On Halloween, Gov. Rick Perry will preside over his 250th execution when Donnie Roberts is put to death by lethal injection. Execution Watch will broadcast coverage and commentary.
RADIO SHOW PREVIEW EXECUTION WATCH Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast live: Wed., Oct. 31, 2012, 6-7 PM Central Time KPFT FM Houston 90.1, and Online... http://executionwatch.org > Listen Join the discussion on Facebook: Execution Watch
TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE: DONNIE ROBERTS, condemned for the 2003 murder of his live-in girlfriend. Roberts’ appeal included his claim that the judge should have let a
defense expert testify that his combined use of alcohol and drugs
had fueled the crime. Background:www.executionwatch.org > Backpage on Roberts.
SHOW LINEUP Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His HMS radio show broadcasts each Wednesday at 2 p.m.: hmsnetradio.org.
Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON,
a legal educator, retired attorney and native Texan who has seen
capital trials from both the prosecution and defense tables. Joining him
will be Houston criminal defense attorneys SUSAN ASHLEY and LARRY DOUGLAS.
Featured Interview: SCOTT COBB, director
of the Texas Moratorium Network. He has organized lobby days, conducted
grassroots training, drafted anti-death penalty legislation and led
protests against capital punishment. Cobb is a principle organizer of
the annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, scheduled for Nov. 3 in
Austin. www.texasmoratorium.org
Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: PROF. DENNIS LONGMIRE, who teaches criminal justice at Sam Houston State University.
Reporter, Hanging-Tree Protest, Houston: GLORIA RUBAC, founder and leader, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement,abolitionmovement.org.
Reporter, Vigil, Houston: DAVE ATWOOD, founder and former board member, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,ww.tcadp.org.
NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION On Nov. 8, Texas plans to kill MARIO SWAIN. Unless he gets a stay, we will broadcast.
PRODUCER: Elizabeth, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com. STUDIO ENGINEER: Doyle. THEME: By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International,myspace.com/shemonster
We are all here today because at our cores, we know that murder is wrong. And, when I say murder, I mean all types of murder; which includes state sanctioned killings. Life …is precious and …a God given right; period! No ifs ands or buts about it! Further, everyone is entitled to it: young or old, Male or female, Black or White, rich or poor, straight or gay, upstanding citizen or convict. It makes no difference who you are, where you live or what you do, we are ALL equal in the fact that we have the basic right to EXIST!
Now, I have done quite a bit of traveling in my short life, and there really is no place like home; but sometimes I am ashamed to tell people that I live in Texas. There is a stigma to it, and I am often looked upon as a barbarian because Texas leads the nation in state sanctioned MURDER. The death penalty definitely casts a shadow on Texas! It CASTS A SHADOW ON DEMOCRACY! And it casts a shadow on our humanity, and our reputation as caring individuals.
As a kid, I feel as though I am being lied to in school because I have been taught that we have a government for the people by the people. What they should really say is we have a government that enslaves the poor and underprivileged. They should say we have the best law makers and politicians that money can buy! They should say we have a system that makes slaves of its citizens! They should say we have allowed the government the power to kill with no consequence!
Now, what we should say…No More! We should say equality! We should say Justice not Injustice! We should say qualified law-makers for Texas, not the most popular candidate! We should say no more slavery! We should say no more killing! - And we should scream…Education!
Because…Education is the key to abolition! Therefore, we need to target “our future”… our children. We also need to target future lawyers, politicians, and judges…and we need to start while they are in school, and while they have the drive and the means to do the necessary research. The truth about Injustice is out there, it just needs to be found and brought out into the light.
You can make a difference by teaching your children right from wrong. You can make a difference by teaching your children that ALL LIFE is precious! You can make a difference by teaching the fact that we are all children of God and that we all have a place in the world! You can teach mercy and forgiveness in place of hatred and vengeance!
KADP members challenge each and every one of you to do that! So how about it? Will you share the truth? Will you teach abolition? Will you teach humanity?
We are getting closer and closer to Universal Abolition, but I’d like Texas to lead the way. Wouldn’t you?
