On June 2nd, there will be an execution in Texas. This will be the 200th execution under Texas Governor Rick Perry during his tenure. Governor Perry has signed more death warrants than any other governor in history including former President George Bush.
As many celebrate abolition in New Mexico, we must remember that there are still many men and women sitting on death row in this country; Over 3000 to be exact. As a neighbor to Texas we must stand in unity with activists in that state against state sanctioned murder and we must make Governor Perry understand that the death penalty is not good public policy.
We will protest against the 200th execution in Texas on Saturday May 30th and come together as human beings that understand compassion and forgiveness is what will make our world a better place.
We will come together on behalf of all those who sit on death row day after day waiting to die. We will stand in unity with the families of the condemned whose lives have been forever altered by the death penalty, such as Muina Chamberlain, a resident of New Mexico; whose son was executed in Texas almost one year ago.
It’s time for Texas to join the 15 other states who have chosen to abolish the death penalty.
KPFT Open Journal, 90.1 FM (Houston) or www.kpft.org
Tune in Friday, May 29, 12:05--1:00pm
Hosted and produced by Gloria Rubac
Guests from the Texas Moratorium Network,Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement withfamilies of Jeff Wood, Howard Guidry, and Juan Ramirez and more.
Where are we in fighting the death penalty?
Recent victories nationwide?
Any good news in Texas?
How in the hell can one governor execute 200 people?
Progress at the Legislative?
Law of Parties update from families
Why Kenneth Foster won clemency
INNOCENCE--the reason support for DP is down
Cases of innocence in Texas--Howard Guidry/Rodney Reed
On June 2, 2009, the 200th execution under Texas Governor Rick Perry is scheduled to take place. Since he became governor of Texas in December 2000, Perry has allowed more executions to proceed than any other governor in U.S. history. Terry Hankins is scheduled to be the 200th person executed under Rick Perry. If he receives a stay of execution, then the 200th person will be the next person on the list.
Houston Protest of the 200th Execution
In Houston, the 200th legal lynching protest will be held from 5:00 until 6:30 under The Old Hanging Tree, corner of Bagby and Capitol downtown. Guest speaker is the borther of Albert Woodfox, one of the Angola Three!
A press conference will be held at 5:00.
Following the press conference, there will be an open mic so all can register their outrage at another day of infamy for the state of Texas in its quest for executions.
If your organization would like to co-sponsor this protest in Houston, contact the Abolition Movement at: Abolition.Movement@hotmail.com
Time: June 2, 2009 from 5pm to 6:30pm Location: The Old Hanging Tree Street: Bagby and Capitol City: Houston
Organized By: Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
Austin Protest of the 200th Execution at the Texas Capitol
The Austin protest of the 200th execution will be at 5:30 PM on the day of the 200th execution at the sidewalk in front of the Texas Capitol facing South on Congress and 11th Street.
An organizing meeting for the Austin protest of the 200th execution will be held Wednesday, May 27th at 7 PM at Double Dave's pizza located at: 3000 Duval Street in Austin.
Everyone is welcome.
Huntsville Protest of the 200th Execution
Time: June 2, 2009 from 5pm to 6:30pm Location: The Walls Unit Street: 12th Street and Avenue I City/Town: Huntsville, Texas Contact: Sarah Hannah (979) 450-2179 or Scott Cobb (512-552-4743)
Paris France Protest of the 200th Execution
There will be a protest of the 200th execution under Governor Rick Perry on the Place de la Concorde, Tuileries/US Consulate side from 6pm to 7pm.
"Nous vous invitions à soutenir les efforts du mouvement abolitionniste au Texas en participant à une protestation le mercredi 3 juin à 18h, Place de la Concorde. Nous vous encourageons par ailleurs à manifester votre désapprobation en écrivant directement à l'Ambassadeur des Etats-Unis en France, Mr. Craig Stapleton, Ambassade des Etats-Unis, 2 avenue Gabriel, 75832 Paris Cédex 08; ainsi qu'à notre Secrétaire d'Etat Chargée des Affaires Etrangères et des Droits de l'Homme, Madame Rama Yade, 37 quai d'Orsay, 75351 Paris.
Rendez-vous le 3 juin 2009 à 18h Place de la Concorde à Paris."
