TCADP

Executions

The State of Texas executed 15 people this year. Five executions already have been scheduled for 2013.

Announcements

TCADP Announces Annual Award Winners!

The TCADP Board of Directors is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2013 TCADP Annual Awards.  These individuals and organizations will be recognized at the TCADP 2013 Annual Conference – Changing the Conversation – on Saturday, February 23, 2013 at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.  Please make plans to join us in celebrating these extraordinary individuals and organizations!

Appreciation: JC Dufresne, who played an instrumental role in the Texas Democratic Party’s decision to endorse abolition of the death penalty in its 2012 Platform.

Appreciation: Methodist Federation for Social Action-Southwest Texas Chapter, for their years of involvement and ongoing contributions to the abolition movement.

Media: Joe Bailey, Jr. and Steve Mims (pictured), Filmmakers of “Incendiary”, a documentary about the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 despite serious flaws in the forensic science used to convict him and doubts about his guilt.

Read more about the winners.

We invite individuals and organizations to place an ad in the conference program to promote your work and congratulate the award winners.  We also invite you to exhibit at the conference, or sponsor a table at the awards luncheon. Download  Exhibitor – Advertiser Form.

In addition to the annual awards luncheon, the conference will feature a plenary session on how instances of wrongful convictions and evidence of wrongful executions are changing the conversation on the death penalty. Confirmed panelists are:

• Karen Boudrie, an award-winning journalist, news director, and public relations consultant who covered the trial of Carlos DeLuna in Corpus Christi in 1983 and was the last person to speak with him before his wrongful execution in 1989;
• Anthony Graves, a motivational speaker and legal consultant who spent 12.5 years on death row before being exonerated in 2010; and
• Professor James Liebman, Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Law, Columbia University School of Law, and the lead author of Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution

Pre-register for the conference today and book your hotel by February 1!  Special rates are available for TCADP members and students.

Coming Soon: TCADP’s Year-End Report – Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2012

What Texas County accounts for the most death sentences in the last five years? Who received stays of execution in 2012? What U.S. Supreme Court cases are impacting death row inmates in Texas? All of these questions will be addressed in TCADP’s forthcoming annual report, Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2012: The Year in Review. More details will be sent to you the week of December 10. Previous reports are available online.

Remember TCADP in Your Year-End Giving!

Check your mailboxes for TCADP’s year-end appeal, which includes reflections on another momentous year for our movement to end the death penalty. We are grateful for the contributions that so many of you have made already this year and ask for your additional support so that TCADP can continue to engage the citizens of Texas – and our elected officials – in the conversation about the death penalty. Save a stamp by making an end-of-the-year, tax-deductible donation today using our secure online system! Thank you for your support and generosity.

Complete a TCADP Member Survey Today!

Thank you so much for completing this survey for TCADP.  This information, which will be kept confidential, will help us better respond to the needs of our supporters and also utilize your gifts to further our mission of ending the death penalty.

The survey is online at  www.tcadp.org/member-survey/. It should take less than 10 minutes to complete. If you have any questions or comments, please be in touch with the TCADP office at 512-441-1808 or info@tcadp.org.

Upcoming Events

December 4: A  Faithful Conversation on the Death Penalty with Dallas Faith Leaders
On Tuesday, December 4 at 7 PM at Paul Quinn College in South Dallas, Dallas area faith leaders will join together for an in-depth conversation about faith and the death penalty. Learn who is coming, RSVP today for your free tickets, and download a flier for sharing and posting!

Fundraiser for The Last 40 Miles

On December 12, 2012, a group of filmmakers in Austin will premiere the trailer for their animated short, The Last 40 Miles, which follows a Texas death row inmate on his final journey from death row in Livingston to the execution chamber in Huntsville. A fundraising event will take place at the Palm Door event center, 401 Sabine St., Austin, Texas at 7 PM. For more information, go to www.40milesmovie.com.

In the News

110 Nations Endorse Abolition

On November 19, 2012, a record 110 countries voted in support of a resolution calling for the abolition of the death penalty during a committee meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. This was up from 107 votes in favor of the resolution two years ago, the last time the UN considered it. Among the 39 countries that voted in opposition to the non-binding resolution are the United States, Japan, China, Iran, India, North Korea, Syria, and Zimbabwe. Thirty-six countries abstained. Read more from the UN.

