent years, possibly a result of an erosion of belief in its deterrence value, an increased awareness of the frequency of wrongful convictions in capital cases, and a greater confidence that public safety can be guaranteed by life prison terms rather than death sentences. In 2008, Senior Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens revealed that he had decided, after more than three decades on the country's highest court, that the death penalty was a cruel waste of time. "I have relied on my own experience", he wrote, "in reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes". Since retiring from the Supreme Court in June 2010, he has said that there was one vote during his nearly 35 years on the Court that he regretted – his vote with the majority in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976 that allowed executions to resume in the USA. See also USA: A learning curve, towards a 'more perfect world', October 2010, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/095/2010/en 

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Tim Adams was sentenced to death;

- Noting that three of the jurors are calling for commutation of the death sentence;

- Calling on the authorities to recognize the suffering that execution causes family members;

- Urging the parole board to recommend to Governor Perry that he commute the death sentence;

- Calling on Governor Perry to do all in his power and influence to stop this execution.

APPEALS TO:

Clemency Section, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

8610 Shoal Creek Blvd.

Austin, TX 78757-6814

USA

Fax 512 467 0945

Email: bpp-pio@tdcj.state.tx.us

Salutation: Dear Board members

Governor Rick Perry

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 12428

Austin, TX 78711-2428

USA

Fax: 1 512 463 1849

Salutation: Dear Governor

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Click here to sign an online clemency petition (You must live in the US to sign this petition).

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US jurors urge clemency for death row inmate

Timothy Adams

3 jurors who voted for the death penalty in the murder trial of an American army veteran on Monday asked that his life be spared, 2 weeks before his scheduled execution in southern Texas.

The 3 have now urged that Timothy Adams's sentence should instead be commuted to life in prison.

Adams, 42, is an Army veteran who flew into a rage in 2002 during a fight with his wife. He fatally shot his 19-month-old son and planned to kill himself, but friends persuaded him not to. He was arrested by Houston police.

Adams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection February 22.

But jurors -- Rebecca Hayes, Ngoc Duong, and Kathryn Starling -- on Monday filed a petition for clemency, along with Adams's lawyers and family, with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and governor Rick Perry.

The 3 said they were not given during the trial a complete picture of Adams's character and religious background.

"Those deliberations were the most emotional experience of my life, and I have carried the guilt around for years knowing that I sentenced Adams, a man who had done wrong but who was otherwise a good, religious, and hard-working person to death," Hayes in support of the petition.

The jurors asked that Adams's sentence be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Adams, who is black, never denied killing his son and pleaded guilty to murder. Typically, an admission of guilt is enough to ward off a death penalty.

"From the moment Mr. Adams was taken into police custody, he accepted responsibility for his actions," his lawyers wrote in the clemency bid.

"Mr. Adams realizes that it is nearly impossible for the members of this board to understand what could lead a father to kill his own son, his namesake," his lawyers wrote.

"Mr. Adams has never tried to justify his actions. What he did was wrong, plain and simple."

Columbus Adams, the killer's father, also appealed for clemency.

"Our family lost 1 child. We can't bear to lose another. After my grandson's death, we lived through pain worse than anyone could imagine," he wrote.

"Nothing good will come from executing my son, Tim, and causing us more anguish. We pray that God will fill Governor Perry?s heart with compassion. If not for Tim, then at least for our family."

Many other people, including Adams's former Army boss, testified in his favor.

Texas is the most active death penalty state, with 24 inmates put to death in 2010.

Source: Agence France-Presse, February, 2011

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Texas: Long-Awaited Testimony Rejects Arson Conclusion

Willingham's house
after the blaze

Fire science expert Craig Beyler told the state's Forensic Science Commission on Jan. 7 that, at best, the cause of the fatal fire in Cameron Todd Willingham's home nearly two decades ago is "undetermined." Furthermore, as time goes by and science improves, the case for the fire to be considered arson "gets less and less, not more and more," he said. The testimony came some 14 months after Beyler was initially scheduled to discuss the 1991 fire that claimed the lives of Wil­ling­ham's three young children – and resulted in his conviction and execution for arson.

Beyler's conclusions were echoed by John DeHaan, a 40-year fire scientist who has authored and co-authored several seminal fire science textbooks and who previously worked for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. DeHaan, one of four witnesses asked to present before the commissioners last week, said that although there was not a "uniform standard of practice" for conducting fire investigations back in 1991, there are still elements of investigation that are universal – such as ruling out other accidental or natural causes for a fire before concluding that arson was to blame. That was not done by the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office, which handled the Willing­ham investigation. In fact, Beyler told the commission, which is made up predominately of scientists, it appears Deputy Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez (who has since died) never even looked through the charred debris in the bedroom where the Willingham children died. Instead, that debris was simply "shoveled" out the bedroom window. How could Vasquez determine that arson caused the fire if he never even sifted through all the evidence?