There will be a protest of the 200th execution under Governor Rick Perry outside the US Consulate in Leipzig Germany. Leipzig is a sister city of Houston, Texas.
When the old East Germany conducted executions, they held the executions in Leipzig, although at the time it was not widely if at all known.
Time: June 2, 2009 from 5pm to 6pm Location: U.S. Consulate Street: Wilhelm-Seyfferth- Straße 4 City/Town: Leipzig, Germany Organized By: Amnesty International - Leipzig Contact: Paula J. Herwigat: ai_paula@yahoo.de
Albuquerque, New Mexico Protest of 200th Execution
Protest the 200th Texas Execution under Gov. Rick Perry! Bring your own signs if you have some! We can also stay for the Peace Protest afterwards!
New Mexico recently abolished the death penalty. On May 30, people in New Mexico will hold a protest of the 200th execution under Rick Perry of Texas.
Date and Time: May 30, 2009 from 12pm to 1pm Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico Street: Central Ave and Tulane Dr Contact: Christy Armell at: christy_n_haylie505@yahoo.com
How you can protest the 200th execution under Texas Governor Rick Perry
1) On the day of the 200th execution, call Governor Perry at 512-462-1782 and tell him your opinion on the death penalty. If you live in the U.S., you can use his the form on his website to email him. We suggest you both call him and email him. If you live outside the U.S., you can fax him at (512) 463-1849 or send him a letter in the postal mail. We would like to hand deliver letters to him, so please send your letter to the address below and we will deliver it to Rick Perry: You can send us your letter to Perry for us to deliver whether you live in the U.S. or another country.
Texas Moratorium Network
3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251
Austin, Texas 7831
2) Attend a protest in your city either on the day of the 200th execution or sometime before. If a protest is not scheduled, you can organize a protest. If you live outside the U.S., organize a protest at the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. Send us a photo or video of your protest by email and we will post it on this website and on YouTube. Or you can upload your photos and videos yourself to our social networking site or directly to our group on YouTube. If your organization is planning a protest, please let us know so that we can list your protest on this site.
3) Sign the petition and add your name to the list of people who are raising their voices to protest the 200th execution under Texas Governor Rick Perry.
4) Donate a symbolic 200 cents towards helping us organize against the Texas death penalty. That is one penny for every execution under Rick Perry. We are asking everyone to donate $2, which is the equivalent of 200 pennies. You are welcome to donate more if you can afford it, but everyone can afford to donate $2.
The artwork at www.protest200executions.com is by German artist Jasmin Hilmer represents the isolation of Texas in the world community. While most of the rest of the world, including all of Europe, have turned their backs on the use of capital punishment, Texas continues to execute people at a shocking rate.
I have posted the video, Another Texas Prosecutor May Go Down, on YouTube with some key words of jailhouse snitch Gary Wayne Harris recanting his testimony which sent Danny Meehan away for 99 years. YouTube is a powerful instrument for drawing attention to a cause, And the cause of the wrongly convicted needs attention.
Harris said that in 1997 while in Orange County Texas Jail, Prosecutor John D. Kimbrough told him that he needed a conviction and he needed it bad to further his career. He then made his dirty deal with Harris, whose parole violation and new charges were dropped, and Harris walked out of jail several days after his lying testimony against Meehan. There are now six witnesses whom Harris told he lied.
When asked if he thought his testimony was the deciding factor in the jury’s finding, Harris, answered, ”I know it was.” He said, “Given the details of the case prior to the trial by Mr. Ellis, uh, in John Kimbrough’s presence, that I repeated during the trial was the end, was the last testimony in the prosecutor’s case, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my testimony was the key testimony that made the jury’s decision.” In the video Harris recants and says that DA Kimbrough's investigator Ellis said, "I want you to look straight at the jury and tell them that Danny (Meehan) told you that he told her, that if he couldn’t have her, if she couldn’t stay with him then nobody else could have her. And then that he shot her point blank." The jury bought this and convicted Danny in less than an hour. And now, Harris says it was all a lie.
This is the story of yet another prosecutor who thinks he can abuse human rights and get away with it. Worldwide attention to this kind of American courtroom injustice could go a long way toward reform. I am contacting every person possible who might show any sympathy whatsoever for the wrongfully convicted and prisoners’ rights to watch the video over and over and pass it along to everyone you know to do the same. If it goes to the top of the YouTube charts then the whole world will notice, and also perhaps some lawmakers will change things.
