Killing Justice in the Lone Star State

Michael O'Brien

Description

Killing Justice in the Lone Star State is a reality check on active Death Row cases (and some post-execution ones).

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Texas

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909976931
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Killing Justice in the Lone Star State
Calling Time on Texas Death Row
Copyright and publication details
Killing Justice in the Lone Star State: Calling Time on Texas Death Row
Michael A O’Brien
ISBN 978-1-909976-92-4 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-909976-93-1 (Epub ebook)
ISBN 978-1-909976-94-8 (Adobe ebook)
Copyright © 2021 This work is the copyright of Michael A O’Brien. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by him in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2021 Waterside Press.
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, BN23 6QH. Tel: [phone]; [e-mail] ; www.gardners.com
North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Tel: [phone]; [e-mail]
Cataloguing In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
Printed by Severn, Gloucester, UK.
Ebook Killing Justice in the Lone Star State is available as an ebook including via library models.
Published 2021 by
Waterside Press Ltd
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield on Loddon, Hook
Hampshire RG27 0JG.
Telephone [phone]
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Email [e-mail]
Killing Justice in the Lone Star State
Calling Time on Texas Death Row
Michael A O’Brien
Table of Contents
About the author ix
Publisher’s note x
Acknowledgements xi
Dedication xiii
Preface 15
Shock, trauma and disbelief 15
Still the pain lingers 17 Introduction 21
A few notes from the UK 21
Timothy Evans 22
Some other notorious UK cases 23
Mahoud Mattan 24
Another worrying case from my home city 25
Could capital punishment ever return to the UK? 26
A brief worldwide perspective 28
Capital punishment in the USA 31
Miscarriages of justice in the USA 32
Could capital punishment be abolished in the USA? 33
A deeper malaise? 34
Focusing on Texas 35
Death penalty reform in Texas 37
Just imagine 39
What leads to a miscarriage of justice? 39 The Case of Cameron Todd Willingham 43
Evidence and so-called evidence 43
The evidence at the trial 44
Re-investigation 46
Formal re-examination of the case 48 The Case of Darlie Routier 49
A most tragic case 49
‘Silly string’ 50
False directions 51
Problems with experts 52
False conviction 53
Hope for justice yet 54 The Law of Parties 57
Purpose of the law 57
The law of parties and the death penalty 59
Reckless indifference to human life 59
Postscript 60 The Texas Seven 63
Randy Ethan Halprin 64
Update 67
Patrick Murphy 67
A hostile policy 68 The Case of Jeffrey Wood 71
Outline of the facts 71
What the jury didn’t hear 71
‘Dr Death’ 72
The victim’s father 74
A plea by the condemned man’s sister 74 The Case of Paul Storey 77
A legal battle 78
Differing versions of the story 78
Unreliable memories and questionable realities 80
Dissenting voices 82 Life on Death Row: A Personal Account 83
The Polunsky Unit 83
Blaine Milam’s first-hand account 84
Fundamental human rights 99 The Case of Kenneth Foster Jr 101
‘A foolish mistake’ 102
Trial defects 102
Flaws in the prosecutions case 103
The defence version and juror misconduct 104
The missing evidence 107
Injustice at the sentencing phase 108
Constitutional deficiencies 109
What a new trial can show 110
Kenneth Foster today 111 The Case of George Stinney and Other Juveniles 113
An iconic case 113
A most hostile arena 115
Seventy years of injustice 117
A dubious claim to fame 118
More on juveniles 118
Roper v Simmons 119
Other landmark rulings 120
International considerations 122
A move for entirely new legislation 124
The Beijing Rules 125 The Case of Ruben Cantu 127
Cantu’s early life 127
Shaky identification evidence 128
The case goes cold 129
Retractions 130 Lockdown Menu: Food on Death Row 133
Breakfast 134
Lunch 134
Dinner 135
Total calories per day 136
The condemned prisoner’s last meal 137 The Case of Carlos DeLuna 139
The trial 141
DeLuna’s Death Row interview 143
Statement by the victim’s family 144 Some Other Cases of Concern 147
Rodney Reed 149
Requests to re-evaluate Reed’s case 149
A new trial 151
David Wayne Spence 152
Siren voices 153
Gary Lee Graham 154
Worrying identification evidence 155
A public backlash 157
Claude Howard Jones 158
Splitting hairs 158
Evidence of a co-accused 159
Serious doubts 159
Lester Bower 160
Richard Allen Masterson 161
Concealed evidence 162
Robert Lynn Pruett 164
Problems with informants again … 165
Larry Ray Swearingen 166
Suspect evidence 167
A fresh twist 168 National and International Standards 169
Role of the Supreme Court 169
Key rulings and small margins 171
