Truth Emerges re Willingham Execution

WRONGFUL EXECUTION -- Cameron Todd Willingham was an innocent man who Texas executed on February 17, 2004. The Innocence Project recently uncovered evidence that Webb, the state's witness against Willingham, was promised a reduced sentence to implicate Willingham. Willingham was convicted for arson deaths of his three children by (1) faulty science and (2) Webb's testimony. Saying "DEATH to the DEATH PENALTY" is the only way to guarantee that innocent people are never executed.

Webb recanted prior to Willingham’s execution, stating that he had been forced by John Jackson, the then-district attorney, to provide false testimony in exchange for favorable treatment in the form of a reduced robbery charge in his own criminal case. Willingham’s lawyer was never told of Webb’s recantation. Willingham was murdered by Texas, and John Jackson became a judge. He has now retired.

Innocence Project reports developments in "New Evidence Emerges in Texas Wrongful Execution Case"
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/New_Evidence_Emerges_in_Texas_Wrongful_Execution_Case.php

NY Times reported that Willingham's cousin Patricia Cox said that if an exoneration does occur, the family has no plans to press for damages. “We’re not asking compensation,” she said. “We’re asking justice.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/us/evidence-of-concealed-jailhouse-deal-raises-questions-about-a-texas-execution.html

The University of Michigan Law School Innocence Clinic says most wrongful convictions are caused by:

• Eyewitness Misidentification 
• Junk Science 
• False Confessions 
• Government Misconduct 
• Lying Snitches 
• Bad Lawyering

Willingham was wrongfully convicted and executed because of junk science, government misconduct, and a lying snitch who later recanted his testimony, but the justice system was not interested in the truth. 

Other articles by this writer about Willingham's murder by Texas:

The Wrongful Execution of Cameron Todd Willingham

http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/execution-of-cameron-todd-willingham.html

Cameron Todd Willingham's Wrongful Execution - and Others

http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/cameron-todd-willinghams-wrongful.html
Also featured by "Break All Chains" blog

http://breakallchains.blogspot.com/2009/11/cameron-todd-willinghams-wrongful.html

Help Todd Willingham Rest in Peace - Clear the Name of Wrongly Executed Texan ~ Care2 News

http://www.ddb.aspca.org/news/member/513396753/1247802

Thank you to all employees and supporters of the Innocence Project who fight wrongful executions every day.

10 Things Anyone Can Do To Help Exonerate Innocent People and 

Prevent Wrongful Convictions

http://www.innocenceproject.org/fix/What-can-I-do.php

MaryLovesJustice Neal

Director of Davis-MacPhail Truth Committee

http://DMTruth.blogspot.com

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

Phone 678.531.0262 

The Willingham Family

Timothy Johnson: Innocent Man Released from GA Death Row After 29 Years

Timothy Johnson has been released after having spent 29 years on Georgia's death row. Death Penalty Information Center carried the following information about Johnson:

Timothy Johnson was acquitted of murder charges and released from prison in Georgia on December 5, twenty-nine years after being charged with a murder and robbery at a convenience store. Johnson had originally pled guilty to the crimes in exchange for the prosecution's agreement not to seek the death penalty. The Georgia Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2006 because he was not properly informed of his constitutional protection against self-incrimination and his right to confront witnesses against him. The jury deliberated for only about an hour before rendering the acquittal. His family greeted him upon his release. “My heart is overwhelmed for him,” said his uncle, Willie Wilson. “I’m just elated.”

(B. Purser, "After 29 years in jail, Timothy Johnson is free," Macon Telegraph, December 6, 2013). See Innocence and Arbitrariness. The case illustrates the danger of using the death penalty as a plea-bargaining incentive. Defendants sometimes plead guilty to a crime they did not commit in order to avoid the possibility of a death sentence.

See the next article in the Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee blog, "Democide: Government Murders" at
http://dmtruth.blogspot.com/2013/12/democide-government-murders.html

Johnson hugs his family and gives thanks to God after winning prison release after 29 years of death row.

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) provides valuable information on death row inmates and their cases. It also offers historical information and statistics about capital punishment in the USA. I highly recommend DPIC for persons and corporations making a list or worthy organizations to receive charitable contributions this holiday season. A PayPal depository is on its website at http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/donate-dpic

Death Penalty Information Center
1015 18th Street NW, Suite 704 | Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-289-2275 | Fax: 202-289-7336
Email: dpic@deathpenaltyinfo.org

The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Founded in 1990, the Center promotes informed discussion of the death penalty by preparing in-depth reports, conducting briefings for journalists, and serving as a resource to those working on this issue. Please direct media inquiries to Elaine de Leon, Communications Director, at 202-289-4022 or edeleon@deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Mary Neal, director of

~Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee

~Human Rights for Prisoners March

~Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

~Dog Justice for Mentally Ill

Democide: Government Murders

DEMOCIDE is an opportunity for the government to show its mastery over the general populace, not unlike slave owners used to do. Slave masters called all the plantation slaves together to see a lynching happen. That way, slaves, who greatly outnumbered the slave owner and his supervisors, were terrorized and kept "in their places." So it is with the death penalty today. The slave owners feared the slaves' superior numbers, just as oppressive elitists fear the poor and working classes today.

The reason why prosecutors object to prisoners taking DNA tests or having new trials with substantial new evidence (that arrived after conviction) is because innocence does not really matter to them. Periodic executions like Willie Lynch suggested in the 1700s are for keeping slaves subdued. Through capital punishment, America's "lower classes" are treated like slaves, including everyone who works for a living and citizens who have a fixed income, i.e., people who cannot live off their dividends and inheritances. If murder was really offensive to masters over the criminal justice system, I would not be censored and stalked for asking why and how my mentally disabled brother was murdered after 18 days of secret arrest (kidnapping) in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003.