When this new evidence was presented in a new Writ, Judge Patrick Clark ignored Kimbrough’s wrongdoing completely, denied the Writ, and attempted to hide Kimbrough’s behavior. Clark’s cover-up Order can be seen online.
He then passed it along to Sharon Keller’s (She’s being tried in August) Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which dismissed it without even opening the file. So, either they didn’t see Kimbrough’s dirty tricks or they chose to ignore it. Read full transcript of Harris’ recant.
Now Danny sits there for 99 years. So do many others, wrongly convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct that is hard to fight. Read my affidavit that accompanied the denied Writ.
Complaints are being filed with the Texas Bar Assn. on Kimbrough and the Judicial Committee on Judge Clark. Add Kimbrough to the list of dirty DA’s: Charles Sebesta (former Burleson Texas County DA ), Michael McDougal (former Montgomery County Texas DA) and Chuck Rosenthal (former Harris County DA ). And we can’t forget North Carolina ’s Michael Nifong (who lost his law license and filed bankruptcy).
"Opponents of the death penalty looking to exonerate wrongly accused prisoners say their efforts have been hobbled by the dwindling size of America’s newsrooms, and particularly the disappearance of investigative reporting at many regional papers," the New York Times reports.
In the past, lawyers opposed to the death penalty often provided the broad outlines of cases to reporters, who then pursued witnesses and unearthed evidence.
Now, the lawyers complain, they have to do more of the work themselves and that means it often doesn’t get done. They say many fewer cases are being pursued by journalists, after a spate of exonerations several years ago based on the work of reporters.
The decline in newsroom resources has also hampered efforts by death-penalty opponents to search for irrefutable DNA evidence that an innocent person has been executed in America.
The Law of Parties provision of HB 2267 was taken out of the bill in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee yesterday after Governor Perry threatened to veto it if the bill was sent to him in the same form that it passed the House last Friday. I am concerned based on a couple of quotes in newspaper articles that the Law of Parties provision was scuttled based on misinformation and misunderstanding about the Law of Parties and about HB 2267.
For instance, the Austin American-Statesman has a quote from Williamson County Attorney John Bradley that indicates that he does not understand what the Law of Parties is and how HB 2267 would have affected it. He says in the Austin American-Statesman: "To exempt all defendants in capital cases because they didn’t pull the trigger “is irrational,” said Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley. “Under that reasoning, Hitler, Osama bin Laden and Charles Manson could never get the death penalty. You have to look at the facts of each case … whether their participation merits holding them culpable".
People like Hitler, Manson and Osama bin Laden would not have been prosecuted under Section 7.02(b) of Texas' Law of Parties, which is the section that would have been affected by HB 2267. Furthermore, for those people who are and would continue to be prosecuted under section 7.02 (b) (again not Hitler, Manson or bin Laden), HB 2267 would still hold them culpable, it just would limit the maximum punishment for non-killers convicted solely under that section to life in prison without parole.
HB 2267 said
(b) A defendant who is found guilty in a capital felony case only as a party under Section 7.02(b), Penal Code, may not be sentenced to death, and the state may not seek the death penalty in any case in which the defendant's liability is based solely on that section.
Bradley's statement is one of the most absurd, irresponsible comments by a legal professional that I have ever heard. It is no wonder that prosecutors were able to get Perry to threaten to veto HB 2267 if they were telling lies like Bradley.
The Law of Parties in section 7.02 (b) says "If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy".
That section, together with Article 37.0711 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allows the state to prosecute and sentence to death people who have no intent to kill and who in fact do not kill anyone, people like Kenneth Foster, Jr and Jeff Wood.
The Austin American-Statesman has a front page article in today's paper that also contains misinformation from Austin lawyer William "Rusty" Hubbarth, vice president of Justice for All. Hubbarth claims that a 1992 murder-for-hire case was a law of parties case, but he is wrong about murder-for-hire falling under the Law of Parties statute. The article says:
Austin lawyer William "Rusty" Hubbarth, vice president of Justice for All, a national victim advocacy group based in Houston, applauded the veto threat.
"I congratulate Gov. Perry for showing he has the courage to protect the interests of victims," Hubbarth said.
