Todd Willingham's Friend Elizabeth Gilbert to Speak at 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Elizabeth Gilbert will be one of the speakers 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" (Click to watch online). If it were not for Elizabeth's involvement in the case, in addition to Todd's family, Todd Willingham's innocence likely would never have come to light. Anyone who hears Elizabeth's story will know that it is indeed possible to make a difference in the world if you only take the time and make the effort.

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. The investigator found no evidence for arson and sent a report to Governor Rick Perry. However, the State failed to halt Willingham’s execution in 2004. Further arson investigations have also found no evidence for arson.
Frontline has an interview on their website with Elizabeth. Below is an excerpt in which she talks about her meeting with Todd's former wife Stacy:

Can you describe your meeting with Stacy?

Stacy came in, and I felt that she was very genuine, and I think this was the first time she had really talked to anybody outside [of the official investigation]. ... But to me [she] was just like, "Oh, sure, I'll meet you; I'll tell you this is the truth." ... I told her I was a writer; I'm from Houston. I interviewed her; I taped her. And she seemed kind of reserved, nervous, just a person who had a lot of tragedy in her life.

I had heard from Todd that her mother had been murdered, and she had been there. So it seemed like her life had been filled with tragedy, ... and she seemed genuinely to feel Todd had not done this. ... She really convinced me that she felt that an injustice had been done. … She didn't feel like he was capable of doing that.

So you believe Stacy told the truth?

Yes, I really do.

Do you remember how she said it?

… She cried, and I just remember her saying, "Todd is not capable of doing that," just acknowledging that he loved his children. I sensed this very pained individual. ... After the conviction, and after Todd was on death row, Stacy decided to get a divorce. She didn't visit him on death row.

The annual march is a joint project organized 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. Other sponsors include Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing.

Death Row Exoneree Albert Burrell to Attend 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Albert Burrell, an innocent man who spent 13 years on death row in Louisiana, will be a special guest at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on October 30 at the Texas Capitol in Austin at 2 PM. He will join exonerees Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine, Derrick Jamison and Greg Wilhoit at the march. Albert is coming courtesy of Witness to Innocence.

After spending 13 years on death row, Albert Burrell was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on January 3, 2001, shortly after the Louisiana Attorney General dismissed charges against him and his co-defendant, Michael Graham. They had been sentenced to death in 1987 for the murder of an elderly couple. Their convictions were thrown out because of a lack of physical evidence and suspect witness testimony used at trial. Albert came within 17 days of a scheduled execution in 1996 before his attorneys won a stay. Prosecutor Dan Grady acknowledged that the case was weak and “should never have been brought to [the] grand jury” to begin with.

During the trial, prosecutors withheld key information from the defense, failed to produce any physical evidence, and relied only on witness testimony, which has since been discredited. Dismissing the charges, the attorney general's office cited a “total lack of credible evidence” and stated, “Prosecutors would deem it a breach of ethics to proceed to trial.” DNA tests later proved that blood found at the victims’ home did not belong to Albert or Michael Graham. The trial attorneys appointed to defend Albert were later disbarred for other reasons.

Upon his release, Albert was issued a denim jacket several sizes too large and a $10 check for transportation. He climbed into his stepsister Estelle's pickup truck and rode to her small ranch in East Texas. Maintaining his innocence, Albert said, "I didn't have nothing to do with that," referring to the crime.

Albert currently lives and works in Center, Texas, and since his release has been active in the movement against the death penalty with other exonerated former death row prisoners.

The annual march is organized by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Death Penalty Free Austin, and Kids Against the Death Penalty.

Death Row Exoneree Derrick Jamison to Attend 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 30 in Austin

Derrick Jamison, an innocent man who spent 17 years on death row in Ohio, will be a special guest at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on October 30 at the Texas Capitol in Austin at 2 PM. He will join exonerees Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine and Greg Wilhoit at the march. He is coming courtesy of Witness to Innocence.

Recently four exonerated death-row inmates (Ray Krone, Derrick Jamison, Shujaa Graham and Ron Keine) went to Santiago, Spain to film a TV commercial featuring Coca-Cola's sports drink Aquarius. They filmed for 6 days, sometimes for 18 hrs a day for these few seconds of air time. Coca-Cola says that their message reached hundreds of millions of people in Spain, Central, and South America. Three of the exonerees featured in the commercial will now be at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on October 30 at 2 PM at the Texas Capitol in Austin.

Click here to watch the 1 minute 31 second version on YouTube.



More about Derrick Jamison:

When James Suggs, an eyewitness to the robbery and murder of a Cincinnati bartender, was shown photo arrays of suspects by police, he identified two men—but neither of them was Derrick Jamison. There were also multiple contradictions between physical descriptions of the perpetrators given by witnesses and Derrick’s actual appearance. This information was withheld from Jamison’s trial, and as a result, an innocent man spent nearly 20 years on Ohio’s death row for a crime he did not commit.

