[PAA-Discuss] Update on Todd Willingham Case Developments: The Cover-up Continues
Juli3 at aol.com
Juli3 at aol.com
Mon Feb 15 12:42:28 EST 2010
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February 3, 2010
Dear supporter of Texas Moratorium Network,
We have learned about some shocking misbehavior by John Bradley, who was
appointed chair last October of the Texas Forensic Science Commission by
Rick Perry. Bradley's appointment was an effort by Rick Perry to cover up
and delay the investigation into whether Texas used faulty forensic evidence
to convict and execute Todd Willingham.
We have learned that Bradley tried to interfere with a legislative hearing
held Jan 11 by the Chair of the Texas House Committee on Criminal
Jurisprudence. Also, at the meeting of the Commission held last Friday in
Harlingen, Bradley violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by refusing to allow a
documentary film crew to attend until an assistant Texas Attorney General
told Bradley to stop violating the law.
John Bradley should be removed as chair of the Texas Commission on
Forensic Science. He has proven by his handling of the first meeting that his
main goal was to cover-up and impede the investigation into whether Texas
relied on faulty arson evidence to execute a person who did not kill anyone.
_As reported by Gary Scharrer in The Houston Chronicl_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/13a988ee101ce7d8cdf3714b6b31c273/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) e:
Gallego had a committee hearing on Jan. 11 to focus on rules of evidence.
He invited Beyler totestify.
In a Jan. 26 letter, Beyler told Gallego: "Mr. Bradley.... asked me not
to appear before your committee. He was apparently concerned about your
motives in inviting me and was very concerned that you wished to do the
Commission harm."
"I was not at all convinced by his concerns and decided to come to Austin.
As it turns out, his fears were wholly without merit. I very much
appreciated that the committee members did not ask questions about the pending
TFSC work," Beyler wrote in the letter to Gallego.
The veteran lawmaker said it's its improper to tell witnesses not to show
up for a hearing.
"I'm really disappointed that he (John Bradley) would attempt to
interfere in a legislative hearing in that fashion," Gallego said.
But Bradley, the district attorney in Williamson County, say he simply
told Beyler "that his status as an expert in a case pending before the
Forensic Science Commission made it potentially a conflict to serve as a witness
in a hearing related to such matters before the conclusion of an
investigation."
"Mr. Beyler had already damaged his reputation for impartiality by
publicly commenting on the recent appointment of new commissioners. By entering
the political arena, he gave ammunition to those people who might question
his impartiality," Bradley said. "Having heard Mr. Beyler's presentation to
the House Committee, it appears that he wisely edited his remarks to
avoid further damaging his reputation. No one prevented him from testifying.
It is naive to think that his invitation was unrelated to his work for the
commission."
But Gallego said: "Our hearing was about the rules of evidence, and we
told everybody that up front. There was no effort on my part to talk about
anything else. If those cases came up by name, they came up peripherally."
_
Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle wrote a column _
(http://et.ratepoint.com/3da651db4ebeefc4c510993d69834f8c/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) this
week about how Rick Perry's handpicked puppet/chair of the Texas Forensic
Science Commission violated the _Texas Open Meetings Act_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/3da651db4ebeefc4c510993d69834f8c/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d)
(PDF) at Friday's meeting, which was held in Harlingen.
_From Rick Casey_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/3da651db4ebeefc4c510993d69834f8c/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) :
Friday started badly for John Bradley, the Williamson County district
attorney selected last fall by Gov. Rick Perry to ride herd over the
troublesome scientists on the Texas Forensic Science Commission.
His first official act of the morning was to violate the state's open
meetings law.
Then his day got worse.
This was the first meeting of the commission under Bradley, who was
appointed last September. His first official act was to cancel a meeting three
days later at which the commission was scheduled to receive a report from a
nationally renowned arson expert hired by the commission in its first
high-profile case.
The meeting had drawn national attention because the expert found that the
arson investigation that helped lead to the 2004 execution of Cameron
Todd Willingham for the murder of his children was badly flawed. It was
especially controversial because Perry had rejected a request to delay
Willingham's execution based on similar expert analysis.
Bradley unilaterally wrote the agenda for Friday's meeting to focus on new
policies and procedures, omitting the Willingham report. He also
unilaterally chose Harlingen (which is as close to Mexico City as to Fort Worth,
where three of the nine uncompensated and busy commission members live),
making wrong my snide prediction that he would hold the meeting in Presidio
to discourage reporters.
The session took place in a modest meeting room at a Marriott Courtyard
Hotel. A few area reporters were seated around the walls, as well as a
handful of protesters carrying signs. A camera crew from the national Innocence
Project streamed the meeting live on the group's Web site.