The problem with the bill, he said, was letting all capital co-defendants off the hook if they didn't pull a trigger.
As proof, he cited a 1992 case in which a husband hired a hit man through Soldier of Fortune magazine to kill his wife; the husband was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to death.
Hiring someone to kill someone else is not a Law of Parties case. Murder for remuneration is itself a capital crime in Texas.
A person who who hires someone to kill another person is charged with capital murder under section 19.03 of the Texas Penal Code, not under Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code, which is the Law of Parties section. Both the hiring of the person and the one who actually commits the murder is charged with capital murder and can receive the death penalty.
The Law of Parties is a different concept in which a person can be charged with capital murder if they are participants in another felony, such as robbery, and in the course of that first felony, an accomplice commits a second felony (murder), then anyone who was an accomplice in the first felony (robbery) can be charged with the second felony (murder), because the law says they "should have anticipated" that a murder could occur.
Law of Parties cases are very rare. There have been only 3 Law of Parties executions in Texas out of the total of 438 executions, which is less than one percent.
The Statesman is doing a disservice to its readers by publishing misinformation from people like Bradley and Hubbarth. Ignorant misinformation given out by an elected county attorney like Bradley is particularly appalling. A newspaper has an obligation to correct false information it gives out, so that its readers can make informed judgments about public policies reported in the news. It is just this sort of false understanding of the Law of Parties that leads some people to oppose ending the death penalty under the Law of Parties without understanding what the Law of Parties actually is. It is a law that allows people who have not killed anyone and who had no intention to kill anyone to be sentenced to death.
Bradley and Hubbarth made their statements for the Statesman after the action in yesterday's committee meeting, but I am concerned that similar misinformation may have been spread before the committee meeting. In light of the possibility that the Law of Parties provision in HB 2267 was taken out based on a misunderstanding of the bill and of the Law of Parties, I urge senators to have an informed discussion of the Law of Parties when HB 2267 reaches the floor of the senate and to then decide based on actual facts whether the Law of Parties provision should re-attached by amendment to HB 2267.
Rev. William Barber, NC-NAACP (919) 682-4700 Jeremy Collins, NCCM (919) 491-2917 Charmaine Fuller, CJPC (919) 943-5953
NC-NAACP, HK ON J COALITION, NC COALITION FOR A MORATORIUM AND OTHERS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY: PASS LANDMARK LEGISLATION TO COMBAT RACISM WITHOUT ANY UNDERMINING AMENDMENTS
RALEIGH, NC – Today the Historic Thousands on Jones Street Coalition and the NC Coalition for a Moratorium - with support from recently polled voters—called on North Carolina legislators to pass a clean version of the NC Racial Justice Act, free of amendments that would restart executions before the courts can sort out important legal questions.
“Any attempt by legislators to use the Racial Justice Act—a bill that simply allows defendants facing the death penalty to present evidence of racial bias in their cases—as a pretext to restart executions, is unconscionable,” said NC-NAACP President Rev. William Barber.
A poll conducted last week in Mecklenburg and Pitt Counties by Public Policy Polling shows overwhelming support for the Racial Justice Act, as well as strong support for a bill that exempts people with severe mental illness from the death penalty. Polling in these counties provides a bellwether as to opinions of voters in other parts of the state; Mecklenburg County is North Carolina’s largest, urban county, located in the western part of the state, and Pitt is a large rural county in the east.
76% of Mecklenburg County voters said that capital defendants should be able to present evidence, including statistical evidence, of racial bias to the court
69% of Pitt County voters said the same
63% of Mecklenburg County voters said they did not support the death penalty for people who were seriously mentally ill at the time of the crime
58% of Pitt County voters said the same
“The poll reflects what we already know,” said Charmaine Fuller, Executive Director of the Carolina Justice Policy Center.” “North Carolinians support efforts to fight racism in our capital punishment system. They also believe that people who suffer from severe mental illness should not be subjected to the ultimate punishment.”
While executions have been on hold, three African-American death row inmates were exonerated in North Carolina. In all of the cases, at least one of the victims was white. One of them had an all-white jury. A UNC study found that a defendant’s odds of getting the death penalty increase by 3.5 times if the victim was white.
