Texas Defender Service (TDS) is a non-profit law firm that seeks to establish a fair and equitable criminal justice system in Texas.
Operating as usual
All four state executions scheduled to have happened so far in 2021 have been blocked. That includes two in Texas, one in Tennessee, and now one in Alabama.
The US is now in its longest stretch without a state execution in 40 years.
Alabama inmate Willie B. Smith was set to be put to death on Thursday in Atmore, but his execution was called off just before midnight.
Tennessee executed Sedley Alley in 2006, despite most physical evidence pointing toward an alternate, unknown suspect.
Now, his daughter is fighting for DNA testing to prove his innocence. The State opposes the testing.
If DNA exonerates Sedley Alley, it will be the first time someone was proved to have been wrongly put to death.
!["The Trump administration’s spree of executions seems to have given [death penalty repeal] some urgency in Virginia."“[T...](https://external.fymy1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQGel7ehukqinQe6&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic01.nyt.com%2Fimages%2F2021%2F02%2F04%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2F04-Vadeathpenalty%2Fmerlin_182309418_ae5968c7-527c-459e-8f41-0bf8c769f348-facebookJumbo.jpg&_nc_cb=1&_nc_hash=AQEDULMu67kMiGgi)
"The Trump administration’s spree of executions seems to have given [death penalty repeal] some urgency in Virginia."
“[T]he rash of executions just put the issue front and center for some people who hadn’t thought about it before.”
From The New York Times on the first state in the former Confederacy abolishing the death penalty:
Democrats in control of the House and the State Senate have passed a ban on executions, and the governor is expected to approve it — the latest sign of an ascendant progressive agenda in the state.
Virginia has executed 1,389 people since 1608.
Now, more than half of U.S. states will have either abolished the death penalty (23) or have a governor-issued moratorium on executions (3).
Gov. Ralph Northam has vowed to sign the bill, making Virginia the first southern state to end capital punishment
Clinton Young is on death row in Texas for a crime he says he didn't commit. Recently, defense attorneys learned that the prosecutor on his case was also working as a clerk for the judge.
USA TODAY has a great piece on Young's quest for a new trial.
A prosecutor moonlighted on the cases of 355 defendants for nine judges. Their sentences range from probation to the death penalty.
"For many decades, there have been men marooned in prisons, mainly throughout the South, with death sentences that both sides know, under some sort of détente, will never be carried out."
Important piece by The Marshall Project on how people who are too mentally ill to execute are kept in solitary confinement on death row, even though they will likely never be executed.
Raymond Riles has been on death row longer than anyone in America. He's one of many who have languished there for decades with severe mental illnesses.
“I could not even believe it until I just walked out the door, and it was the first moment I felt it was true." - Austin's Rosa Jimenez, a "likely innocent" woman, on her emotional story, in The New York Times.
Rosa Jimenez was imprisoned after being convicted of murder in the death of a toddler who choked on paper towels while she was babysitting him in 2003. Experts now say the death was accidental.
"Trump failed to include even one Latino nominee among his appointments to the 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, after the only Latino judge retired."
There is no time to waste.
Junk science and potential unethical prosecutorial conduct put Areli Escobar on death row. A court in Austin now says he deserves a new trial.
Dubious DNA evidence—and a potential coverup by the Travis County DA’s office—are at the heart of a judge’s recommendation that Areli Escobar gets a new trial.
In 1996, Congress and the courts used white supremacist terrorism as a justification to, in some cases, nearly foreclose real review of constitutional deprivations in death penalty cases.
We cannot make the same mistake again. From The New York Times:
Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 attack in Oklahoma City spurred legislation that gutted death row inmates’ rights. In the wake of the siege of the Capitol, will we make a similar mistake?
"In five days, a president will take office who wants to eliminate the death penalty. And the current administration is attempting one final act of cruelty before he does."
After 17 years without a federal execution in the United States, the Trump administration has gone on what can only be called a killing spree.
Friday would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 92nd birthday. On that day, the Trump Administration hopes to kill a Black man, Dustin Higgs.
Martin Luther King III writes about how the execution would dishonor his father's legacy:
Our leaders should heed my father's call to move toward love, not hate.
"Our Constitution forbids the execution of a person who is unable to rationally understand her execution. The current administration knows this. And they killed her anyway."
On the cruelty of the government killing Lisa Montgomery:
The federal government was willing to risk a superspreader event to kill a victim of sexual torture.
"Nobody has the right to take another life. I don’t care if it’s the law. And it’s so easy to change the law.”
Let's get to it.
The killings in Terre Haute may look like an aberration, but they are part of a violent tradition that Americans have long accepted.
"Who figured out how to turn crushed Doritos and hot water into masa for tamales? I’ve rarely been as impressed as I’ve been by these portraits of ingenuity, born of the utmost constraints."
A great piece on cooking in prison.
Earlonne Woods let his kitchen instincts guide him at San Quentin. But Samin Nosrat offered to teach him this more flavorful version.
“The people who are being executed tend not to be the worst of the worst offenders but the most vulnerable,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “They are disproportionately severely mentally ill, brain damaged, intellectually disabled or chronically abused or a combination of those.”
Such an important piece from The Marshall Project.
Mental illness, childhood abuse and brain injuries affect a large share of those who face the death penalty.
2020 has been a year of tragedy. But we can start 2021 by saving one life: the life of a woman who has endured lifelong abuse, trauma, and severe mental illness. Let’s #SaveLisa.