In February 2005, Ohio Common Pleas Judge Richard Niehaus dismissed all charges against Derrick after his conviction was overturned three years earlier. Jamison was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 based largely on the testimony of Charles Howell, a co-defendant whose own sentence was reduced in exchange for testimony against Derrick.
Statements were withheld that contradicted Howell’s testimony, undermined the prosecution’s explanation for the death, and ultimately would have incriminated other suspects for the murder. Two federal courts ruled that the prosecution's actions denied Derrick a fair trial.

Today, Derrick is fully aware of the inequality of the criminal justice system. “There is a double standard when it comes to justice in our judicial system, especially with wrongful conviction,” he says. “If you are a minority or a low-income citizen, the pursuit of justice can be an elusive one. But if you are rich it happens overnight.”

Although his resentment towards the system is subsiding, Derrick continues to express anger about how the 17 years he spent on death row impacted his life and the lives of his family members. At the time of sentencing, he was incredibly troubled because of his unjust imprisonment. “I was very angry, furious and distraught. . . all the emotions that stir up anguish. It made me feel it was over for me. Not only did that sentence affect me, it was the demise of my mother and father.”

Derrick currently lives in Cincinnati, where he expresses daily gratitude for his release. “In the 21 years I experienced ‘dead man walking’ I never had anything to smile about,” he says, “but on that day, I felt the smile come from within my heart. The sun shone down on me that day.”

The annual march is organized by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Death Penalty Free Austin, and Kids Against the Death Penalty.

Today is the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin at 2 PM at the Texas Capitol

Today! October 24, 2009 at 2 PM

Austin, Texas

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

Three innocent, exonerated former death row prisoners will be among the special guests today at the Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 24, 2009 at 2 PM in Austin, Texas at the Texas Capitol on the South Steps at 11th and Congress. Also attending will be the penpal of Todd Willingham, Elizabeth Gilbert, who first investigated his innocence. Plus, Todd’s last lawyer Walter Reaves. Please attend the march to support the Willingham family as they fight to prove that Todd Willingham was innocent.

Speakers and other confirmed attendees at the march will include three innocent, now-exonerated death row prisoners (Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty and Ron Keine), Jeff Blackburn (Chief Counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas), Jeanette Popp (a mother whose daughter was murdered but who asked the DA not to seek the death penalty), Elizabeth Gilbert (the penpal of Todd Willingham who first pushed his innocence and helped his family find a fire expert to investigate), Walter Reaves (the last attorney for Todd Willingham, who fought for him through the execution and continues to fight to exonerate him), Terri Been whose brother Jeff Wood is on death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone, and Anna Terrell the mother of Reginald Blanton who is scheduled for execution in Texas on Oct 27 three days after the march, plus others to be announced.

The march starts at 2 PM on October 24 at the Texas Capitol. We will gather at the Texas Capitol at the gates leading into the Capitol on the sidewalk at 11th Street, march down Congress Avenue to 6th street, then back to the South Steps of the Capitol for a rally to abolish the death penalty.

Panel Discussion: The night before the march, there will be a panel discussion on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin at 7 PM with Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty. (Thank you to Bill Pelke and the Journey of Hope for helping bring them to Austin for the march.) Shujaa and Curtis will speak about what it is like to be innocent and sentenced to death. The panel is in the Sinclair Suite (room 3.128) of the Texas Student Union on Guadalupe. Call if you need more directions 512-552-4743.

Post-march Strategy Meeting: Immediately after the march on October 24, we plan to hold a networking and strategy meeting inside the capitol. Everyone is invited to attend the strategy session and help us plan how to move forward towards abolition in Texas. The strategy session will start about 30 minutes after the last speaker at the march.

Now is one of the most critical times ever to march against the death penalty.

We just learned from a state-funded report that Texas executed Todd Willingham for arson/murder even though the fire was not arson it was just a fire, so Texas executed an innocent person.

From today's Waco Herald Tribune:

Rally scheduled for Corsicana man executed in 2004 in arson case

Saturday, October 24, 2009

By Cindy V. CulpTribune-Herald staff writer

The case of a Corsicana man executed in 2004 for arson murder will be at the center of an anti-death penalty rally today at the Texas Capitol.

Local attorney Walter M. Reaves Jr., who represented Cameron Todd Willingham during the final part of his appeals process, planned to attend the 10th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, along with four people who were exonerated after being on death row. The event is being organized by a number of groups that oppose the death penalty.