“The legislature need not interfere with the courts,” said NC Coalition for a Moratorium Campaign Coordinator Jeremy Collins. “Before executions are restarted, the legislature must address a broken death penalty system that risks executing innocent and severely mentally ill people, and one that uses race as a deciding factor in whether someone lives or dies,” added Collins. “All we are asking is that efforts to reduce wrongful executions be considered and passed on their own merits.”
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
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
Please come to the opening day reception for the exhibit of John Holbrook's death row photographs in the Texas Capitol at 6 PM on Monday and the artist's talk at 7 PM.
"Images from Texas Death Row" to be Exhibited in the Ground Floor Rotunda of the Texas Capitol Monday, May 18 - Friday May 22
Event: Images from Texas Death Row "The Photography of John Holbrook" Sponsor: Texas Friends and Allies Against the Death Penalty Dates: May 18 - May 22
Where: The Texas State Capitol Building in the 'Ground Floor Rotunda' (Take elevator down to G)
Reception May 18 at 6 PM in the Texas Capitol Members Lounge - Extension, Room E2.1002 (Take elevator down to E2)
Artist's Talk May 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the Ground Floor Rotunda
Photographer John Holbrook johnholbrook@sbcglobal.net
Artist’s Statement
These images are of current Texas death row inmates. The photographs were taken in 2008 at the Polunsky and Gatesville units. Ultimately, the message I wish to convey through my art, is simple. The only way we can truly stop suffering is to love and forgive those who have caused that suffering. I have chosen to photograph both those who are clearly guilty of the crimes for which they have been condemned as well as some who have claims of innocence. Guilt or innocence is irrelevant to the point I wish to make with these photographs. My photography is intended to communicate the idea of forgiveness. I want to share this liberating truth that I have learned.
As a private investigator for 17 years, I work capital murder cases. In 1995 I was assigned to a case involving the double homicide of a North Texas teenage couple. The victims were tortured and murdered. I worked on the defense team for one of the defendants. While working the case, I spent hours examining the crime scene evidence, including graphic photographs. Some years later, I started to experience anxiety when I saw anything remotely similar to the injuries done to the victims.
I sought help from a psychologist regarding this anxiety. I was told I likely had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The doctor determined that my photography at that time, pictures of homeless and social outcasts shown in a spiritual light, was a subconscious attempt to correct the 'bad pictures' I saw while working the capital murder case .
Ultimately, I learned that I could overcome PTSD by loving and forgiving those who had caused it.
Some family members of murder victims choose to honor their loved ones by asking prosecutors not to seek the death penalty. However, in other cases in order to get a death sentence, prosecutors sometimes argue that the victim’s loved ones endorse the death of the accused. It is said that the surviving loved ones, “Need closure”. Through my pictures, I argue that this disables the survivors’ ability to forgive and accept reconciliation with the person in the future. To me, execution is a grave injustice. Execution virtually denies us the ability to forgive and reconcile with the convicted in the future … ultimately denying everyone involved the ability to stop suffering.
I maintain that it takes a work of art to ultimately address the collective consciousness. Art is a wonderful medium to encourage and enhance civic engagement and dialogue. It was Uncle Tom’s Cabin that spoke and turned the tide against slavery in America. I hope that my images will modestly follow in its footsteps. I aspire to help turn the tide against the death penalty.
New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009. New York and New Jersey have also abolished the death penalty in recent years. Last week, the House of Representatives in Connecticut voted to abolish the death penalty. In 2009, there were two bills filed in the Texas House of Representatives to abolish the death penalty.
Troy Davis is a man on death row with a compelling case for innocence. No murder weapon, no physical evidence, and 7 of 9 eye witnesses have recanted their testimony. Yet no jury has ever heard this evidence. The 11th Circuit Court has denied Troy Davis' most recent petition and a new execution date may come as early as mid-May.
We're coming out in full force on May 19 so Georgia and the world can show our outrage that justice is still being denied an innocent man on death row. We're calling on Gov. Sonny Perdue and the GA Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency and finally allow a jury to hear the new evidence and recantations. Sponsored by Amnesty International and NAACP.
Help spread the word! Change your profile picture to the "I Am Troy Davis" graphic used for this event, and update your status to spread the word about Troy and the May 19 rally.
Pass out flyers (PDF) for the event in your group, neighborhood, or congregation:
Participate in the Global Day of Action in your own community! Set up a local event such as a rally or prayer vigil and list it with Amnesty International.
