When I first discussed Texas Gov. Rick Perry's death penalty atrocities (
here and
here), he had already overseen 234 executions. However, since then, the media has been pretty bad in reporting that number has actually increased. Let's
take a look at execution #235:
Steven Michael Woods was executed on Tuesday for his involvement in the murder of a Texas couple, but [we have] learned it was his co-defendant, Marcus Rhodes, that actually pled guilty to the murders. […] Woods, 31, was given a lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. […]
Woods was convicted of capital murder in 2002 when a jury found him guilty for the shooting and stabbing of Bethena Brosz, 19, and Ronald Whitehead, 21. […] While Woods admitted to hanging out with the couple, he told authorities that it was his friend Rhodes who committed the crime and police later found the victims’ belongings in Rhodes’ car. Woods claimed he witnessed the crime but did not participate — he claimed he had no idea Rhodes was going to commit murder and that when it happened he was too scared to run away.
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| Rick Perry, the overseer of 235 executions in the state of Texas. |
Rhodes pled guilty to killing the Dallas-area couple, but Woods was also convicted for his involvement and a controversial Texas law allows a defendant to be put to death for a murder someone else committed. […] According to Reuters, this was the 33rd execution in the United States this year and the 10th in Texas.
In other words, Steven Woods was hanging out with a couple and his friend – unbeknownst to him – had plans to murder the aforementioned couple. Woods, too scared to run away from a man who just killed two innocent people, was then locked up and charged with his "involvement" in the killing of the couple. While the actual killer, Marcus Rhodes, who pled guilty to the charge, remains alive and well.
Two days later, Texas is set to kill another person. ThinkProgress
explores what may be execution #236 in Rick Perry's state. It's not much better:
On Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles denied [Duane Edward] Buck clemency, refusing to commute his death sentence to life without parole. That’s despite the fact that Buck’s former prosecutor and now-Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) have both called for a retrial because his case was so tainted by racist testimony:
[H]is lawyers are fighting to overturn his death sentence on the grounds that a psychologist told jurors at Buck’s 1997 trial that because Buck was black, he was more likely to be violent in the future, the Dallas Morning News reports.
A defendant is likelier to receive a death sentence if a jury determines that the defendant poses a future danger. It was improper to use Buck’s race as a factor in deciding whether he posed a future danger, his lawyers contend.
In 2001, Texas passed a law explicitly prohibiting the state from introducing evidence that a defendant’s race or ethnicity makes it likelier that he will commit a future act of violence.
Former Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (now a U.S. senator) wanted Buck’s case reviewed because of the sentencing testimony at issue. [...]
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| Racially slandered by the government of Texas. |
[…] When he was Texas Attorney General, Cornyn called for Buck and five others to receive a re-trial based on the racially-charged testimony that is now illegal. Over the last 10 years, Buck is the only one who hasn’t. […] Cornyn admitted that all of the cases were tainted by a constitutional error — relying on race as a consideration for the death penalty violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses.
It's pretty mind-boggling that a racist defense such as that could have been considered mainstream and legitimate – and legal! – not even 15 years ago. I cannot fathom what reason Texas would have for not giving this man a fair, Constitutional re-trial. If the evidence (sans racism) was strong enough, then the state clearly shouldn't have that hard of a time convicting him…right?
Of course, nothing exemplifies the broken state of Texas' criminal justice system better than the story of Cameron Todd Willingham – an innocent man, executed. In 1992, Cameron was convicted of killing his three young children by setting fire to the house. He was executed in 2004, under Rick Perry's watch. The New Yorker has an extremely
well-written, yet long piece on why information we now know would have saved his life. Following this, the state of Texas actually made their own investigation, finding that arson
was extremely unlikely. However, when it looked as if this panel was actually going to testify against Rick Perry's state of Texas, Rick Perry replaced
4 out of the 5 people on the panel.
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| The death penalty: just fucking wrong. |
I know that I have written extensively about
the problems with the death penalty. The most frustrating thing about being an activist on this side of the issue is that all of the corruption, wrongful executions, and major problems could easily be done away with: just abolish the death penalty. The ability to make people feel good about killing convicts and the possibility of using it as a wedge issue in tough elections – do those things really make all of this worth it?
I think not.