Calendar

December

1 Death Row Holiday Card Write-a-thon, SMU Dallas, 11:00-4:00, dallas@tcadp.org

4 “A Faithful Conversation on the Death Penalty with Dallas Faith Leaders” Paul Quinn College, Dallas, 7:00pm  RSVP for free tickets today!

6 TCADP Table at Dallas Peace Center Annual Peacemakers Dinner

7 30^th Anniversary of the Resumption of Executions in Texas

10 International Human Rights Day

12 Release of TCADP’s Annual Report (scheduled)

17 El Paso Chapter Meeting, 7 PM, St Piux X Catholic Church, elpaso@tcadp.org

19 Dallas Religious Organizing committee 6:00pm, Chapter meeting 7:00pm, dallas@tcadp.org

January

8 83rd Session of the Texas Legislature Convenes at Noon

February

1 Last Day to Receive TCADP Annual Conference Registration Early Bird Rates; Last Day to Book Block Rate Hotel rooms for TCADP Annual Conference

For more information about these events or to volunteer to staff a table at an outreach event, email info@tcadp.org.

Support all of the programs and initiatives described here with a generous donation to TCADP today

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n this monthly alert, you will find opportunities to get involved on the local level and recent death penalty developments. We encourage you to attend upcoming events and become a TCADP member today. Thank you for joining us as we seize the momentum to end the death penalty once and for all!

In This Edition:

Executions

There are no executions scheduled to take place in Texas this month.

On July 18, 2012, the State of Texas is scheduled to execute Yokamon Hearn, who was convicted in Dallas County of the 1998 carjacking and murder of Frank Meziere.

Update on Anthony Bartee (granted stay of execution on May 2, 2012):
According to a recent article in the San Antonio Express-News (“Decision adds to scrutiny of death penalty cases,” May 26, 2012), DNA testing has been conducted on drinking glasses and cigarettes collected at the crime scene: “Last week the Bexar County crime lab’s testing found on the evidence the DNA
of three people – two men and one woman so far unidentified. The results will now be sent through the state and federal databases. As prosecutors hunt for DNA matches, the civil rights case lingers in federal court.” Read more from the Express-News.

Upcoming Events

For anyone attending the Texas State Democratic Convention this week at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, please stop by the TCADP information table – booth #119 in the Exhibitors’ Hall E, close to the registration counters. We also invite delegates to attend a workshop on “Progress Towards Repealing the Death Penalty in Texas,” which we are hosting from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Friday, June 8, in Room 360 ABC.   The workshop will feature remarks from death row exonoree Anthony Graves and State Representative Jessica Farrar, among other friends. For more information about the convention, contact Kristin at khoule@tcadp.org.

Recent News
Additional Coverage of the Wrongful Execution of Carlos DeLuna

Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, which provides the most compelling evidence to date that the State of Texas executed an innocent man, continues to generate significant attention. For a good overview of the case of Carlos DeLuna, who was executed in 1989, read an opinion piece by the author of the study, James S. Liebman, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times on June 1, 2012 (“You can’t fix the death penalty”) or watch a short piece by PBS NewsHour (“Carlos DeLuna Case: the Fight to Prove an Innocent Man Was Executed,” May 24, 2012).   Also worth reading is an editorial by the Houston Chronicle, which cites the DeLuna case in affirming its call for the abolition of the death penalty (“Death penalty perils,” May 24, 2012).

For more background information on Carlos DeLuna, visit www.thewrongcarlos.net. Visit TCADP for information on other wrongful executions and wrongful convictions.

First-of-its-kind National Registry of Exonerations

On May 21, 2012, the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law released the National Registry of Exonerations, which documents 894 exonerations since 1989. Of these, 89 occurred in Texas, the second-highest number of exonerations among all states. Read more on the TCADP blog and visit the Registry for a list of all Texas exonerations and other details.

Ever wish you were a fly on the wall?

