By Execution Watch
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Texas is preparing to execute Robert Garza, convicted of having a secondary role in a pair of murders. If the state follows through with its plan, Execution Watch will broadcast live coverage and commentary, including a taped interview with Garza.
Updates and discussion on Facebook: Execution Watch
TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
ROBERT GARZA,
condemned following his conviction on a pair of murder charges in the
2002 shooting deaths of four women in the Rio Grande Valley. Garza’s
appeal was rejected in February 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court. He
reportedly told law enforcement he witnessed the shootings and knew of
the plot to kill the women but did not fire a gun. A jury convicted him
of capital murder under the Texas law of parties, which allows for a
defendant to be considered just as responsible as the killer if he or
she plays a secondary role.
SHOW LINEUP
Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His internet radio show airs each Wednesday at 2 PM CT.: 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,LARRY DOUGLAS,MICHAEL GILLESPIE & JACK LEE.
Featured Interview: ROBERT GARZA, Execution Watch is scheduled to interview Garza Wednesday on death row. The complete, unedited interview will be broadcast..
Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, member, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement,www.abolitionmovement.org.
Reporter, Vigil, Houston: DAVE ATWOOD, founder and former board member, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,www.tcadp.org.
NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
On Sept. 26, Texas plans to kill ARTURO DIAZ. If it does, Execution Watch will air coverage.
Texas Moratorium Network's Scott Cobb and Hooman Hedayati of Witness to Innocence went to the Texas Capitol on Feb 16, 2011 with Lawrence Foster and Kenneth Foster Sr (grandfather and father of Kenneth Foster, Jr) to meet with legislators about a bill to require separate rials in capital cases. See photos here. Kenneth Foster Jr's death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2007. He had been convicted and sentenced to death in a dual trial with his co-defendant. Governor Rick Perry said at the time of commuting the death sentence that the Legislature should take up the issue of requiring separate trials in death penalty cases. Perry said the dual trial issue was the reason he commuted the death sentence of Foster.
We also went with the Fosters to speak to Danielle Dirks' capital punishment class at UT-Austin.
And while at the capitol, we met the family of Tim Adams as they were meeting legislators to urge support for clemency for Tim, who is scheduled for execution in Texas Feb 22, 2011. They had earlier in the day held a press conference at the capitol to urge clemency for Timothy Adams.
Former Texas Governor Mark White has recently been in the news because he has changed his mind on the death penalty and now believes that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole is an acceptable substitute for the death penalty as a way "to make certain we didn't have unfortunate execution of an innocent person", (NPR, October 21, 2009, "Former Texas Governor Rethinks Death Penalty").
Our question to Mark White, "Do you still think that someone convicted under the Law of Parties but who himself did not kill or intend anyone to be killed deserves the death penalty?" "Governor White, do you regret signing off on the execution of somone who did not kill anyone?"
One of the people executed when Mark White was governor was a person who had been convicted under the Law of Parties, but who did not himself kill anyone or intend that anyone be killed. Doyle Skillern was executed on January 16, 1985. Skillern's case is similar to the cases of Kenneth Foster, Jr and Jeff Wood, in that all three of them, in their separate cases many years apart, were sitting in a car when a co-defendant killed someone. Skillern's co-defendant, Charles Sanne, testified that he (Sanne) was the triggerman, and that fact was not in dispute, as you can read in Skillern's appeal in the U.S. Fifth Circuit. The appeal also explains that
the charge emphasized that capital murder requires that the accused "intentionally kills or causes the death of another" while in the course of robbing another, paragraphs 6 and 7 of the charge permitted the jury to find Skillern guilty of the triggerman Sanne's killing, under the Texas law of criminal responsibility, as a conspirator in a robbery attempt equally guilty of the murder by his coconspirator if the killing "was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose [of the robbery] and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy."
Doyle Skillern, condemned to die for a murder in which the confessed triggerman may soon go free, was executed by lethal injection for the 1974 slaying of Patrick Randel, an undercover narcotics officer. Skillern, 48, died at 12:23 a.m. CST in the Huntsville, Tex., death chamber. Both Gov. Mark White and the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected a reprieve. Testimony showed that Skillern waited in a car while Charles Sanne, 51, shot Randel. Sanne was sentenced to life in prison.
