Exonerated death row inmates urge Perry to end executions in Texas
Kelly West /AMERICAN-STATESMAN
In an emotional series of speeches on the steps of the state Capitol, about two dozen freed death row inmates from across the nation on Saturday called on Texas and Gov. Rick Perry to end the state's death penalty.
"If I had been in the state of Texas, I'd be dead right now," said Derrick Jamison, who spent nearly two decades on Ohio's death row before his murder conviction was overturned because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence.
"I have to come here and speak out about the death penalty, because not another person should die at the hands of the government," Jamison said afterward. "You can't bring them back from the grave if you make a mistake."
The exonerated inmates then joined a few hundred supporters and death penalty abolitionists for Austin's 12th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. As part of their march through downtown, protesters stopped at the Governor's Mansion, where they called on Perry to return home from the presidential campaign trail and "do what's right."
Lily Hughes, with the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said Perry's presidential bid was an opportunity for death penalty opponents. "The national spotlight is once again on Texas," she said. "If we succeed here, the national abolition of the death penalty can't follow far behind."
Texas leads the nation in the number of executed inmates with 475 since the state re-enacted its death penalty in 1974, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Of the 136 inmates freed from the nation's death rows since 1973, 12 were from Texas, according to the center.
Many in the crowd carried mock Perry/Willingham campaign signs, a reference to Cameron Todd Willingham, a Corsicana man who was executed in 2004. In April, the Texas Forensic Science Commission determined that fire investigators, including a deputy fire marshal, relied on scientifically invalid techniques to rule that Willingham intentionally set fire to his Corsicana home, killing his three young daughters.
The exonerated death row inmates, many of whom are touring the country to rally support for the abolition movement, sounded a consistent note as they addressed the crowd. "I'm here to tell you that if I had been in the state of Texas, I would not have been here. I would have been dead," said Juan Roberto Melendez, who spent more than 17 years on Florida's death row before being released in 2002.
Ray Krone was sentenced to die in Arizona, but he was released in 2002 after DNA testing determine someone else committed the killing for which he was convicted. "Thank God for DNA, and thank God it wasn't in Texas," he said.
jschwartz@statesman.com; 912-2942
"I have to come here and speak out about the death penalty, because not another person should die at the hands of the government," Jamison said afterward. "You can't bring them back from the grave if you make a mistake."
The exonerated inmates then joined a few hundred supporters and death penalty abolitionists for Austin's 12th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. As part of their march through downtown, protesters stopped at the Governor's Mansion, where they called on Perry to return home from the presidential campaign trail and "do what's right."
Lily Hughes, with the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said Perry's presidential bid was an opportunity for death penalty opponents. "The national spotlight is once again on Texas," she said. "If we succeed here, the national abolition of the death penalty can't follow far behind."
Texas leads the nation in the number of executed inmates with 475 since the state re-enacted its death penalty in 1974, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Of the 136 inmates freed from the nation's death rows since 1973, 12 were from Texas, according to the center.
Many in the crowd carried mock Perry/Willingham campaign signs, a reference to Cameron Todd Willingham, a Corsicana man who was executed in 2004. In April, the Texas Forensic Science Commission determined that fire investigators, including a deputy fire marshal, relied on scientifically invalid techniques to rule that Willingham intentionally set fire to his Corsicana home, killing his three young daughters.
The exonerated death row inmates, many of whom are touring the country to rally support for the abolition movement, sounded a consistent note as they addressed the crowd. "I'm here to tell you that if I had been in the state of Texas, I would not have been here. I would have been dead," said Juan Roberto Melendez, who spent more than 17 years on Florida's death row before being released in 2002.
Ray Krone was sentenced to die in Arizona, but he was released in 2002 after DNA testing determine someone else committed the killing for which he was convicted. "Thank God for DNA, and thank God it wasn't in Texas," he said.
jschwartz@statesman.com; 912-2942
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