The June issue of Texas Monthly magazine features a fascinating roundtable discussion that took place recently among some of the most pivotal players in our state’s criminal justice system. Texas Monthly sat down with six individuals – a police chief, a district attorney, a special prosecutor, a death row exonoree, a judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals, and a State Senator – to talk about Texas’ abysmal record of wrongful convictions. Read more from the TCADP blog.  (At this time, the online article is only available for subscribers; you can pick up a copy of Texas Monthly from your local newsstand or bookstore.)

Reposted From the Death Penalty Information Center:

Public Finds Death Penalty Less Morally Acceptable in New Gallup Survey
Posted: May 31, 2012

Gallup recently released its Values and Beliefs survey regarding American moral views on a variety of social issues.  The results revealed a significant decline in the percentage of the public that finds the death penalty “morally acceptable.”  This year, only 58% of respondents said the death penalty is morally acceptable, down from 65% last year.   (Click on graph to enlarge.)This marks the lowest approval rating for capital punishment since this survey was first administered 12 years ago. Among Democrats, only 42% found the death penalty morally acceptable.  Generally, support for the death penalty falls below 50% when the public is offered alternative punishments.  In 2010, Gallup asked which is the better punishment for murder: the death penalty or life in prison without parole?  Less than half (49%) chose the death penalty, while 46% chose life without parole.

Read more

Announcements

Help Expand TCADP’s Base of Support

Over the next six weeks, TCADP will sponsor information tables at 11 different conventions and festivals across the state, through which we have the potential to reach close to 50,000 people! The cost of participation ranges from $50 to $1,000 in registration fees, staff travel, and printed materials for distribution. These events are vital to our efforts to identify new supporters and raise awareness of the flaws and failures of the Texas death penalty system.   Your donation of $50 or $100 today will underwrite these expenses and advance our ongoing outreach and educational programs!

Austin Area: Month of Faith in Action

If you belong to a faith community in Austin, please talk to your clergy about joining TCADP for our Month of Faith in Action to promote dialogue about the death penalty in Texas. There has never been a more important time for people of faith to engage in education and action on the death penalty, and to take a leadership role in speaking out against this culture of violence and vengeance.

We are encouraging congregations to hold activities and events in solidarity with each other September 15 to October 14, however, you are welcome to schedule an event any time in the year that accommodates your calendar. The Month of Faith in Action will culminate in an interfaith gathering and presentation by Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, on Friday, October 12, 2012 at St. Edward’s University.

Possible activities include:

• Distribute information on the death penalty, in keeping with your faith tradition’s perspective on the issue;
• Collect signatures of support as part of our “Count Me In” campaign;
• Hear testimony from a murder victim’s family member, exonerated death row inmate, or other speaker;
• Show a film followed by a discussion (TCADP staff/ volunteers can be available to help facilitate if you wish);
• Talk with fellow clergy about the death penalty at clergy breakfasts or other professional gatherings.

Printed materials, speakers, films, and discussion guides are available to you at no cost from TCADP. We are happy to work with you on developing a program that fits your needs and capacity. To learn more or to request resources go to: http://tcadp.org/faith-community-event-sign-up/ (under Programs, click on “Religious Outreach”) or call the TCADP office at 512-441-1808.

Calendar

June

3 Odessa Chapter Meeting, 4:00pm, odessa@tcadp.org

3-5 North Texas UMC Annual Conference, Dallas

6 TX UMC Annual Conference—Witness to Innocence, Houston

7-10 SWTX UMC Annual Conference, Corpus Christi

7-10 LULAC Conference, San Marcos*

8-9 Democratic State Convention, Houston

9 San Antonio Pridefest*

14-16 Rio Grande UMC Annual Conference, San Antonio*

15-16 Texas Black Expo, Houston*

16 Soul Food Fest, Grand Prairie

20 Dallas Chapter Meeting, 7:00pm, dallas@tcadp.org

20-21 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, Fort Worth*

23 Houston Pridefest*

25 El Paso Chapter Meeting, 6:00pm, elpaso@tcadp.org

26-July 2 Starving for Justice:  Death Penalty Fast and Vigil Supreme Court Steps, Washington, D.C.