But Bradley evicted an Austin-based documentary crew before the meeting
started. One of its members called the attorney general's office in Austin,
which sent a message to Barbara Dean, the assistant district attorney who
has attended all of the commission's meetings, providing legal guidance
since its inception.
Film crew admitted
An hour and a half into the meeting, Dean, seated behind Bradley, tapped
him on the shoulder and quietly spoke into his ear. He announced a
10-minute break, and when the meeting resumed the film crew was in the room.
When I asked Bradley about the matter, he curtly told me to talk to the
film crew. I said I had and he replied with annoyance: “Then you know.”
His defensiveness was understandable. Enforcement of the Open Meetings
Act is the responsibility of local district attorneys such as himself.
_
Join the Facebook group Todd Willingham - Innocent and Executed: Shout it
from the Rooftops_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/14f242140f224e444ff99bff2eb36789/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) .
Register Now for the 2010 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break
March 15-19
_http://springbreakalternative.org/deathpenalty_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/9bcb38891062f1d6206697914659793d/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d)
Join us March 15-19, 2010 in Austin, Texas for the award-winning
Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break. It's free, except for a $25 housing
fee for those who need us to arrange housing for you. We will house you in a
shared room with other spring breakers in either a hotel or dorm. You are
responsible for your travel, food and other expenses, but the program and
most of the housing costs are on us, except for the $25 housing fee.
Alternative Spring Breaks are designed to give college and high school
students something more meaningful to do during their week off, rather than
just spending time at the beach or sitting at home catching up on school
work. The specific purpose of this Alternative Spring Break is to provide
five days of anti-death penalty activism, education and entertainment. This
is the place to be if you want to become a part of the next generation of
human rights leaders. Go to the beach to change your state of mind for a
week, come here to change the world forever.
We will provide participants with workshops led by experienced,
knowledgeable presenters who will teach them skills that they can use to go back
home and set up new anti-death penalty student organizations or improve ones
that may already exist. The skills participants will learn can also be
used in other issues besides the death penalty.
Students will gain valuable training and experience in grassroots
organizing, lobbying, preparing a direct action and media relations. During the
week, students will immediately put what they learn into action during
activities such as an Anti-Death Penalty Lobby Day and a Protest Day with a
rally at the Texas Capitol. There will be opportunities to write press
releases, speak in public, meet with legislators or their aides, and carry out a
protest at the Texas Capitol.
We will announce the daily schedule soon.
The list of speakers and special guests at the Alternative Spring Break
includes:
Shujaa Graham was exonerated in 1981 from California’s death row. As a
prisoner at San Quentin in the 70’s, Shujaa became part of the prison
activist movement, a reflection of the struggles against racism and injustice in
the outside communities. In 1973, because of his leadership in the prison
movement, Shujaa was targeted and framed in the murder of a prison guard
at the Deul Vocational Institute in Stockton, California. The community
became involved in his defense and supported him throughout four trials.
Shujaa and his co-defendant, Eugene Allen, were sent to San Quentin’s death row
in 1976, after a second trial in San Francisco. The district attorney had
systematically excluded all African-American jurors, and in 1979, the
California Supreme Court overturned the death conviction.
After spending three years on death row, Shujaa and his co-defendant
continued to fight for their innocence. A third trial ended in a hung jury and
after a fourth trial, they were found innocent. As Shujaa often says, he
won his freedom and affirmed his innocence in spite of the system. He is a
member of the Journey of Hope … From Violence to Healing.Curtis McCarty
was exonerated in 2007 after serving 21 years – including 19 years on death
row – for a 1982 Oklahoma City murder he didn’t commit. Curtis was
convicted twice and sentenced to death three times based on prosecutorial
misconduct and testimony from forensic analyst Joyce Gilchrist, whose lab
misconduct has contributed to at least two other convictions later overturned by
DNA evidence. In 1986, Curtis was convicted of a 1982 murder in Oklahoma
City and sentenced to die. Citing misconduct by the prosecutor and a police
lab analyst, the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction, and
Curtis was retried in 1989. He was again convicted and sentenced to death.
In 1995, the appeals court upheld his conviction but threw out his death
sentence; in 1996, he was sentenced to death again. In 2005, the Court of
Criminal Appeals again overturned his conviction, citing the continued
pattern of government misconduct – and new DNA tests showing that semen
recovered from the victim did not come from McCarty. He has toured and spoken
about his case, along with several exonerated prisoners with the Journey of
Hope … From Violence to Healing
Ron Keine was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in
New Mexico. Along with three co-defendants, Ron Keine was convicted of the
murder, kidnapping, sodomy and rape of University of New Mexico student
William Velten in 1974 and was sentenced to die in New Mexico’s gas chamber.