As part of the event, activists plan to deliver a petition to Gov. Rick Perry that urges him to say that the 1991 fire that killed Willingham’s three young daughters was not arson, said Scott Cobb, president of the Texas Moratorium Network. It will also ask for Texas executions to be suspended and for Perry to appoint an impartial body to examine the state’s death penalty system, he said.

Willingham’s case, and the role Perry has played in the execution and subsequent investigation into whether it was flawed, has been in the national spotlight. Attention started mounting earlier this month after Perry abruptly replaced four people on the nine-member Texas Forensic Science Commission, including its chairman.

The upheaval came shortly before the commission was set to hear a report from a fire expert hired by the panel. That expert said the arson finding was not scientifically supported, giving further weight to those who say the Willingham case offers the first credible proof of wrongful execution in modern U.S. history.

Reaves said he was initially reluctant to participate in the rally because it could detract from the facts of Willingham’s individual case. He decided to attend, however, because it is another forum to continue pressing Willingham’s case and rebut arguments from the governor’s office, he said.

Also highlighted at the rally will be the cases of four people who spent time on death row before being exonerated.

If Texans take time to listen to people who have wrongly faced execution, public opinion of the practice will change, Cobb said.

“We tell the actual facts about the death penalty, and the fact is that innocent people get convicted and get sentenced to death. And, in some cases, they are not able to prove their innocence before they are executed,” Cobb said.

For more information about the rally or petition, go online to www.camerontoddwillingham.com.

The Daily Texan: March Against the Death Penalty

The following is Hooman Hedayati's column in today's The Daily Texan about the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Would you oppose the death penalty if it were proven that Texas has executed an innocent man? If so, remember this name: Cameron Todd Willingham. He was innocent and Texas executed him. There are plenty of executed death-row inmates with strong claims of innocence, such as David Spence, Ruben Cantu, Carlos De Luna and Gary Graham. But the state of Texas has never admitted to killing an innocent person. Willingham’s case could become the first case in which the state of Texas will have to admit that it made
a mistake.

Willingham was executed for arson and murder in 2004. He professed his innocence until he was strapped down on the execution gurney, saying “I am an innocent man — convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do.”

Now, we know that he was telling the truth. In August, Craig Beyler, the investigator hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to review the Willingham case, released his report in which he found that “a finding of arson could not be sustained” by a scientific analysis. He concluded that the fire in the Willingham case was accidental and not arson. In fact, there was no arson, so there was no crime.

David Grann wrote a 16,000-word article for The New Yorker in which he discredited all the evidence used to convict and sentence Willingham. Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project said, “After reading Grann’s report, fair-minded people will know beyond a reasonable doubt that an innocent person was executed.”

The proven execution of an innocent person should have resulted in a call by Gov. Rick Perry for a statewide moratorium on executions and a commission to conduct a comprehensive study of the Texas death penalty system. But shortly before a scheduled Texas Forensic Science Commission meeting to discuss this case, in a move that looks like an election-year cover-up, Perry replaced several members of the commission with his own political allies, including John Bradley, a tough-on-crime Williamson County defense attorney, as chairman. Bradley canceled the public hearing indefinitely, leaving the investigation in limbo.

Scott Cobb, director of the Texas Moratorium Network, said, “No matter how things turn out, people are looking at the death penalty in a new light. They’re thinking if it could have happened to Willingham, then it could happen to many other people.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 2006 that in the modern judicial system there has not been “a single case — not one — in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent’s name would be shouted from the rooftops.”

This Saturday, at the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries will gather at the Texas Capitol to raise their voices and shout out Todd Willingham’s name. The march is a gathering of activists, exonerated inmates and family members of the victims and those on death row.

Eugenia Willingham, mother of Todd Willingham, will be among the special guests at the march on Saturday at 2 p.m. on the South Steps of the Capitol.

On Friday, students can also join a panel discussion with exonerated death-row inmates Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty (7 p.m. in the Texas Union’s Sinclair Suite, Room 3.128).

I encourage everyone to attend the march to support the Willingham family as they fight to prove that Todd Willingham was innocent.

For more information and to sign a petition, visit camerontoddwillingham.com and marchforabolition.org.

Hedayati is a government and Middle Eastern studies senior and member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty Promo Video

The first official 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty promotional video is made by the Austin CEDP's Cartel Pagel.

www.MarchforAbolition.org

Planning Meeting For 10th Annual March Against the Death Penalty in Texas!

Wednesday, July 29th at 7pm
Carver Library, Room 4, in Austin

The March to Stop Executions has been held each October since 2000 in cooperation with several Texas and national anti-death penalty organizations. It is a coming together of activists, family members of those on death row, community leaders, exonerated prisoners and all those calling for abolition. This year’s march is slated for Saturday, October 24th in Austin, Texas. Join us for the initial planning meeting for this year's 10th annual march.