According to Ed Salazar, an assistant fire marshal who spoke to the commission Friday afternoon (after sitting somewhat steely-faced through the morning portion of the meeting with Beyler and DeHaan), Vasquez did rule out other possible causes of the fire – it's just that he didn't record it in his reports. Salazar said that when he began as a lawyer with the office in 1994, he'd noticed the reports were often sparse. But, he suggested, that doesn't mean they're incomplete. There is "no way I can sit here and defend the lack of specificity in these reports," Salazar said. Nonetheless, the investigator in 1991 "followed ... protocol; they followed the practices that were being used at the time."

Indeed, the Fire Marshal's Office told the commission in August that it would stand by its initial determination in the Willingham case, a position that DeHaan said was "dismaying." DeHaan and Beyler are among nearly a dozen fire science experts who have reviewed the state's work in the Willingham case and concluded it relied too much on outdated science, even by 1991 standards.

The Innocence Project asked the Forensic Science Commission to review not only Willingham's case but also that of Ernest Willis. Like Willingham, Willis was convicted of arson and sentenced to die. He was later exonerated, however, based on expert opinion that the investigation was flawed and the arson determination erroneous. Willis was released from prison just months after Willingham was executed. Beyler told commissioners that the state's work in both cases was faulty.

Beyler's meeting with the commission was initially scheduled for October 2009. Just days before the meeting, however, Gov. Rick Perry replaced several commission members – including Sam Bassett, an Austin defense attorney whom the panel had appointed as chair – and installed Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley as the new head of the group. Bradley indefinitely postponed the Beyler meeting and advocated scrapping it altogether, a move that was blocked by the members of the panel who are actually scientists.

That didn't stop Bradley last week from behaving combatively toward Beyler, DeHaan, and even a fellow commissioner, Tarrant County chief medical examiner Nizam Peerwani, as Bradley lobbed softballs at Salazar. In both the tone and the substance of his questions, Bradley seemed intent on agreeing with Salazar that the state's success or failure in investigating the Willingham fire is little more than a matter of personal judgment. Whether his fellow commissioners will agree – and what will happen next in the review of the Willingham case – remains to be seen.

Source: The Austin Chronicle, January 14, 2011

Texas panel re-examines arson execution case

Willingham's house
after the blaze

The execution of a Texas man for the deaths of his 3 small children in a house fire came under renewed scrutiny Friday as a state panel heard from arson experts who reviewed the evidence that sent Cameron Todd Willingham to the death chamber 7 years ago. The Texas Forensic Science Commission invited the fire experts to testify amid the Innocence Project's insistence that Willingham was convicted with faulty evidence and was innocent when he was put to death in 2004. The New York-based organization specializes in wrongful conviction cases.

Prosecutors in Corsicana, about 60 miles south of Dallas, have insisted Willingham's conviction and execution was proper, and the State Fire Marshal's Office has stood behind the arson finding.

Texas Forensic Science Commission chairman John Bradley said the board didn't plan to make a decision Friday and the session was an opportunity for members to ask questions. The commission invited 4 scientists to testify: Craig Beyler of Baltimore, John DeHaan of California, Thomas Wood from Houston and Ed Salazar of the state Fire Marshal's Office.

Beyler is among several experts who have challenged the conclusion that arson caused the 1991 fire that killed Willingham's 3 daughters. The chairman of the International Association of Fire Safety Science and one of the foremost experts in the field, Beyler wrote in a 2009 report that investigators didn't follow standards in place in 1991 and didn't have enough evidence to make an arson finding.

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," Beyler wrote.

He was scheduled to testify before the commission in 2009, but Bradley canceled that meeting in an effort to close the case and have the panel conclude investigators didn't commit professional misconduct in the case. Other members of the commission rebuffed Bradley's efforts, leading to Friday's hearing.

Beyler insisted Friday that the cause of the fire should have been listed as undetermined.

"I haven't changed my opinion in the year and a half since I wrote the report," he said.

Bradley said he wasn't quibbling with Beyler's opinion but said he believed the investigators "did the best they could given standards at the time."

"I think we'll differ on that," Beyler responded.

Willingham always maintained his innocence, including in his final statement from the death chamber gurney -- an obscenity-filled diatribe aimed at his ex-wife. She has said he confessed his guilt to her when she met with him days before his execution, but Innocence Project lawyers say her story has changed over the years.

Death penalty opponents have aimed to have the Willingham case become the first one in which a prisoner was formally declared wrongfully put to death.

The forensic commission's involvement became politically charged after Republican Gov. Rick Perry removed three members in 2009, days before they were to review reports casting doubt on Willingham's guilt. Bradley has been an ally for Perry in trying to close the inquiry.