July

7-12 NAACP National Convention, Houston*

18 Scheduled Execution: Yokamon Hearn

TCADP will staff an information booth at all events marked with a star.  For more information about these events or to volunteer, or to help staff a table, email info@tcadp.org.

TCADP is on Facebook – become a Fan today!  On Twitter, follow us!  And on LinkedIn – Join Us!

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This week, the Houston Chronicle affirmed its call for the abolition of the death penalty in an editorial focused on the wrongful execution of Carlos DeLuna (“Death penalty perils,” May 24, 2012).  Here are excerpts:

We have noted before, as have other observers, that the death penalty in Texas is all too often plagued by errors and failings, and defendants, whether guilty or innocent, have most likely been executed on the strength of faulty evidence. We concluded therefore that rather than risk executing an innocent person, we should abolish the death penalty.
Last week, we were confronted by compelling evidence that in all likelihood, the unthinkable had happened and the state of Texas had indeed executed an innocent man: Carlos DeLuna, put to death in 1989 for the stabbing death of Wanda Lopez at a Corpus Christi convenience store.

The editorial ends with this call for Texas to follow the lead of other states in repealing the death penalty:

Texas has made significant changes in the past few years, one of them being the adoption of a life without parole sentencing option in capital cases. This in itself takes away a major incentive for the death sentence. But the fact is, we can never rule out human failings and errors. We need to follow the example of a growing number of states and repeal our death penalty law. Its risks far outweigh its benefits.

Read the full editorial.

Also, watch this wonderful PBS NewsHour piece on the DeLuna case, which includes an interview with Columbia University Law Professor Jim Liebman: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june12/deathpenalty_05-24.html

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The June issue of Texas Monthly magazine features a fascinating discussion that took place recently among some of the most pivotal players in our state’s criminal justice system.  Jake Silverstein, the editor of Texas Monthly, sat down with six individuals to talk about Texas’ abysmal record of wrongful convictions and to ask these questions: Why does this keep happening? Can anything be done to stop it?

The six participants in the panel discussion are:

Art Acevedo has been the chief of the Austin Police Department since 2007.

Rodney Ellis was elected to the state Senate in 1990 from District 13, in Houston.

Anthony Graves was wrongfully convicted in 1992 and released from jail in 2010. He lives in Houston.

Barbara Hervey is a judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals and the chair of the court’s fourteen-member Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit. She lives in San Antonio.

Kelly Siegler is a special prosecutor. She lives in Houston.

Craig Watkins is the DA of Dallas County and a former defense attorney.

See what they have to say at http://www.texasmonthly.com/2012-06-01/feature2.php.

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A new editorial published yesterday by the Dallas Morning News (“Carlos DeLuna death case is unnerving, “May 16, 2012) comments on the new investigation into his wrongful execution, noting that “the findings should nauseate those who trust that only the greatest care, the most professional police work, the most rigorous jury and appellate review take place before someone is strapped to the gurney and allowed one last say.”

The editors also note the fact that while a majority of Americans (61% according to the latest Gallup poll) say they support the death penalty, a strong majority also believe that an innocent person has been executed.  They ask whether the case of Carlos DeLuna might address that dichotomy.  Here’s an excerpt from the editorial:

A bizarre reality is imbedded in the public’s attitudes toward the death penalty: Most Americans support it, yet most also allow for the possibility that innocent people can or have been executed.

This suggests one of two things. Either the nation is callous to the idea of fatal error, which we pray is not the truth, or there’s never been a case that has sufficiently aroused the public by putting a face on an innocent victim of a state death chamber.

Could that have changed this week?

Read the full editorial.

Also read this editorial from the New York Times: “A Routine Execution in Texas,” May 15, 2012.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

CONTACT: Kristin Houlé, Executive Director
512-441-1808 (office); 512-552-5948  (cell)
khoule@tcadp.org

Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
New article revisits haunting questions about the case of Carlos DeLuna

(Austin, TX) – A book-length article published today in the Columbia University Human Rights Law Review sheds new light on the case of Carlos DeLuna – who was executed by the State of Texas on December 7, 1989 for the 1983 murder of convenience store clerk Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi – and seeks to answer haunting questions as to whether he was in fact innocent of this crime.  Reinforcing previous investigations, this groundbreaking article and accompanying website by Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman and a team of students also provides compelling evidence of the identity of the real killer, a violent and dangerous man who was well-known to law enforcement yet was ridiculed by prosecutors as a “phantom” of DeLuna’s imagination during his trial.

Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution represents one of the most thorough depictions of a criminal investigation and its aftermath in U.S. history, cataloguing in minute detail all of the flaws and failures – from a desperate 911 call from Wanda Lopez that took minutes for the police to answer to concerns regarding the effects of the lethal injection cocktail administered to Carlos DeLuna.  Everything that could possibly go wrong in a death penalty case did so here.  Among the many issues calling into question the reliability of DeLuna’s conviction are:

• A single cross-ethnic eyewitness identification conducted at night, at the crime scene, while the suspect was in the back seat of a police squad car;
• No corroborating forensics and a sloppy crime scene investigation;
• Grossly inadequate representation at the trial and appellate levels, including failure of his court-appointed attorneys – one of whom had never tried a criminal case in court, let alone a capital murder case – to present any witnesses or mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase; and
• Prosecutorial failure to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.

At the time of his trial, DeLuna claimed that Carlos Hernandez, a man who closely resembled him – and who matched the initial description of a witness who came face-to-face with the killer – had committed the murder.  Prosecutors derided his claim as a “lie” and told jurors that there was no Carlos Hernandez.  In upholding the conviction and death sentence on appeal, multiple courts said the same thing – Carlos Hernandez did not exist.  Yet evidence uncovered years after DeLuna’s execution and presented here in painstaking detail reveals not only that Carlos Hernandez existed, but was well-known to police and prosecutors at the time of trial and had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Hernandez’s violence against young Hispanic women in Corpus Christi continued after his “tocayo” (namesake or twin), Carlos DeLuna, went to death row and was executed.

“The institutions meant to protect public safety and promote justice failed utterly in this case,” said Kristin Houlé, Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.  “They not only failed to provide Carlos DeLuna with a fair chance to defend his life but they also failed the community by leaving another suspect – a dangerous man with a history of violence – free to terrorize more innocent victims.”

Now, nearly 25 years since Carlos DeLuna’s wrongful execution, Texas is steadily moving away from use of the death penalty as prosecutors and juries embrace alternatives that punish the truly guilty and protect society.  Last year, the state carried the fewest executions since 1996 and death sentences in Texas remained at a historic low level, when just eight people were sentenced to death statewide.  Overall, new death sentences in Texas have declined more than 70% since 2003 and have become isolated to a small number of jurisdictions.

Yet the flaws and failures that were starkly evident in the case of Carlos DeLuna still persist in today’s imperfect system.  Since 1973, 140 people – including 12 in Texas – have been exonerated from death rows nationwide due to evidence of their wrongful conviction.  The cases of Cameron Todd Willingham, Claude Jones, Gary Graham, and Ruben Cantu also have raised serious questions about the risk of wrongful executions in Texas.

“This article is appearing at a critical time, as concerns about the risk of wrongful conviction continue to call into question the reliability and fairness of the state’s death penalty system,” said Houlé. “Attitudes toward the death penalty are shifting as public confidence in the ultimate punishment continues to erode. TCADP urges all concerned citizens, community leaders, and elected officials to use Los Tocayos Carlos as an opportunity to confront the realities of this irreversible punishment and reconsider the wisdom, efficacy, and virtue of the death penalty as a means of achieving justice.”

Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution is based on an 18-month investigation by Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman and a team of students. The article and accompanying materials can be accessed at www.thewrongcarlos.net.

The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a statewide, grassroots membership organization based in Austin.  Visit www.tcadp.org for more information.

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In light of the developments in the Carlos Deluna case as highlighted on www.thewrongcarlos.net, TCADP has responded by creating a new Wrongful Execution webpage listing information on at least three known cases of probable wrongful execution:  Carlos DeLuna, Claude Jones, and Cameron Todd Willingham.

Learn more about these Texas cases and how you can get involved so their names are not forgotten.

http://tcadp.org/get-informed/wrongful-execution/

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