Bring your ideas on how to make this year’s event a huge success!

Whether you're a seasoned fighter for social justice or new to activism altogether, you have an important role to play in this grassroots show of participatory democracy in action!

If you belong to an organization interested in sponsoring the march, or if you have any questions, please contact laura @ 512.638.0403 or e-mail @ lauraebrady@hotmail.com

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RALLY FOR THE YOGURT SHOP DEFENDANTS!
Drop ALL charges in the Yogurt Shop Case!

Saturday, August 8, at 4:00pm - 5:30pm
Travis County District Attorney's Office (11th and Guadalupe St.)

Riddled with coercion, false confessions and a lack of evidence, the Yogurt Shop Murders case stands as an embarrassment to Texans, fully exposing the problems plaguing our justice system. New DNA evidence has exonerated Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, and after a decade-long struggle, they are finally home on personal recognizance bonds.

Despite this new evidence, the Travis County District Attorney insists on pursuing prosecution. After numerous push backs, their trial has now been set for August 12th.

Grassroots organizing and community support have played a critical role in bringing these men home. We thank you for your support throughout the years and call on you now to stand with us Saturday, August 8th at 4 PM outside the Travis County District Attorney’s Office in support of Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen.

We must demand an end to this injustice once and for all! Austinites are tired of the legal charade these men and their families have been dragged through and have made their demands clear: “Free the Yogurt Shop Defendants and Drop ALL charges in the Yogurt Shop case NOW!”

Press Advisory: The 9th Annual March to End Executions

PRESS ADVISORY

October 24, 2008

Contacts: Gloria Rubac 713-503-2633

Dan Sharber 713-560-7227

The 9^th Annual March to End Executions to Focus on the Flaws of the Death Penalty in Texas; Exoneree Clarence Brandley to Speak along with Several Death Row Families

Hundreds of death penalty opponents will gather in Houston on Saturday, October 25, for the 9^th Annual March to End Executions. The march will kick off at 2:00 pm with a pre-rally at the S.H.A.P.E. Center’s Harambee building at 3903 Almeda.

The 2008 march will be lead by a new organization—Kids Against the Death Penalty (KADP) followed by the S.H.A.P.E. Center Council of Elders. Participants will be traveling from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley. The Free Radicals Marching Band will accompany the march down Alabama Street.

The featured speaker at the main rally at S.H.A.P.E.'s "Our Park," 3815 Live Oak, will be Clarence Brandley who was released after almost 10 years of wrongful confinement on death row. The S.H.A.P.E. Center was the home of the Coalition to Free Clarence Brandley, which launched a public campaign to win Brandley’s freedom.

In a 1987 evidentiary hearing, State District Judge Perry Picket recommended that the Court of Criminal Appeals grant Brandley a new trial, declaring: “In the thirty years this court has presided over matters in the judicial system, no case has presented a more shocking scenario of the effects of racial prejudice, perjured testimony, [and] witness intimidation. . . .The continued incarceration of Clarence Lee Brandley under these circumstances is an affront to the basic notion of fairness and justice.”

Another featured speaker will be Connie Wright, the wife of Gregory Wright, scheduled to be executed on October 30 despite evidence of innocence. Also, the family of Jeff Wood will speak. Wood was sent to death row because of the law of parties despite never killing anyone. He received a stay of execution shortly before his August 21 execution date this summer.

This march has been held every year since 2000, a year when then-Governor George Bush was campaigning for the presidency and 40 people were executed.

In 2008, Texas has seen questionable cases involving actual innocence, the law of parties, foreign nationals executed but never given their consular rights and a case of a judge and a D.A. having a secret, long-term romantic affair while trying cases together.

Thus, the theme of this year’s march is: The Death Penalty—Guilty on All Counts! Shut It Down.” Organizers point out that the death penalty targets poor people and people of color, executes innocent people through misconduct and the Law of Parties, and does not deter crime in Texas.

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TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005.

The organizing committee for the 9th Annual Texas March to End Executions will be showing the excellent documentary TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005.

The event will be a fundraiser for the march and there is a $5 suggested donation (though no one will be turned away for lack of funds). Come out and see a good movie and
support a good cause!

When: This Thursday (10/2) @ 8.30pm

Where: Antidote Coffee Shop - 729 Studewood just north of i-10 in the Heights.

Who: You and all your friends!

What: This 66-minute film--TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005--is a powerful documentary that examines death row prisoner, Crips gang co-founder, children's book author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Stanley Tookie Williams.

The international campaign for clemency to save him from death by lethal injection ended on December 13, 2005, at 12:35 a.m. when he was pronounced dead after clemency was denied by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. TRIBUTE includes scenes from a staged reenactment of that execution.