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).
In a rare public rebuke to Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas Senate this afternoon blocked Perry’s nomination of unemployed Burleson banker Shanda Perkins to become a member of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.
After a brief debate, the GOP-controlled Senate by a 24-7 vote sent the nominee of fellow Republican Perry back to the Nominations Committee, where it is expected to die.
While Perkins’ lack of qualifications were cited as a reason for the surprise move, several senators said Perkins’ involvement in a 2004 controversy over the sale of sex toys in her hometown of Burleson was a factor.
Condemned prisoner Kevin Cooper was denied a rehearing Monday by a federal appellate panel in a 114-page order that bristled with dissents, one of them claiming that "the state of California may be about to execute an innocent man." [Full text at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf]
Another judge defended the decision, saying evidence and post-conviction forensic tests only point to Cooper, now 51, as the 1983 knife-and-hatchet slayer of three family members and a houseguest in a Chino Hills home.
With the denial of an "en banc" rehearing before an 11-judge judicial panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Cooper has 90 days to ask the United States Supreme Court to review his case, the first step toward getting an appeal.
He has applied for relief nine times previously to the nation's high court.
Up to 28 of the 9th Circuit's judges can vote on an en banc hearing application. Published dissents indicate at least 11 were in favor of rehearing the case. One judge said the vote was closer than that.
Cooper's lead attorney, David Alexander, declined comment Monday.
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Holly D. Wilkens said her office agreed with the denial of a rehearing. "We have no doubt as to Cooper's guilt," she said.
Executions in California are on hold while issues about lethal injection protocol are resolved. The last execution took place in 2006.
Cooper's case has been in some form of appeal since his 1985 death sentence. The 9th Circuit in February 2004 granted him a last-minute stay of execution and ordered a hearing into his claims of evidence tampering and police misconduct.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff in San Diego conducted the hearing and oversaw forensic tests. She ruled they did not prove Cooper's claim of innocence and police misconduct. She was upheld in late 2007 by the 9th Circuit.
But then there was an unusually long wait for a decision on whether the 9th Circuit would rehear the case. The California attorney general's office last March filed papers complaining about the nearly 500-day wait for a decision.
Delay explained
The length and language of the order issued Monday seemed to explain the delay.
Orders denying en banc hearings are sometimes accompanied by dissents, but rarely with the number -- four -- or the passion -- "There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing" wrote Judge William A. Fletcher in the longest of the dissents, at about 100 pages.
There also were sharp ideological lines. Ten of the 11 judges who wrote or joined in the dissents were either Carter or Clinton administration appointees.
One Republican appointee, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, was among the dissenters. Kozinski, named by Reagan, joined a three-line item that "generally" agreed with Fletcher that the case should be reheard.
Issues reviewed
Fletcher's lengthy dissent reviewed issues Cooper and his attorneys have raised since his conviction and sentencing.
Those include claims of misconduct and destruction of evidence by law enforcement investigators, poor police work in looking into other possible suspects, and claims that Huff improperly oversaw the DNA and blood tests during the 2004-05 hearings in her court.
"Kevin Cooper has now been on death row for nearly half his life," Fletcher wrote. "In my opinion, he is probably innocent of the crimes for which the state of California is about to execute him. If he is innocent, the real killers may have escaped ... We should have taken this case en banc and ordered the district judge to give Kevin Cooper the fair hearing he never had."
Circuit Judge Pamela Rymer, wrote a concurrence with the denial order. "No test on any item has ever pointed to anyone else as the killer," she said. "The state courts found no evidence of tampering" with various items of evidence.
The bloody June 4, 1983, attack took the lives of Doug and Peggy Ryen; their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica; and neighbor Christopher Hughes, 11, who was staying overnight at the Ryens' home.
The boy was a friend of the Ryens' 8-year-old son, Joshua, who survived the attack with a slashed throat.
The slayings took place two days after Cooper had escaped from the nearby California Institution for Men in Chino. Cooper admitted hiding in a vacant house near the Ryen home, but he denied killing anyone.
"It seems that justice moves pretty slow," said Mary Ann Hughes, mother of Christopher Hughes. "All he has done is to throw up a bunch of smoke screens along the way ... and all of it has to do with people who oppose capital punishment," she said Monday.