Would Governor White testify in favor of a bill in the next session of the Texas Legislature that would ban executions of people convicted solely under the Law of Parties? In the last session of the Texas Legislature, such a bill was authored by Rep Terri Hodge and it passed the entire Texas House but died in the Senate after Governor Perry threatend to veto it if it reached his desk. The bill would have banned executions of people convicted solely under the Law of Parties.
HB 2267 will be heard in the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, Thursday, May 21, at 1:30 PM or upon adjournment of the Senate.
This is the law of parties bill by Rep Terri Hodge and Rep Harold Dutton, recently renamed the Kenneth Foster, Jr Act. It would require separate trials in capital cases and would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty against co-defendants in Law of Parties cases if they are not the person who actually killed someone.
Please come to the hearing and sign a Witness Affirmation Form in in favor of HB 2267.
The hearing will be in room E1.014.
If you can not attend the hearing, then call the offices of the Committee members and urge them to vote in favor of HB 2267.
Please call Texas State Senators and Urge Them to Vote for HB 2267
Sample Message (change it to your own words) "Hello, I am calling to urge Senator X to vote in favor of HB 2267, the "Kenneth Foster, Jr Act". It has already been approved by the Texas House of Representatives. HB 2267 would require separate trials for co-defendants in capital trials and would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty for people who do not kill anyone but are convicted under the Law of Parties. I do not believe it is fair to sentence someone to death, like Kenneth Foster was, if they did not kill anyone.
The Law of Parties allows people who "should have anticipated" a murder to receive the death penalty for the actions of another person who killed someone. A person sentenced to death under the Law of Parties has not killed anyone. They are accomplices or co-conspirators of one felony, such as robbery, during which another person killed someone, but a person should not be executed for the actions of another person.
Thank you and call your state senator today!
Members of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
Chair, John Whitmire Phone: (512) 463-0115 Email Form
Vice-Chair, Kel Seliger Phone:(512)463-0131 Email Form
CONTACTS: Scott Cobb, President, Texas Moratorium Network, admin@texasmoratorium.org, 512-552-4743; Bryan McCann, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, bmccann@mail.utexas.edu, 512-739-4024
Texas House of Representatives Passes Law of Parties Bill (HB 2267) Amendment Adopted for the Bill to be Known as "The Kenneth Foster Jr, Act"
Austin, TX – May 15, 2009 – The Texas House of Representatives today passed House Bill 2267, "The Kenneth Foster, Jr Act". Sponsored by Rep. Terri Hodge (D – Dallas), the bill would eliminate the death penalty as a sentencing option under the controversial Texas Law of Parties. It would also require separate trials of co-defendants in capital cases. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The Texas Law of Parties gained national prominence in 2007 during the high profile case of Kenneth Foster, Jr., whose death sentence was commuted by Governor Rick Perry following a national grassroots movement to halt his execution.
“It is my hope that in the future no other families have to deal with the emotional, psychological and financial hell associated with having a loved one on death row for a murder they factually did not commit, like my family has had to deal with for the last 13 years,” said Terri Bean, sister of Texas death row inmate Jeff Wood. Wood was sentenced to death under the Law of Parties.
“This bill, when passed, will make me even prouder to be a resident of Texas,” said Kenneth Foster, Sr., father of Kenneth Foster, Jr. “Our family knows first hand the injustices of the Law of Parties, and Rep. Hodge’s bill is a step in the right direction.”
Although Hodge’s bill is not retroactive, and therefore would not affect any current cases like Jeff Wood's, several families of death row inmates convicted under the Law of Parties have lobbied in favor of the legislation.
“This is a major victory for the families impacted by this unfair law,” said Bryan McCann of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. “We are told the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst, but its application under the Law of Parties affords prosecutors far too much discretion in pursuing the most severe form of punishment.”
Executions under the Law of Parties are very rare. Three people have been executed in Texas under the Law of Parties, which amounts to 0.6 percent of the 437 total executions in Texas. The last such execution in Texas was in 1993.
"The Kenneth Foster, Jr Act is a much-needed reform. The current law allowing accomplices who have not killed anyone to pay the ultimate penalty for a murder committed by another person is fundamentally unjust", said Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network.