The reenactment--as well as TRIBUTE--were produced and directed by writer Barbara Becnel and producer Shirley Neal, longtime friends of Stanley Tookie Williams. It was based on their real-life experience at San Quentin's death chamber witnessing his botched execution--it took him 35 minutes to die. The two women filmed the staged reenactment,
enabling TRIBUTE to offer a very intimate view of capital punishment.

'We created and staged a play that replicated the execution because we wanted people to see exactly what the State of California does in the middle of the night in the name of the people of the State of California,' explains Barbara Becnel.

TRIBUTE includes provocative eulogies by Snoop Dogg, Tony Robbins and Louis Farrakhan--speaking at the memorial service of Stanley Tookie Williams--and never-before-seen footage of his ashes scattered by Becnel and Neal in Soweto, South Africa. This was his last wish.

Black August Film Tonight -- Benefit for 9th Annual March to Stop Executions

Who: All Invited

What: Movie: "Black August" starring Gary Dourdan as George Jackson

plus special guest, Capital X

When: Friday, August 22, 7:30 PM

Where: SHAPE Community Center, 3815 Live Oak

Why: To commemorate Black August and remember our fallen freedom fighters, George Jackson, Jonathan Jackson, and so many more.

Cost: $5.00--no one turned away for lack of funds. Money raised is for the 9th annual Texas March to Stop Executions on October 25 at 2PM

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Additional Information:

Greetings All:

Today marks the 37th anniversary of the assassination of our beloved Comrade George L. Jackson, aka "Soledad Brother." I'm sending you this article written in 2000 and published in the S.F. Bay View newspaper for your information. The only changes would be the dates and number of years Hugo and Ruchell have now been incarcerated, 44 and 45 years respectively in California gulags. You can find more info at www.hugopinell.org.

Black August 2000: A story of African freedom

Fighters

By Kiilu Nyasha, 23 July 2000

Black August is a month of great significance for Africans throughout the Diaspora, but particularly here in the U.S. where it originated. “August,” as Mumia Abu-Jamal noted, “is a month of meaning, of repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us.”.

On this 21st anniversary of Black August, first organized to honor our fallen freedom fighters, Jonathan and George Jackson, Khatari Gaulden, James McClain, William Christmas, and the sole survivor of the August 7, 1970 Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee, it is still a time to embrace the principles of unity, self-sacrifice, political education, physical fitness and/or training in martial arts, resistance, and spiritual renewal.. xo

The concept, Black August, grew out of the need to expose to the light of day the glorious and heroic deeds of those Afrikan women and men who recognized and struggled against the injustices heaped upon people of color on a daily basis in America.

One cannot tell the story of Black August without first providing the reader with a brief glimpse of the “Black Movement” behind California prison walls in the Sixties, led by George Jackson and W. L. Nolen, among others.

As Jackson wrote: “...when I was accused of robbing a gas station of $70, I accepted a deal...but when time came for sentencing, they tossed me into the penitentiary with one to life. It was 1960. I was 18 years old.... I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels, and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me. For the first four years I studied nothing but economics and military ideas. I met black guerrillas, George ’Big Jake’ Lewis, and James Carr, W.L. Nolen, Bill Christmas, Torry Gibson, and many, many others.

We attempted to transform the Black criminal mentality into a black revolutionary mentality. As a result, each of us has been subject to years of the most vicious reactionary violence by the state. Our mortality rate is almost what you would expect to find in a history of Dachau. Three of us [Nolen, Sweet Jugs Miller, and Cleve Edwards) were murdered several months ago [Jan. 13, 1969] by a pig shooting from thirty feet above their heads with a military rifle.” (Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson)

When the brothers first demanded the killer guard be tried for murder, they were rebuffed. Upon their insistence, the administration held a kangaroo court and three days later returned a verdict of “justifiable homicide.”. Shortly afterward, a white guard was found beaten to death and thrown from a tier. Six days later, three prisoners were accused of murder, and became known as The Soledad Brothers.

“I am being tried in court right now with two other brothers. John Clutchette and Fleeta Drumgo, for the alleged slaying of a prison guard. This charge carries an automatic death penalty for me. I can’t get life. I already have it.”

On August 7, 1970, just a few days after George was transferred to San Quentin, his younger brother Jonathan Jackson, 17, invaded Marin County Courthouse single-handed, with a satchel full of handguns, an assault rifle and a shotgun hidden under his raincoat. “Freeze,” he commanded as he tossed guns to William Christmas, James McClain, and Ruchell Magee. Magee was on the witness stand testifying for McClain, on trial for assaulting a guard in the wake of a guard’s murder of another Black prisoner, Fred Billingsley, beaten and tear gassed to death.