International trends against capital punishment 172
Is some shock to the system needed? 173
International standards for the treatment of prisoners 174
Civil and political rights 177
Prevention of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment 178
Disability 178
Rising to the challenge 179
Epilogue 181
Playing God 181
Hypocrisy and judicial murder 182
Sources and Further Reading 183
Index 187
About the author
Born in Cardiff and raised in the community of Ely, the second largest council estate in Europe, Michael O’Brien is a survivor of an emblematic UK miscarriage of justice. Known as ‘The Cardiff Newsagent Three’ case it remains a key reference point for campaigners against injustice. His writings include his autobiography, The Death of Justice (2008) and Prisons Exposed (2013) which won the People’s Choice Book Award at Amazon. In January 2014, it was Book of the Month and Book of the Year in December of that year.
In 2012 the O’Brien’s son Dylan lost his battle with an unknown genetic condition, prompting the author to write Dylan’s Story: A Father’s Journey (2016) to raise awareness of metabolic and undiagnosed conditions. His book Overcoming Injustice and Loss (2018) helped inspire others with similar experiences.
Having overcome many traumatic events (including the loss of an earlier child at the time of his arrest in the Cardiff Newsagent Three case), Michael O’Brien uses his experiences to help others maintain positive attitudes. As a motivational speaker he has addressed many events including at the House of Commons. He also acts for youngsters as an appropriate adult at police stations in Wales, and as a Mackenzie Friend helps those who cannot get legal representation in the family courts.
Publisher’s note
The views and opinions in this book are those of the author and not necessarily shared by the publisher. Readers should draw their own conclusions concerning the possibility of alternative views, accounts, descriptions or explanations.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank author John Morris for his help with this book and for inspiring me to finish it and try to make a difference.
I am also grateful to the Death Penalty Information Center in Texas, Kenneth Foster Jr, Randy Halprin (who both feature in this book) and their supporters for assisting me with this book. They highlighted some of the cases I write about and allowed me to see and use their materials.
Equally, I should mention the assistance given by Waterside Press whose in-house team helped me to develop Killing Justice in the Lone Star State from my original manuscript into the book you see here, especially where clarification or additional referencing was needed.
Capital punishment is a barbaric practice and has no place in a civilised and just society. It does and has resulted in innocent people being imprisoned for lengthy periods of time or wrongly executed. I hope this book will help to bring about change and rid us of a medieval practice which, in the USA, occurs predominately in Texas.
Michael A O’Brien
April 2021
Dedication
I dedicate this book to all those individuals who have I believe been wrongly convicted and executed in Texas some of whom appear in the chapters which follow, where justice has failed both them and the victims’ families.
Preface
In 1987, a Cardiff shopkeeper called Phillip Saunders was attacked and robbed in the back yard of his home by an unknown assailant wielding a shovel. Badly injured, he was rushed to hospital where he died of his injuries. At the time, Darren Hall, Ellis Sherwood and I were young men. I was just 19 but in a stable relationship, married with one child and another on the way. I held down a steady job. Most of my friends were out of work ‘on the dole,’ and passed their days stealing cars and taking drugs: ganja and the like. I made the mistake of joining them to ‘fit in.’ Sometimes you do things you don’t really want to. That mistake cost me most dearly.
We were brought in by the police for questioning. Crucially, we had no alibis for when the crime took place. Whilst held in custody we were handcuffed to hot radiators, refused food and water, and denied access to lawyers.
Two years earlier, when I was 17, I’d been sexually- assaulted. I lodged an official complaint with the police. The officers who investigated it were the same ones questioning me now. They taunted me that I would be sexually-assaulted in prison. It was really horrible stuff. But this was part of their strategy to get me to admit to a crime I had not committed. Under the same intense pressure, Darren Hall wrongly ‘confessed’ to being involved in the murder. Damningly, he implicated Sherwood and myself, fibbing that he’d acted as lookout in a ‘ robbery gone wrong.’ He told investigators the three of us ran from the scene into a churchyard whe