Texas Moratorium Network (TMN) is a non-profit organization with the primary goal of mobilizing statewide support for a moratorium on executions in Texas. Web: http://stopexecutions.blogspot.com. The Campaign to End the Death Penalty is a grassroots organization dedicated to abolishing the death penalty. Web: http://www.myspace.com/cedpaustin.
The Texas House of Representatives just passed the Law of Parties bill (HB 2267) on second reading. There was no objection. It passed on a voice vote. It now must pass on 3rd reading by the deadline of Friday at midnight. If it passes on third reading, then it goes to the Senate.
For more information about the Law of Parties, watch Lee Ann Holman's short documentary titled, "Death by Accomplice."
The Law of Parties bill (HB 2267) by Rep Terri Hodge and Rep Harold Dutton is only 2 bills away from a vote in the Texas House. Currently voting on HB 2411 Watch the video live from the Texas House here (opens a real player stream).
I just talked to Terri Hodge's office at 11:15 PM tonight and found out that HB 2267 (the Law of Parties bill) passed Calendars today and was placed on the General State Calendar for May 8, which means it could be voted on this Friday on the floor of the House. Hodge's office says there is a small chance they could vote on it tomorrow sometime, but more likely it will be Friday.
Number one priority is everyone call your state representative tomorrow and urge them to vote for HB 2267. Tell the office you call that HB 2267 is on the General State Calendar for May 8.
The Law of Parties bill today passed the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.
HB 2267 in the Texas Legislature would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty for people in Law of Parties cases, which is a law that allows non-killers to be sentenced to death for the actions of another person. Kenneth Foster was sentenced to death under the Law of Parties before his death sentence was commuted to life in 2007 by Governor Perry.
Rep Hodge's bill was approved in the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on April 21. It now goes to the Calendars Committee.
We have a lot of work to do to get the bill passed by Calendars and through the entire House, but today's approval was a major victory. The victory was made possible by the efforts of many people, including Rep Hodge, Rep Dutton, their staffs, and the many people who attended the Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty on March 24 to visit legislators in person or called or emailed legislators urging them to pass the bill.
Special thanks go to all the family members of people on death row under the Law of Parties who came to Lobby Day or who testified in committee for the bill. This victory belongs to you!
Contact members of the Texas House Committee on Calendars
Urge Them to Send HB 2267 to the Floor of the House for a Vote. HB 2267 Would Prohibit Death Sentences Under the Law of Parties.
Sample Message (change it to your own words) “Hello, I am calling to urge Representative X to vote in the Calendars Committee to send HB 2267, the Law of Parties bill, to the floor of the House for a vote. HB 2267 would require separate trials for co-defendants in capital trials and would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty for people who do not kill anyone but are convicted under the Law of Parties. I do not believe it is fair to sentence someone to death, like Kenneth Foster was, if they did not kill anyone. Thank you”.
The Law of Parties allows people who "should have anticipated" a murder to receive the death penalty for the actions of another person who killed someone. A person sentenced to death under the Law of Parties has not killed anyone. They are accomplices or co-conspirators of one felony, such as robbery, during which another person killed someone.