Go to SaveLisa.org to sign the petition, and share as wide as you can!
"If there is any silver lining to Trump’s execution spree, it is that it has reinvigorated momentum against the death penalty."
Will Trump’s execution spree, court shutdowns, and the toll of Covid-19 hasten the demise of the death penalty?
"The idea of execution promises catharsis. The reality of it delivers the opposite, a nauseating sense of shame and regret."
From The New York Times on Trump's ruthless spree of executions.
The Trump administration has resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. I witnessed the latest one.
We know our work is far from complete. Please consider supporting TDS this holiday season and double the impact of your gift with a generous matching gift from H-E-B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtaa25x6jcI
Learn about our mission at Texas Defender Service and how we work to fight use of the death penalty in Texas.
We are excited to announce a $5,000 matching gift this holiday season from our partner H-E-B to help TDS save the lives. Donate by December 31 and double the impact of your gift! https://www.classy.org/campaign/tds-digital-campaign-2020/c305983
This GivingTuesday help Texas Defender Service celebrate 25 years of providing passionate representation for those facing death and to eradicate systemic flaws in our criminal justice system. Texas Defender Service (TDS) is a nonprofit law firm with offices in Austin and Houston, TX. Founded i...
The United States government is torturing Lisa Montgomery while it waits to execute her.
The last-ditch fight to save the first woman facing federal execution in 67 years.
Urgent Action Needed!
President Trump has more lame duck executions scheduled in January. Here's how you can help:
Sign this petition to get President-Elect Biden to speak out: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/president-elect-biden-call-out-trumps-lame-duck-executions
Write your representatives: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/congress-abolish-the-federal-military-death-penalty
Tell congress the death penalty is not an effective tool to stop crime. Take action now to abolish the federal death penalty!
Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered relief for TDS mitigation unit client Clifton Williams, who was originally sentenced to death despite his intellectual disability.
Now two death-sentenced TDS mitigation unit clients—the other being Geronimo Gutierrez—have obtained relief from the court in the past two weeks! Congratulations to all involved!
This is great news out of Ohio! However, as the latest federal executions have shown, moratorium policies can change as administrations change. The fight continues.
It’s “pretty clear” there won’t be any executions next year, DeWine told The Associated Press during a year-end interview.
Anthony Graves was formerly on Texas death row and knows first-hand what it mean to lose hope. Texas Defender Service (TDS) brings hope, love, care, equality and justice and a fighting spirit to our clients on death row. Support TDS today on #GivingTuesday2020 https://www.classy.org/campaign/c305983 #justice #criminaljustice
"Higgs is slated to die on Jan. 15, the birth date of Martin Luther King Jr., a fitting final statement of disregard for Black life from an administration defined by its racism."
Important piece from The Daily Beast.
The outgoing Trump administration will have killed more prisoners since July than any other administration has done in a full year since 1896.
It's important that @Texas Defender Service (TDS) exists in order to give attorneys like Layne Kruse the help needed to represent clients suffering from mental health issues. Support TDS today for #GivingTuesday2020 https://www.classy.org/campaign/c305983
Save the Date! On #GivingTuesday join Texas Defender Service (TDS) in our 25-year fight to provide passionate representation for those facing death and to eradicate systemic flaws in our criminal justice system. Go to https://www.classy.org/campaign/c305983 for more info and mark your calendars for Dec. 1! #criminaljustice #socialjustice #givingtuesday2020
Thank you to the City of Houston for doing its part to end prison slavery!
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice was able to offer the lowest price because it does not pay its workers. The agency uses prisoners, who do not earn wages when they work in Texas.
There's a pandemic ravaging our country, but right now South Carolina is preoccupied with finding drugs so the state can kill a man.
Richard Bernard Moore is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 4 at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
The share of Americans who oppose the death penalty is higher than at any point in more than 50 years!
Support in the United States for capital punishment keeps declining and more Americans now oppose the death penalty than at any point in more than a half-century, according to a Gallup survey Thursday.
Our country has let COVID-19 ravage our prisons largely unchecked.
It’s both a moral failure and a public health one.
"I'm bruised, but I'm not broken. My sister, Lisa Montgomery, is broken.
A harrowing piece from Lisa Montgomery's sister. The government is trying to kill Lisa in December.
Lisa was born with brain damage. As children, both of us were raped, repeatedly. I was rescued; she went on to a lifetime of mental illness, beatings and torture. Now she's on federal death row.
Orlando Hall was sentenced to death by an all-white jury. The prosecutor who helped pick his jury was later found by the Supreme Court to have utilized racist jury selection techniques. The government still plans to execute him tomorrow.
Orlando Hall, among the first to be condemned under the 1994 Crime Bill, will be the eighth person executed on federal death row this year.
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Scott Panetti is a paranoid schizophrenic who was allowed to represent himself in court wearing a TV-Western cowboy costume. He has a fixed delusion that Satan, working through Texas, is trying to execute him to put an end to his preaching of the Gospels. Texas intends to execute him on December 3rd. Please share this video and sign the petition asking Texas Governor Rick Perry to spare #Panetti’s life: http://chn.ge/1v3cc5m
Check out our new promotional video and learn how you can support our life-saving work!
Please tune in tonight at 10pm central to see KSAT's Paul Venema interview TDS Director of Community Outreach and death row exoneree Anthony Graves! (courtesy of KSAT 12)
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