Capital punishment is not a deterrent to crimes, and neither is it uniformly applied for similar crimes. It was never meant to be. DP is merely an act of terrorism used to keep hundreds of millions of people respectful to government power. That is why capital punishment is limited to poor and working class persons and has a significantly higher rate of incidence among non-whites. Those are the people most oppressed and therefore most feared by oppressors - elitist white supremacists who benefit by keeping millions of people subservient.

Prosecution for murder and most other crimes in America depends on who the victims and defendants are in terms of wealth and class, skin hue, and how close the next election is. While inmates are tortured on death row, counting off their days until their own murders, police officers (government representatives) earn vacations by killing unarmed Americans - especially the mentally ill, who comprise over fifty percent of all police violence victims. Soldiers are awarded medals for killing people who pose no threat to this country. During the average convicted killer's term on death row in the United States, the government kills tens of thousands of people in wars and police violence. Democide is also murder. DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY.

Democide is used to demonstrate government mastery and prevent slave rebellions like those pictured.

This writer wrote another article with "democide" in its title. Please read it and tell me what you think. Do you agree that before America bombs another country for "killing its own citizens" we should have an accurate count of all the U.S. citizens killed by police? Nobody keeps track of that, and it would be useful information. 

"Democide: Death by Gov't in USA and Syria"
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/democide-death-by-govt-in-usa-and-syria.html

MaryLovesJustice
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
 

Give to the Innocence Project this Season

Give to the Innocence Project this Holiday Season!
http://goo.gl/8yJkI

Dear Mary,

I will always remember September 28, 2012, the day I walked out of prison a free man after 15 years on death row in Louisiana for a crime I did not commit. On that day I became the 300th person exonerated by DNA in the United States.

Hundreds of exonerees came before me and I know there are hundreds waiting to follow in my footsteps.
I’m writing today to ask you to donate to the Innocence Project and help free others like me.

A lot has changed in my life since that day in September. I’m 38 years old and through an online course, I'm learning how to type for the first time. I’m amazed to see all the information and resources instantly available on the internet. 

Soon after I was released, I moved to my own apartment in Minneapolis with the help of the Innocence Project. I got my GED in just three weeks and I’m taking college prep classes so I can enroll in the local community college. I’m also proud to share that I will soon be employed doing office work at the law firm of my local counsel.

My life may not seem that exciting but for me it is extraordinary. In prison I was only allowed outside of my cell for one hour each day. I am enjoying the freedom now to lock and unlock the door to my apartment with my own keys, to be able to walk in and out as I please, to run errands, take the bus, go to school, and earn a living.  I am very fortunate and grateful to have the support I need to make this transition and I look forward to the rest of my life as a free man.

Your support will truly make a difference and I hope you will help give others who were wrongfully convicted the same opportunity to be free.

Sincerely,

Damon Thibodeaux
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Reggie Clemons: Innocent on Death Row

Stop the Execution of Reggie Clemons in Missouri - Act w/ Amnesty http://bit.ly/nVv99h

PETITION

In the interest of justice, I urge you to grant Reggie Clemons clemency.  Mr. Clemons was sentenced to death in St. Louis as an accomplice in the 1991 murder of two young white women, Julie and Robin Kerry.  Two other black youths were also convicted, including Marlin Gray (executed in 2005). Clemons has consistently maintained his innocence, and his case illustrates many of the flaws in the U.S. death penalty system.

While I have tremendous sympathy for the family and friends of Julie and Robin Kerry, and am mindful of the pain and grief that they have experienced, I believe capital punishment only perpetuates a harmful cycle of violence.

I am particularly troubled by the lack of physical evidence in this case, allegations of police coercion and prosecutorial misconduct, questions of inadequate legal representation and questions of race, and finally, what appears to have been a "stacked" jury.

At the time of the trial, the prosecution conceded that Clemons neither killed the victims nor planned the crime because there was no physical evidence that tied him to the crime itself or the events leading up to it. The two main witnesses were a former suspect and a co-defendant.

Clemons alleges that under the pressure of police brutality he confessed to raping one of the victims, though never to murder.  Four federal judges have agreed that the prosecutor's conduct during the trial was "abusive and boorish."  And Clemons' lawyer had a full-time job in another state during her representation of Mr. Clemons, resulting in poor preparation for the trial.

The final issue when considering the case of Mr. Clemons is that of race.  Not only were the murder victims white, but the two crucial witnesses were as well.  The three convicted defendants were black, and during the jury selection, blacks were disproportionately dismissed, resulting in an unrepresentative jury given the sizable black population of St. Louis.  The jury's flaws were also noted in 2002 by a U.S. District Court judge who ruled that Clemons' death sentence should not stand because six prospective jurors had been improperly excluded at the jury selection.  Later a high court overturned this ruling on technical grounds.

While I am sympathetic to the pain and suffering caused by this terrible crime, I feel that executing Reggie Clemons would be unfair and unjust.  It is clear that Mr. Clemons' trial was flawed in numerous regards and that serious questions persist regarding the reliability of his conviction and the proportionality of his sentence.  I hope that you will follow this recommendation and commute the death sentence of Reggie Clemons.

Sign Amnesty's petition to save Reggie Clemons at this link http://bit.ly/nVv99h

Learn more about Reggie Clemons at these websites:
Free Reggie Clemons Now  www.freereggieclemonsnow.wordpress.com
Justice for Reggie  http://www.justiceforreggie.com/
HEARING STARTS ON REGGIE CLEMONS CASE SEPTEMBER 17 http://goo.gl/HEkgU
“Judge, there was injustice during every point on Reggie’s road to death row,” Josh Levine said in opening arguments Monday.