A jailhouse lawyer, Magee had deluged the courts with petitions for seven years contesting his illegal conviction in ’63. The courts had refused to listen, so Magee seized the hour and joined the guerrillas as they took the judge, prosecutor and three jurors hostage to a waiting van. To reporters gathering quickly outside the courthouse, Jonathan shouted, “You can take our pictures. We are the revolutionaries!”

Operating with courage and calm even their enemies had to respect, the four Black freedom fighters commandeered their hostages out of the courthouse without a hitch. The plan was to use the hostages to take over a radio station and broadcast the racist, murderous prison conditions and demand the immediate release of The Soledad Brothers. But before Jonathan could drive the van out of the parking lot, the San Quentin guards arrived and opened fire. When the shooting stopped, Jonathan, Christmas, McClain and the judge lay dead. Magee and the prosecutor were critically wounded, and one juror suffered a minor arm wound.

Magee survived his wounds and was tried originally with co-defendant Angela Davis. Their trials were later severed and Davis was eventually acquitted of all charges. Magee was convicted of simple kidnap and remains in prison to date—37 years with no physical assaults on his record. An incredible jailhouse lawyer, Magee has been responsible for countless prisoners being released—the main reason he was kept for nearly 20 years in one lockup after another. He is currently at Corcoran State Prison, having been recently transferred from Pelican Bay, remains strong and determined to win his freedom and that of all oppressed peoples.

In his second book, Blood In My Eye, published posthumously, Jackson noted: “Reformism is an old story in Amerika. There have been depressions and socio-economic political crises throughout the period that marked the formation of the present upper-class ruling circle, and their controlling elites. But the parties of the left were too committed to reformism to exploit their revolutionary potential....Fascism has temporarily succeeded under the guise of reform.”

Those words ring even truer today as we witness a form of fascism that has replaced gas ovens with executions and torture chambers; plantations with prison industrial complexes deployed in rural white communities to perpetuate white supremacy and Black/Brown slavery.

The concentration of wealth at the top is worse than ever: One percent now owns more wealth than that of the combined 95% of the U.S. population; individuals are so rich their wealth exceeds the total budgets of numerous nations—as they plunder the globe in the quest for more.

“The fascist must expand to live. Consequently he has pushed his frontiers to the farthest lands and peoples.... I’m going to bust my heart trying to stop these smug, degenerate, primitive, omnivorous, uncivil—and anyone who would aid me, I embrace you.”

“International capitalism cannot be destroyed without the extremes of struggle...We are the only ones...who can get at the monster’s heart without subjecting the world to nuclear fire. We have a momentous historical role to act out if we will. The whole world for all time in the future will love us and remember us as the righteous people who made it possible for the world to live on.... I don’t want to die and leave a few sad songs and a hump in the ground as my only monument. I want to leave a world that is liberated from trash, pollution, racism, nation-states, nation-state wars and armies, from pomp, bigotry, parochialism, a thousand different brands of untruth, and licentious, usurious economics.” (Soledad Brother)

On August 21, 1971, after numerous failed attempts on his life, the State finally succeeded in assassinating George Jackson, then Field Marshall of the Black Panther Party, in what was described by prison officials as an escape attempt in which Jackson allegedly smuggled a gun into San Quentin in a wig. That feat was proven impossible, and evidence subsequently suggested a setup designed by prison officials to eliminate Jackson once and for all.

However, they didn’t count on losing any of their own in the process. On that fateful day, three notoriously racist prison guards and two inmate turnkeys were also killed. Jackson was shot and killed by guards as he drew fire away from the other prisoners in the Adjustment Center (lockup) of San Quentin.

Subsequently, six A/C prisoners were singled out and put on trial -- wearing 30 lbs of chains in Marin courthouse—for various charges of murder and assault: Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo L.A. Pinell (Yogi), Luis Talamantez, Johnny Spain, and Willie Sundiata Tate. Only one was convicted of murder, Johnny Spain. The others were either acquitted or convicted of assault. Pinell is the only one remaining in prison and has suffered prolonged torture in lockups since 1969. He is currently serving his 10th year in Pelican Bay’s SHU, a torture chamber if ever there was one. A true warrior, Pinell would put his life on the line to defend his fellow captives.

As decades passed, our Black scholars, like Mumia Abu-Jamal, learned of other liberation moves that happened in Black August. E.g., the first and only armed revolution whereby Africans freed themselves from chattel slavery commenced on August 21, 1791 in Haiti. Nat Turner’s slave rebellion began on August 21, 1831 (coincidence?), and Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad started in August. As Mumia stated, “Their sacrifice, their despair, their determination and their blood has painted the month Black for all time.”

Let us honor our martyred freedom fighters as George Jackson counseled: “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution”

8th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston, Texas

Saturday, October 27th, 2007
Houston, Texas

The March to Stop Executions has been held each October since 2000 in cooperation with several Texas and national anti-death penalty organizations, including Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.