"They put their ideas forward, but it's unfair to our family and the Ryen family to go through 26 years of this," she said.
Red Salmon Arts & Resistencia Bookstore Calendar May 2009
7pm Wednesday May 13, 2009
Red Salmon Arts presents The Death Penalty and the Modern Meaning of Southern Justice:
a platica/discussion with Melynda Price
Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law
Melynda Price teaches in the areas of torts, immigration, law and social science and law and popular culture.Her research focuses on citizenship, punishment and the role of law in the politics of race and ethnicity in the U.S. and its borders.In 2006, Price completed a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan.She was awarded the 2006 Best Dissertation Award by the Race, Ethnicity and Politics section of the American Political Science Association.She is currently completing a book, At the Cross:Race, Religion, and Citizenship in the Politics of the Death Penalty Among African Americans. Price also has a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Prairie View A&M University. Her most recent publication is Litigating Salvation: Race, Religion, and Innocence in the Cases of Karla Faye Tucker and Gary Graham in the University of Southern California Review of Law & Social Justice. Price has a forthcoming publication on the death penalty and the pursuit of justice in the Rwandan genocide, Balancing Lives: Individual Accountability and the Death Penalty as Punishment for Genocide (Lessons from Rwanda) in the Emory International Law Journal.She serves on the Board of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center. She is a native of Houston, Texas.
9pm Saturday May 23, 2009
*Conjure: Calling up the Spirit of Struggle, Resistance, & Liberation*
We invite you to a forum for progressive artist/activists:
A series of experiments in jazz music, dance, spoken word, & cinema
This session will feature:
spoken word peformance byMatt Richardson & body movement/dance byAnnelize Machado
Rooted in the tradition of improvisation, revolution, and blues, Conjure is a sovereign site for artistic/exploratory/spiritual collaboration, expression, and rejuvenation.Each jam session will highlight the “Afrological improvised music” of the 3 Jazz Collective along with a featured spoken word performer, dancer, and filmmaker inspired by the jazz aesthetic.
Throughout the series, we will celebrate/recognize/honor through artistic revelation/expression the resistance and revolutionary creativity of warrior women and men from John Coltrane and Joe Henderson to George Jackson, Assata Shakur,
and local warriors such as Ana Sisnett and raúlrsalinas.
$5 dollar suggested donation
a salmonrojo production.
Sponsored by Thematic Initiatives and Community Engagement of the University of Texas at Austin (TICE)
Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence, and Protection of Indigenous Nations edited by Leanne Simpson {Arbeiter Ring Publishing}
Ismaelillo: The First bilingual edition of poetry by Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti {Wings Press}
What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, & the State of the Nation edited by the South End Press Collective {South End Press}
The Medicine of Memory: A Mexica Clan in California by Alejandro Murguia {UT Press}
Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political & Cultural Connections Between African Americans & Asian Americansedited by Fred Ho & Bill V. Mullen {Duke Unvi. Press}
Baby Coyote & the Old Woman/El coyotito y la viejita: a bilingual celebration of friendship & ecological wisdom by Carmen Tafolla {Wings Press}
Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World edited Bill Bigelow & Bob Peterson {A Rethinking Schools Publication}
When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement for Prison Abolition by Jamie Bissonette {South End Press}
A Tuesday Like Today: a novel by Cecilia Urbina translated by Clare E. Sullivan {Wings Press}
Native Americans & the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances by Andrea Smith {Duke Univ. Press}
Brown Unlike Me: Poems from the Second Layer of Our Skin (chapbook) by Emmanuel Ortiz {Calaca Press & Red Salmon Press}
That's Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca's struggle for justice/No Es Justo! La Lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia written by Carmen Tafolla & Sharyll Teneyuca/illustrated by Terry Ybanez {Wings Press}
Big Noise Dispatches 01 thru 04: A look at war, crisis, survival & dignity {Big Noise Films/PM Press} DVD's
The Jena 6 by Big Noise Tactical Media narrated by Mumia Abu Jamal {Big Noise Films/PM Press} DVD
The War of 33: Letters from Beirut by Big Noise Tactical Media {Big Noise Films/PM Press} DVD
CHECK IT OUT!
COLLECTIVE MEMBER LILIA ROSAS SET UP A RED SALMON ARTS CYBER-SITE/TUMBLR AT:
Red Salmon Arts is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