So let’s tell the politicians right now what we want! What do we want? Abolition! When do we want it? NOW
Special guests this year included 6 exonerated former death row prisoners Shujaa Graham, Ron Keine, Gary Drinkard, Curtis McCarty, Albert Burrell and Greg Wilhoit. Curtis spent 21 years in prison – including 19 years on death row – in Oklahoma for a crime he did not commit. Shujaa spent 3 years on death row in California for a crime he did not commit. Ron spent two years on death row in New Mexico for a crime he did not commit. Gary spent almost 6 years on death row in Alabama for a crime he did not commit. Albert spent 13 years on death row in Louisiana for a crime he did not commit. Greg spent five years on death row in Oklahoma for a crime he did not commit.
Also speaking was Ron Carlson, whose sister Deborah Ruth Carlson Davis Thornton and Jerry Lynn Dean were murdered in Houston with a pick-ax by Karla Faye Tucker and Daniel Ryan Garrett. Ron opposes the death pealty and witnessed Tucker’s execution in Huntsville at her request. Other speakers will be announced later.
Elizabeth Gilbert also spoke at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty at 2 PM on October 30th at the Texas Capitol in Austin. She is a Houston teacher and playwright who befriended Texas death row prisoner Todd Willingham. Her story is featured in the New Yorker article by David Grann about the case as well at the Frontline Documentary “Death by Fire”. Elizabeth actively investigated the case on her own. She became convinced of Todd’s innocence and was instrumental in helping his family find an expert fire investigator to examine his case.
Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner also spoke. She is a French national married to Hank Skinner, who is on Texas death row and is seeking to have DNA tested that could prove his innocence.
On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Hank Skinner to determine if he may seek testing of DNA evidence through a civil rights lawsuit. If he is not allowed to test the DNA evidence, then Texas may execute an innocent person. Hank Skinner received a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court on March 25, 2010 only hours before his scheduled execution.
Bill Pelke also spoke. Bill recently authored a book entitled Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing, which details the May 14, 1985 murder of his grandmother Ruth Pelke, a Bible teacher, by four teenage girls. Paula Cooper who was deemed to be the ringleader was sentenced to die in the electric chair by the state of Indiana. She was fifteen-years-old at the time of the murder
Pelke originally support the sentence of death for Cooper, but went through a spiritual transformation in 1986 after praying for love and compassion for Paula Cooper and her family. He became involved in an international crusade on Paula's behalf and in 1989 after over 2 million people from Italy signed petitions and Pope John Paul II’s request for mercy, Paula was taken off of death row and her sentence commuted to sixty years.
Bud Welch was also a speaker. In April 1995, Bud Welch’s 23 year old daughter was killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In the months after her death, he changed from supporting the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh to taking a public stand against it. His change of heart was inspired in part by Julie Marie herself. Once, while listening to a radio report on an execution in Texas, she had turned to him and said, “Dad, that makes me sick. All those Texans are doing is teaching all the children down there to hate. The murderer did wrong, but now the government has stooped to his level.”
Bud eventually arranged to meet with Timothy McVeigh’s father, Bill. “I saw a deep pain in a father’s eye, but also an incredible love for his son.” Bud says, “I was able to tell him that I truly understood the pain that he was going through, and that he – as I – was a victim of what happened in Oklahoma City.”
Rodrick Reed, brother of Texas Death Row prisoner Rodney Reed also spoke. Rodney and his family are fighting to prove his innocence in the 1996 strangling of 19-year-old Stacey Stites in Bastrop County. Rodney’s case is a troubling mixture of prosecutorial misconduct, police corruption, poor defense, and institutional racism.
Terri Been also spoke. She is the sister of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties for a murder committed by someone else. Jeff never killed anyone. He was sitting in a car outside of a convenience store when someone else went inside and killed someone. Jeff did not know that the other person planned to rob or kill anyone, but Jeff was sentence to death because of the Texas Law of Parties. Terri successfully lobbied the Texas House of Representatives in 2009 to pass a bill to ban the execution of people convicted under the Law of Parties. The bill passed the House, but was killed in the Texas Senate after Governor Rick Perry threatened to veto it if it was approved.