The first march was called the "March on the Mansion" and was held on October 15, 2000. The second and third marches were called "March for a Moratorium" and were held on October 27, 2001 and October 12, 2002. In 2003, the march name changed to "March to Stop Executions". Clarence Brandley, who had been exonerated and released from death row in 1990 after spending nine years there, spoke at the 2003 march, saying "I was always wishing and hoping that someone would just look at the evidence and the facts, because the evidence was clear that I did not commit the crime." The "5th Annual March to Stop Executions" was on October 30, 2004. The "6th Annual March to Stop Executions" was held October 29, 2005 in conjunction with the 2005 National Conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which came to Austin at the invitation of the march organizers.

The "7th Annual March to Stop Executions", which was sponsored by a record number of 50 organizations was held October 28, 2006 and included family members of Carlos De Luna and Cameron Todd Willingham, who both had been the subject of separate investigations by The Chicago Tribune that concluded they were probably innocent people executed by Texas. Standing outside the gates of the Texas Governor's Mansion with hundreds of supporters, the families of Willingham and De Luna delivered separate letters to Governor Perry asking him to stop executions and investigate the cases of Willingham and De Luna to determine if they were wrongfully executed. After DPS troopers refused to take the letters, Mary Arredondo, sister of Carlos De Luna, and Eugenia Willingham, stepmother of Todd, dropped them through the gate of the governor's mansion and left them lying on the walkway leading to the main door.

Video of 8th Annual March to Stop Executions (pt 1)

October 27th 2007, about 500+ people gathered in Houston Texas for the 8th annual march to stop executions. This first clip is excerpts from speakers at Emancipation Park before the march to SHAPE Center.

Source: Houston IndyMedia

Report on the 8th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston

by Gloria Rubec

The organizing committee for the 8th Annual March to Stop Executions thanks everyone who came out yesterday. We feel like we accomplished our goals, educated and motivated activists and energized a new generation for this struggle.

There was a diverse cross section of the Houston community attending the march, which was one of our main goals. For too long the death penalty has been seen as an issue led by a group of very well-intentioned white folks who sometimes have not a clue of the daily realities for the very, very poor, and the African American and Latino communities who are under occupation by the Houston police.

Yesterday shattered that idea because the leaders of this march were from those communities.

This would not have been possible without the months and days and hours and hours of hard work by Ester King, Deloyd Parker, Sherri Clausell, Lee Greenwood, Regina Guidry, Vermila Freenman, Njeri Shakur, Elisha Enard, our young sister, Courtney, and many more.

So many people were involved in making the event a success that I can't mention names. From the web site, to the flyers, to the banners, to the phone calls, to the leafleting, to the emails, to attending and speaking at meetings, to trying to pin down legislators, preachers and community leaders, to generous donations, to organizing transportation from around the state--many people shared the load and did the work. !Muchisimas gracias!

• Hope to see you at the Nov. 6 meeting of the Abolition Movement where we will be having a film and discussion on THE EXECUTION TAPES: GEORGIA'S SECRET AUDIO RECORDINGS OF TWO EXECUTIONS, a film from the July 17, 2007 program of Democracy Now. We will also be planning a fundraiser for Brother Clarence Brandley, making plans for our annual card signing and holdiay treats pot luck on Dec. 4 and our literature / tee shirt table for the first day of KWANZAA on Dec. 26.
• Please sign on the the judicial complaint agianst Judge Sharon "Killer" who told the attorneys for Michael Richard "We close at 5:00." Go to http://www.SharonKiller.com if you have not. You have until Nov. 6 to sign on. Do it now. If you are in the Austin area join the demonstration at Judge "Killer's" home next week.

The Houston Chronicle has a story on yesterday's march/rally, with one picture, in the City/State section of today's paper. Double their numbers and add a few more, cuz we had way more than 200 people!!! Ariel with the UH Sankofa Organization is lookin' serious in the photo.

Five additional photos are also there -- look for the hard-to-find link under "Resources" on that page (next to the camera icon). Great one of Clarence Brandley's sisters, Margaret and Alice!

You can also see photos at Flickr.

I'm sure our friends at Houston Indy Media will have something up before too long. Go to : http://houston.indymedia.org/

The struggle continues!

Pictures from the 2008 March to Stop Executions in Houston

Picture by Mayra Beltran: Chronicle

Alice, left, and Margaret Bradley, right, sisters of former death row inmate Clarence Bradley, chant with marchers at SHAPE Community Center after approximately 200 marchers departing from Emancipation Park walk a mile to SHAPE.

Mayra Beltran: Chronicle

Barbara Hartfield holds a poster of her brother Joshua Maxwell "Moe" who is on death row, as she listens to speakers at SHAPE Community Center after approximately 200 marchers departing from Emancipation Park walk a mile to SHAPE.