Please contact your own state representative and at least some of the committee members on the list below. You can find out who your own representative is at: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us
Members of the House Committee on Calendars
Rep. Brian McCall (Chair) Plano Republican Email form for McCall: http://tinyurl.com/BrianMcCall Room 1W.11, Capitol Bld. Austin, TX 78701 (512) 463-0594 Phone (512) 474-7512 Fax
Rep. Eddie Lucio III Democrat Cameron County Email form for Lucio http://tinyurl.com/EddieLucioIII Room EXT E1.318 P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768 (512) 463-0606 Phone (512) 463-0660 Fax
Rep. Norma Chavez El Paso Democrat Email form for Chavez http://tinyurl.com/NormaChavez Room CAP GN.8 P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768 (512) 463-0622 Phone (512) 478-6755 (Fax)
Rep. Garnet Coleman Houston Democrat Email form for Coleman http://tinyurl.com/GarnetColeman Room GW.17, Capitol Building Austin, TX 78701 (512) 463-0524 Phone (512) 463-1260 Fax
Rep. Byron Cook Navarro County Republican Email form for Cook http://tinyurl.com/ByronCook Room EXT E2.410 P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768 (512) 463-0730 Phone (512) 463-2506 Fax
Rep. Jim Keffer (Eastland) Republican Email form for Keffer http://tinyurl.com/JimKeffer Room E2.418, Capitol Extension Austin, TX 78701 (512) 463-0656 Phone (512) 478-8805 Fax
Rep. Lois W. Kohlkorst (Brenham) Republican Email form for Kohlkorst http://tinyurl.com/LoisKohlkorst Room E2.318, Capitol Extension Austin, TX 78701 (512) 463-0600 Phone (512) 463-5240 Fax
Rep. Edmund Kuempel Seguin Republican Email form for Kuempel http://tinyurl.com/EdmundKuempel Room CAP 3N.06 P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768 (512) 463-0602 Phone (512) 480-0391 Fax
Rep. Jim McReynolds Lufkin Democrat Email form for McReynolds http://tinyurl.com/JimMcReynolds Room CAP 1W.3 P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768 (512) 463-0490 Phone (512) 463-9059 Fax
Rep. Allen Ritter Jefferson County Democrat Email form for Ritter http://preview.tinyurl.com/AllenRitter Room E2.406, Capitol Extension Austin, TX 78701 (512) 463-0706 Phone (512) 463-1861 Fax
Rep. Burt R. Solomons Denton County Republican Email form for Solomons http://tinyurl.com/BurtSolomons Room E1.420, Capitol Extension Austin, TX 78701 (512) 463-0478 Phone (512) 463-2089 Fax
People from across Texas are coming to Austin on Tuesday, March 24, for a Death Penalty Reform Lobby Day to speak with legislators about the injustice of the Texas death penalty system. Issues to be discussed include the risk of executing an innocent person (HB788), the need for a moratorium on executions (HB 913, HJR 24), abolition of the death penalty (HB 297, HB 682), the Law of Parties (HB 304, HB 2267), and impeaching Sharon Keller (HR 480).
The Lobby Day will include a press conference at 1 PM and a rally on the South Steps of the Capitol at 5:30. Many family members of people currently and formerly on death row plan to participate in Lobby Day events.
Advocating an end to death sentences under the Law of Parties is the primary focus of the Lobby Day. In 2007, the death sentence of Kenneth Foster was commuted to life by Governor Perry. Foster had been sentenced to death under the Law of Parties even though he never killed anyone. Family members of Kenneth Foster, Jeff Wood and others convicted under the Law of Parties will meet with members of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and other legislators to urge them to approve HB 2267 and HB 304, both of which would end the death penalty under the Law of Parties.
A group of citizen lobbyists will also meet with members of the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence to urge them to approve HR 480, which would create a House select committee to determine if Sharon Keller should be impeached. Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has until March 24 to send her response to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct regarding charges that she violated her judicial duties by declining to accept an after-hours appeal from a death row inmate in 2007.
Jeanette Popp, whose daughter was murdered in Austin in 1988, will participate in Lobby Day. Two innocent men were convicted of the murder of Ms. Popp’s daughter. Ms Popp’s new book, entitled “Mortal Justice”, was published on March 1, 2009. Her book tells the story of her daughter’s murder, the wrongful convictions of two innocent men, their exonerations, and the eventual trial and conviction of the real killer. Ms Popp visited the real killer in jail prior to his trial and told him that she did not want him to receive a death sentence. He was sentenced to life.
The death penalty was abolished by New Mexico just last week.
Lobby Day Schedule
10 AM – Noon: Lobbying Training Workshop Location: University of Texas at Austin Sanchez Building (College of Education) in the Cissy McDaniel Parker Dean's Conference Room. This is a short 7-8 minute walk from the capitol. Google map of route from capitol to training location.
1 PM: Press Conference in the House Speaker's Committee Room 2W.6 in the Capitol
2 – 5 PM: Group lobbying visits to legislative offices
5:30 PM: Rally on the South Steps of the Capitol
Sponsored by: Sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin Chapter, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas CURE, the Student Prison Caucus, the Eye & Tooth Project: Forum Theatre on the Death Penalty, Kids Against the Death Penalty, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER) and the Friends Meeting of Austin.
Sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin Chapter, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Students Against the Death Penalty and the Student Prison Caucus. (If your organization would like to participate or be one of the Lobby Day sponsors, contact us at 512 961 6389 or by email to admin@texasmoratorium.org)
Please call the following members of the subcommittee on Capital Punishment and say that you want the committee to approve HB 2267, the Law of Parties bill.
Members of the Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
Robert Miklos, Chair of Subcommittee on Capital Punishment District 101 (Dallas County-part) Email for for Miklos Phone: 512-463-0464; FAX: 512-463-9295
Wayne Christian, District 09 (Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Jasper Counties) Email for for Christian Phone: 512-463-0556; FAX: 512-463-5896
Joseph Moody, District 78 (El Paso County-part) Email for for Moody Phone: 512-463-0728; FAX: 512-463-0397
Advocates to Hold Press Conference Tuesday, Feb 24, on Ending Death Penalty Sentences Under Texas' Law of Parties
A press conference will be held at the Texas Capitol in the House Speaker's Committee Room (2W.6) on Tuesday, February 24 at 12:30 PM by advocates for an end to the death penalty for people convicted under Texas' Law of Parties. State Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston has filed HB 304, which would prohibit prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the future under the Law of Parties.
The Law of Parties can currently be used to sentence people to death even though they did not actually kill or intend anyone to be killed. Speakers at the press conference will include representatives of Kenneth Foster, jr and Jeff Wood, both of whom were sentenced to death under the Law of Parties even though neither of them killed anyone. Foster's death sentence was commuted to life in prison on August 30, 2007 by Governor Perry. Wood remains on death row after receiving a last-minute stay of execution from a federal judge on August 21, 2008, so that his mental health could be evaluated. In both the Foster and Wood cases, the actual killers have already been executed by Texas.
What: Press Conference on Ending Death Penalty Sentences Under the Law of Parties Where: The Texas Capitol in the House Speaker's Committee Room, 2W.6 When: 12:30 PM on Tuesday, February 24 Speakers include Rep Harold Dutton and family members of Kenneth Foster and Jeff Wood, including Lawrence Foster and Kenneth Foster Sr.
"No one should be put to death for a murder committed by someone else. The death penalty should certainly not be used for people who do not actually kill anyone. While most people in Texas may still support the death penalty, I am quite sure that even most people who support the death penalty only want it used for the worst of the worst murderers and not for people who do not actually kill anyone. Dutton's bill would eliminate the death penalty sentencing option for people convicted under the Law of Parties, but it would still allow people who play lesser roles in a case to be convicted and sentenced to prison under the Law of Parties," said Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network.
"The Texas Law of Parties gives prosecutors far too much discretion in seeking the death penalty by expanding it to those who did not even commit a murder. As we have learned in cases like Kenneth Foster and Jeff Wood, the law unfairly affects those who were in the wrong place at the wrong time or on the losing end of a plea deal. The Texas Legislature should do the right thing and pass Representative Dutton's bill," said Bryan McCann of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign.
Sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.
Kenneth Foster, Jr. was sentenced to death in May 1997 for driving a car from which Mauriceo Brown got out and shot Michael LaHood, Jr. Kenneth's case is currently at a critical juncture, as the state of Texas has recently given him an execution date of August 30, 2007. Kenneth could be killed simply because of the gross misuse of the Law of Parties. As the Austin Chronicle has put it, he was in "the wrong place at the wrong time." Kenneth is a founding member of D.R.I.V.E., a group of death row prisoners who organize using methods of nonviolent resistance, to fight for humane conditions on death row in Texas.
Join a campaign to save the life of Kenneth Foster, Jr. and help shine a light on the injustice of the Texas death penalty system! Join us for an organizing meeting of groups and individuals who want to work together on this campaign.
For more information call 494-0667 or email cedpaustin@gmail.com
Wednesday May 30, at 6:30PM Carver Library 1161 Angelina Street (off Rosewood and Angelina. Take 11th Street east from I-35 about 7 blocks At the light, bear left onto Rosewood, then take a left on Angelina)