The Innocence Project has objected that two arson investigators who testified on its behalf at an October court of inquiry about the Willingham case, Gerald Hurst and John Lentini, were "notably absent" among investigators the commission invited to Friday's meeting.

The October hearing was cut short by an appeals court after prosecutors successfully challenged the objectivity of the judge holding it because he'd received an award from an organization that opposes the death penalty.

Willingham's defense didn't include a fire expert to counter the state's witnesses because the one hired by his attorney also said arson started the fire.

Related article: "Trial by Fire", The New Yorker, Sept. 7, 2009

Source: Associated Press, January 8, 2011

Arson probe that led to execution assailed

AUSTIN — Fifteen months after he first was scheduled to testify before the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Baltimore fire expert Craig Beyler on Friday finally got a chance to tell panel members how botched arson investigations helped send a Corsicana man to his execution.

As has become typical in the complex and politically charged case, however, the story did not end there.

Officials from the Texas Fire Marshal's Office, rallying in defense of a now-dead arson investigator, offered counter-testimony, saying that rulings made in 1991 are as valid today as they were then.

The Forensic Science Commission took no action Friday. The panel's next scheduled meeting is Jan. 21 in Austin.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Houston Chronicle, January 8, 2011

It's time for capital punishment to become Texas history

The death penalty in Texas is fraught with demonstrable error, and the people of the state seem more willing to deal with that fact than their leaders.

Events of the past year have convinced us that defendants have been executed on the basis of invalid evidence. They may or may not have been guilty, but the fact that we have convicted people based on faulty evidence leads inexorably to a horrible likelihood — that we have executed innocent people. The high number of death row prisoners eventually exonerated makes a strong case that other innocent but less fortunate prisoners have been wrongfully put to death.

We don't lose sleep over the execution of guilty murderers. But the possible or probable execution of the innocent should trouble every Texan.

The freeing of Anthony Graves after 18 years in prison, many on death row, for a false murder conviction is only the most recent example of how badly the system is broken. His ordeal underlines how long the victims of wrongful death sentences must suffer in the cases where the errors are discovered before execution.

Two men, Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of murder by arson, and Claude Jones, convicted of murder during a robbery, were executed on the basis of evidence later shown to be questionable or false.

We are heartened by figures showing that Texas and Harris County juries are sending fewer defendants to death row. Once known as the death penalty capital of the United States, Harris County has relinquished that grim title in recent years. If Texas were a nation, it would have been among the top state executioners in the world in past decades, in the company of judicial pariahs like China and Iran.

Since executions resumed in 1976, 464 have been carried out in Huntsville. Texas still led the nation in 2010 with 17 executions, more than twice the number of runner-up Ohio. This past year juries in Texas sentenced only eight people to die, while Harris County has had only two capital punishment sentences handed down.

Legal experts attribute the drop in death judgments to the availability of a life-without-parole statute passed by the Texas Legislature in 2005, and to the escalating costs to counties of the appeals process involving capital sentences. The exoneration of 11 Texas death row residents has undoubtedly made the public - and potential jury pools - more aware of the possibility that a death sentence could be an irreversible mistake.

Still, even as Texas juries show increased restraint in utilizing capital punishment, Texas elected officials - including most jurists - seem equally determined not to examine its flaws. When District Judge Kevin Fine attempted to conduct a hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty as practiced in Texas, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos first ordered her prosecutors to stand mute in court and then successfully appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the hearing. More than 60 people, including former Texas Gov. Mark White, have filed a brief with the high court in support of allowing the death penalty hearing to go forward.

When the state Forensic Science Commission attempted to investigate whether Willingham was executed for the murder of his three children based on faulty arson evidence, Gov. Rick Perry replaced the commission chairman and several board members. A protracted and inconclusive investigation followed. An attempt by an Austin judge to conduct a hearing on the Willingham case has also been stymied by an appeals judge, who ruled that the jurist should have recused himself.

The accumulating evidence indicates that the current application of the death penalty in Texas involves an unacceptably high risk of killing innocent people. Yet even as the evidence of false convictions and wrongful executions piles up, only the participants at the base of the Texas criminal justice system, jury members, seem to be waking up to the reality of this evil.

Some opponents have called for a moratorium on executions in Texas until new, unspecified safeguards are in place to protect the innocent. Yet it's difficult to imagine a fail-safe route to execution.

Besides, we already have the ultimate safeguard on the books: the sentence of life without parole. Spending the rest of one's days in prison is as terrifying a deterrent to most people as quick execution. By ending state-sanctioned killing, in the future when a jury makes a mistake, resurrection won't be required to remedy it.