For more pictures and Houston Chronicle's article about the march click here.

Today: March to Stop Executions in Houston

Houston Chronicle: Anti-execution march moves to Houston

Houston Chronicle has an article about tomorrow's march to stop executions in Houston. For more directions and march information please visit: www.marchtostopexecution.org

Ex-death row inmates to take on Harris County's sentencing record

By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Former death row inmates Clarence Brandley and Kerry Max Cook will be keynote speakers Saturday at a Houston anti-death penalty march and rally expected to draw protesters from throughout the state and nation.

Normally held in Austin, the march, now in its eighth year, was moved to Houston to protest Harris County juries' record of leading the nation in assessing death sentences, said event organizer Gloria Rubac. Since executions were resumed 25 years ago, 102 killers from Harris County have been executed; 122 remain on death row.

The March to Stop Executions will assemble at 2 p.m. at Emancipation Park, 3018 Dowling, then proceed to SHAPE Center, 3815 Live Oak, for a 3:30 p.m. rally.

The theme of the event is "Celebrating Our Victories, Remembering Our Losses; Continuing the Fight for Abolition!"

Brandley, who was convicted of the August 1980 rape-murder of Cheryl Dee Ferguson, a 16-year-old volleyball player at Conroe High School, spent a decade on death row before prosecutors dropped charges against him. Investigators' failure to compare a Caucasian hair found on Ferguson's body with that of other possible suspects in the case was among presumed irregularities in the case cited by Brandley's advocates.

At the conclusion of an evidentiary hearing in October 1987, state District Judge Perry Picket called on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to grant Brandley a new trial. "The litany of events graphically described by the witnesses, some of it chilling and shocking, leads me to the conclusion the pervasive shadow of darkness has obscured the light of fundamental decency and human rights," he wrote.

After unsuccessfully appealing to stop a new trial, the prosecution dropped charges in October 1990.

Cook spent 22 years on death row after he was convicted of the 1977 rape-murder of Linda Jo Edwards, a Tyler woman. He was tried three times and twice condemned. After he won a new trial in 1993, Cook was freed from prison based on time served after he entered a no contest plea. Months later, DNA linked Edwards' murder to another man.

NYT: National Group with 13,000 Lawyers Files Complaint Against Sharon Keller

The New York Times is reporting today that

on Wednesday, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, with 13,000 members nationwide, said it had just sent a complaint against Judge Keller to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, the first judicial complaint the group had ever filed, said its president, Carmen D. Hernandez, of Washington.

“Whatever else happens in the United States of America, the courts are to remain open to litigants,” Ms. Hernandez said.

Also, so far, almost 900 people from all walks of life have signed on to a complaint from members of the public that is being organized by Texas Moratorium Network. The sister of Michael Richard, Patricia Miller, is one of the people who have signed the TMN complaint. Patricia Miller will speak on Saturday at the 8th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston.

Anyone can sign the complaint online by clicking here.

TMN is also responsible for persuading several elected officials to file complaints against Keller, including State Representatives Burnam, Dutton, Olivo and Farrar.

This weekend: March to Stop Executions in Houston

Youth Summit on the Death Penalty

Contacts: Sherri 832-236-3960
Courtney 832-704-8900

On October 13th 2007 the Outreach Committee of the 8th Annual March to Stop Executions will present "Old School Meets New School: Bridging the Gap from Freedom Riders to Freedom Writers. Topic: the Death Penalty."

There will be a panel discussion hosted by Fox 26 news personality Darian Ward that includes Ester King and other veteransb of the Civil Rights Movement. After luch there will be an open mic hosted by locally-recognized poet Equality and DJ Zin on the wheels of steel.

This event is to prepare our community, particularly the youth for the 8th Annual March to Stop Executions on October 27th 2007. Community service hours will be provided.

The 8th Annual March to Stop Executions will take place on Saturday, October 27, at 2:00 at Emancipation Park, 3018 Dowling at Tuam. The ending rally will be at 3:30 PM at SHAPE Community Center, 3815 Live Oak at Alabama.

Speaker include Lawrence Foster, grandfather of Kenneth Foster; Clarence Brandley, released after 10 years of unjust imprisonment on Texas death row, and Houston city councilwoman Ada Edwards. Also speaking will be Scott Cobb, with the Texas Moratorium Network, speaking about the filing of an ethics complaint against the Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller for closing the CCA's clerk's office at 5:00 PM on Sept. 25, preventing Michael Richard's attorneys from filing an emergency request to stay his execution.

There will also be the mothers of three innocent people executed by the state of Texas--Shaka Sankofa, Frances Newton and Joseph Nichols.