Delia Perez Meyer also spoke. She has been fighting for years to prove the innocence of and to save the life of her brother Louis Castro Perez who is on death row in Texas. Delia is a Commissioner on the Austin Human Rights Commission. She is a member of the board of directors of Texas Moratorium Network. She also works closely with the Journey of Hope … from Violence to Healing, CEDP-Austin and many other anti-death penalty organizations.
Nick Been of Kids Against the Death Penalty also spoke. KADP is an organization formed initially by nephews of Jeff Wood, a person on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone. In February 2010, members of KADP traveled as invited speakers to Geneva, Switzerland for the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty.
Lawrence Foster, grandfather of Kenneth Foster, Jr also spoke. Kenneth's death sentence under the Law of Parties was commuted by Rick Perry in 2007.
Minister Robert Muhammad also spoke.
Brit Schulte of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Denton chapter read a letter from Rob Will, who is on Texas death row.
“This is fast becoming one of the biggest anti-death penalty events in the country. I’ll be there“, said death row exoneree Ron Keine.
Each October since 2000, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries have taken a day out of their year and gathered in Austin to raise their voices together and loudly express their opposition to the death penalty. The march is a coming together of activists, family members of people on death row, community leaders, exonerated prisoners and all those calling for repeal of the Texas death penalty.
The annual march is organized as a joint project by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations: Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Death Penalty Free Austin, and Kids Against the Death Penalty.
This is the video of Eugenia Willingham that we played on the giant Jumbotron at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. She is Todd's mother. She reads a part of a letter that Todd Willingham wrote to her talking about abolishing the death penalty.
Texas Moratorium Network's Scott Cobb drove to Ardmore, Oklahoma on Sunday, October 24 to visit with Todd's family and record the message. The video was edited and played on the jumbotron by Hooman Hedayati.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- The state will end a more than two-month hiatus in executions Thursday by putting to death Larry Wooten of Paris, Texas, whose claim of mental retardation was credible enough for the state Court of Criminal Appeals to grant him a retrial.
Execution Watch will broadcast the details live at 6 p.m. Central Time on KPFT HD2-Houston, streaming at executionwatch.org, with reporter Gloria Rubac outside the death house, legal analyst Jim Skelton in the studio and a featured interview with Scott Cobb, an organizer of the upcoming March to Abolish the Death Penalty.
RADIO PROGRAM PREVIEW
EXECUTION WATCH
Oct. 21, 2010, Thurs., 6-7 pm Central Time
Listen on KPFT's HD2 channel, 90.1 FM Houston, or …
Go to www.executionwatch. org at 6 p.m. Central Time, click on “Listen.”
SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED
LARRY WOOTEN was sentenced to death in 1998 at age 39 following his conviction in the robbery-murders of an elderly couple in Paris, Texas, who’d hired him as a handyman. The state's highest criminal court in 2004 granted him a new trial on his claim that could not be executed because he is mentally retarded. The trial, held in the same Lamar County District Court where he had been convicted and sentenced to death, found that he was not retarded. The last execution in Texas was Aug. 17. (More at www.executionwatch.org > Backpage on Larry Wooten.)
SHOW LINEUP
Host: RAY HILL is an ex-convict who has lost many friends to the death chamber. His civil rights activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also host-founder of the Prison Show, now in its 31st year, (www.theprisonshow.org.)
Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a retired attorney and native Texan, contributes to the profession by teaching weekly continuing education seminars in appellate law. He has worked as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney in capital cases.
Featured Interview: SCOTT COBB, president of the Texas Moratorium Network and an organizer of the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, planned for Oct. 30 in Austin. His anti-death penalty activism has included organizing lobby days, conducting grassroots training, drafting anti-death penalty legislation and putting together numerous other protests. He has lobbied every Texas legislature since 2001 to declare a moratorium on the death penalty. (More at http://marchforabolition.org)
Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, a leader of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, she is also an organizer of the Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty (more at http://abolitionmovement.org).
Reporter, Vigil: TBA.
NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
Dec. 1 – six days after Thanksgiving, two weeks before Christmas -- Texas is to execute STEVEN STALEY. Execution Watch will broadcast (see http://executionwatch.org).
PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Otis Maclay, omaclay @gmail.com.
THEME MUSIC: “Death by Texas,” Victoria Panetti, www.myspace. com/shemonster