Source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle, January 1, 2011

Texas Defender Service: The 6 best arguments against the death penalty in Texas

Execution chamber
Huntsville Unit, Texas

The following guest blog post was written by Andrea Keilen, Executive Director of Texas Defender Service.

This week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stevens published an essay detailing the Court's decisions that created a system infected with problems, and one he now believes is unconstitutional. Since 1976, 138 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide.

12 of them were in Texas.

The fact that some mistakes were discovered in time and innocent people were exonerated strongly suggests that there have been other occasions when mistakes were not discovered in time and innocent people were executed.

Beginning Monday, December 6, at a hearing next week in a Harris County District Court, expert witnesses will testify about the numerous flaws that leave Texas' system riddled with errors, inherently unreliable, and unconstitutional as applied.

Attorneys for John Green, who is charged with capital murder, will urge the court to rule the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional because it creates an unacceptable risk that innocent people have been, and will be, wrongfully convicted and executed.

When innocent people are exonerated, it is often a matter of dumb luck . For example, the real killer confesses or pro bono law firms take an interest in the case. It is rarely because the system catches errors and corrects itself.

Both Ernest Ray Willis and Cameron Todd Willingham were convicted of murder by arson and sentenced to death on the basis of junk fire science. Mr. Willingham is dead and Mr. Willis is alive -- and free -- because a pro bono law firm took Mr. Willis' case.

At the hearing, witnesses will testify about the following factors, which taken together, create an unacceptable risk of wrongful conviction in capital cases:

1st, Texas has no standards to ensure that eyewitness testimony is obtained in ways that protect against the risk of mistaken identification.

Texas does not follow the scientific research or best practices on eyewitness identification recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, or the ABA. Nationwide, more than 75% of individuals exonerated by DNA evidence were convicted because of faulty eyewitness identifications .

2nd, Texas allows the introduction of confessions that have been obtained without safeguards to protect against false confessions. Texas law does not require recording interrogations . 25 % of the exonerations in the U.S. revealed through DNA testing involved a false confession .

3rd, use of informant testimony is largely unregulated in Texas.

Although in 2009 Texas began to require corroborating evidence for jailhouse informant testimony, that standard is loosely defined. Further, Texas has not implemented other important safeguards involving greater transparency and pretrial reliability screenings which more fully protect against false testimony. In one study, nearly 50% of wrongful murder convictions involved perjury by a jailhouse snitch or another witness who stood to gain from false testimony. (Professor Gross study, p. 39)

4th, pervasive flaws have been identified in the analysis of presentation of forensic evidence that result in unreliable results. In a study of DNA exonerations , the prosecution provided invalid forensic testimony in 60% of the cases, that is, testimony that misstated the data or was not supported by the data. (Garrett and Neufeld, p. 41) The National Academy of Sciences recently issued a broad critique of the nation's forensic system. The risk of wrongful conviction due to faulty forensic science at the is, standing alone, constitutionally intolerable.

5th, pretrial discovery procedures are inadequate to safeguard against the prosecution's suppression of evidence favorable to the accused.

A survey of published capital cases in Texas documented state misconduct in 41 capital convictions. (Texas Defender Service, p. 48)

6th, Texas prosecutors in Harris County and elsewhere have a shameful history of excluding African Americans from juries. Although this practice has been illegal for more than a century, recent research shows that discrimination in jury selection increases the risk of wrongful convictions by reducing the thoroughness and accuracy of jury deliberations.

Texas routinely fails to provide competent counsel and adequate defense funding in state habeas corpus proceedings. Extensive research, and a State Bar Task Force have all reached this conclusion. In almost 40% of state habeas cases, the petitions did not include any materials beyond the existing record, a clear indication of a lack of investigation.

The Texas clemency procedure lacks most elements of a sufficient clemency review and fails in its role as the last safeguard against executing the innocent. For example, Claude Jones was executed in 2000 based on false evidence. During the clemency review, then-Governor Bush was not informed that Mr. Jones had requested DNA testing that might have exonerated him. Ten years after Mr. Jones' execution, a DNA test showed that the hair sample at the crime scene was not his.

All 3 branches of Texas government have created entities to review issues in the criminal justice system based on the risk of error:

•In 2005, the Texas legislature created and Governor Rick Perry signed legislation creating the Texas Forensic Science Commission .

•By executive order, Governor Rick Perry created the Criminal Justice Advisory Council .

•In 2008, the highest criminal court in Texas, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, created a Criminal Justice Integrity Unit .

•In 2009, the legislature created and the governor approved the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions .

But virtually nothing has been done to reduce the most prevalent causes of wrongful convictions Innocent people can and do get sentenced to death in Texas. Action by the courts and legislature to address these serious problems is long overdue.

Source: Dallas Morning News, December 3, 2010