An investigation by The Detroit News after Ron and his co-defendants were
sentenced uncovered lies by the prosecution’s star witness, perjured
identification given under police pressure, and the use of poorly administered
lie detector tests. Ron spent 22 months on death row until the real killer
came forward and confessed. At one point, Ron says, he was so close to going
to the gas chamber that an assistant warden came to talk to him about
what he wanted for his last meal. In late 1975, a state district judge
dismissed the original indictments and the four men were released in 1976 after
the murder weapon was traced to a drifter from South Carolina who admitted
to the killing. The murder weapon, a 22-caliber pistol, was found only
after a search warrant was issued to open the sheriff’s safe. Not only was the
murder weapon found, there was also dated evidence showing that the gun
was hidden from the defense at the original trial. Since his exoneration,
Ron has traveled the country to tell his powerful story of innocence with
the Witness to Innocence Project.
Bill Pelke is president of _Journey of Hope ... From Violence to
Healing_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/e048792beeacdf06e50e51b8ec52bacd/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) . He recently authored a book entitled _Journey of
Hope...From Violence to Healing_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/7b1724c30a1a9f14ac4af67f77f4eb03/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) , which details the May 14,
1985 murder of his grandmother Ruth Pelke, a Bible teacher, by four teenage
girls. Paula Cooper who was deemed to be the ringleader was sentenced to die
in the electric chair by the state of Indiana. She was fifteen-years-old
at the time of the murder.
Pelke originally support the sentence of death for Cooper, but went
through a spiritual transformation in 1986 after praying for love and compassion
for Paula Cooper and her family. He became involved in an international
crusade on Paula's behalf and in 1989 after over 2 million people from Italy
signed petitions and Pope John Paul II’s request for mercy, Paula was
taken off of death row and her sentence commuted to sixty years.
Bill, a retired steelworker, has dedicated his life to working for
abolition of the death penalty. He shares his story of forgiveness and healing,
and how he came to realize that he did not need to see someone else die in
order to heal from his grandmother’s death. He also helps organize
Journey tours nationally and abroad,
Bill has traveled to over forty states and ten countries with the Journey
of Hope and has told his story over 5000 times
Steven Crimaldi is the National Coordinator of _Dead Man Walking School
Theatre Project_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/2901da795787e9d3195583acae4d759f/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) .
Steven will give a presentation discussing religion and the death
penalty. He will also explain the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project and let
students know how they can get involved in putting on a production of the
play at their schools or in their communities.
DEAD MAN WALKING SCHOOL THEATRE PROJECT integrates the power of theatre
arts and academic study into the national discourse on the death penalty to
replace ignorance, apathy, and cynicism among young people regarding the
death penalty with information, introspection, and inspiration.
Previously, Steven entered the Jesuit novitiate in Grand Coteau,
Louisiana after earning a Master’s in Theological Studies in Cambridge, MA. Prior
to his life with the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project and the
novitiate, Crimaldi worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer in Washington, DC. He is also
a poet.
Susannah Scheffer of _Murder Victims' Families for Human Right_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/f69c6ce960ce7bdc518f07483c330277/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f361150
3e3d) s will present a workshop at Alternative Spring Break on mental
illness and the death penalty and specifically on MVFHR's "Prevention, Not
Execution" project. MVFHR last July issued a report entitled "DOUBLE
TRAGEDIES: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe
Mental Illness".
Susannah has developed numerous written materials about victim opposition
to the death penalty, including Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder
Victims' Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty and "I Don't Want
Another Kid to Die": Families of Victims Murdered by Juveniles Oppose the
Juvenile Death Penalty, both of which were co-authored with Renny Cushing. She
is the author of four books, and in her work with MVFHR she draws upon two
decades of experience interviewing, writing, and editing.
Brian Evans of _Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition
Campaign._
(http://et.ratepoint.com/186d2b45629a8878af492a4e5c4b8d86/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) Before moving to Washington, DC, in 2006 and taking
a job with Amnesty International, Brian was a founding member of Texas
Moratorium Network.
Mary K. Poirier, B.S.W., M.S.W. (cand.) is a capital trials mitigation
specialist. Her work saves people from being sentenced to death. She will
talk about working on capital trial teams with lawyers and investigators, as
well as how activists can support legal teams. She works for the
McCallister Law Firm in Missouri and has worked on capital trials in several
states, including Texas. She been a trial mitigation specialist for 5 years and
a board member for Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty for 2 years.
Visit her law firm's website by clicking _here_
(http://et.ratepoint.com/aa8e86dba67934ebcf7b50053f35c7d8/c76f82145d7cf0a7c8464f3611503e3d) .
Texas Moratorium Network, 3616 Far West Blvd, Austin, TX 78731
512-961-6389
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