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1436 U Street,   
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888-286-2237   
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Jose Amaya-Ruiz (AZ)    STAY 

January 18, 2001…3:00pm (EST) 
Nearly two years after the State of Arizona executed two German citizens, Karl and Walter LaGrand, and despite international pressure to stop executing foreign nationals, a citizen from El Salvador is scheduled to be executed on January 18. 

Jose Amaya-Ruiz was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of Kimberly Lopez. In violation of international law secured by the Vienna Convention, Ruiz was not notified about his right to contact his consulate at the time of his arrest. In November 2000, the International Court of Justice in DenHaag held hearings on this issue. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, a government must be informed if “a national of that State is arrested or committed to prison or to custody pending trial or is detained in any other manner” on foreign soil. Germany has sued the US and s arguing that this article was violated in the case of the LaGrand brothers who were executed in Arizona in 1999. 

Ruiz’s case also involves a challenge to the constitutionality of the competency statutes in Arizona. The Arizona Supreme Court rejected the argument to overturn the case, but two of the five justices expressed the belief that there was a history of mental illness that warranted the imposition of a life sentence in this case. 

For most of his time on death row Ruiz has been in a mental health ward. He attempted suicide at least once. 

In the weeks prior to his scheduled execution, new lawyers have started to work on behalf of Ruiz. The clemency hearing is scheduled for the days prior to his execution and the defense will focus on the issue of mental competency arguing that Ruiz is mentally retarded and not capable of being executed. 
 

Florida 

Robert Glock    EXECUTED 
January 10, 2001…7:00am (EST)  
Robert Glock’s life was marked by neglect and violence. It is scheduled to end by execution on December 8. Together with his co-defendant Carl Puiatti he was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of Sharilyn Ritchie.  
Both defendants were convicted in a joined trial, although Robert’s lawyers had asked for separate proceedings. 

Furthermore Robert’s defense counsel failed to properly investigate and present evidence of petitioner’s childhood abuse, his mental disturbance, and the domination by his co-defendant. He did not obtain available information and important mitigating evidence from Robert’s family. By doing so he failed to aid the mental health experts in showing the deficiencies in Robert’s character.  

Throughout his lifetime Robert was searching for love and support but in turn he was neglected.  As a child Robert suffered under an abusive and alcoholic mother. According to Roberts sister, Tammy Glock, she “spent most of her time drunk. When she would vomit all over herself we would clean her up and put her in bed so that our stepfather wouldn’t know that she had been drinking. If we didn’t help her in this way, she would get furious at us…We were just too scared not to do anything to keep her from beating us…She would dress (Bobby) up like a little girl and make him to go to school like that. Bobby would try to sneak normal clothes out of the house with him, but if she caught him, she would beat him badly…She did not approve who he was. She did not like him because of who his father was”.  

Robert was not allowed to play with his peers and after he had tried to run away several times, he was sent to a foster home at age thirteen.  

Within a year he moved to his father’s in Florida. There he would endure even more pain, this time by his stepmother. She was jealous at him and considered him a danger to her children’s status, and although Robert desired her sympathy she would be violent against him.  

As a result of his upbringing Robert never developed a healthy self-esteem. Showing self-defeating and schizoid traits, Robert also suffered under Post-Traumatic Sress-Disorder. He was small of statute and became easily dependant on others. Soon he was a follower and an easily led pleaser of people who would make him feel comfortable. At the end this is why he became involved in the killing of Sharilyn Ritchie.  

According to Doctor Merikangas, “Robert Glock has a passive dependant personality disorder and is subject to undue influence and domination. In my opinion, Robert was under the domination of Mr. Puiatti during the offense. If not for this domination and influence by Mr. Puiatti, Robert would not have participated in such an offense”.  

In contrast to his co-defendant, Robert had no significant history of prior criminal activity. He is also deeply remorseful for what he did and evaluations have found him to be a good candidate for rehabilitation. 
 

North Carolina 

Bobby Harris (NC)     STAY 
January 19, 2001…2:00am (EST) 
The state of North Carolina is scheduled to execute Bobby Lee Harris on January 19, 2001 at 2a.m., ignoring the recommendations of a legislative study commission calling for a temporary halt of executions.  The committee not only recommends a moratorium, but also calls for an end to the executions of mentally retarded persons and the elimination of racial bias in capital cases.  Harris’s case is an example of why the commission has serious concerns about the death penalty in North Carolina. 

Harris was sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of John Redd in Onslow County.  Harris’s co-defendant, Joe Simpson, accepted a plea bargain in the case, and his projected release date from the NC Department of Corrections is August 2006. 

Two North Carolina Supreme Court Justices believe that Harris’s death sentence was unfair and disproportionate given his conduct and compelling background history.  The fatal stabbing was not planned in advance, and after the stabbing occurred, Harris took measures to save the victim’s life. The victim died in the hospital under questionable circumstances.  When Harris learned Redd had died, he turned himself in, gave a full confession, and expressed deep remorse. 

Judge Joe Freeman Bitt who sentenced Harris to death is believed to have a pro-death penalty bias. Britt is a former prosecutor who once made the Guinness Book of Records for obtaining more death penalty convictions than any other prosecutor in the country. 

The attorney appointed to represent Harris during his trial was ill from cancer at that time. He prepared poorly for the trial, made several mistakes and finally had to be replaced. 

Harris is borderline mentally retarded.  According to Harris’s prison records, he scored 73 on a Beta IQ test.  A person with an IQ of 70 or below is generally considered to be mentally retarded.  Polls show that a majority of Americans do not support the death penalty for mentally retarded persons. (A majority of North Carolinians support an immediate moratorium on executions as well.) 

The testimony received by the study commission showed that mentally retarded people cannot plan and understand the consequences of their actions the way others can. They can be easily led to commit unlawful acts and to confess to things they did not do. Witnesses stated that people with scores near the 70 cutoff point are also very severely limited in their intellectual and moral development. 

Harris’s execution would be the 16th out of the last 17 in North Carolina in which the victim was white. Studies show that defendants are 4.4 times more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim was white.  The legislative study commission is awaiting a study on race and death penalty by the UNC faculty and other groups. Findings are expected to be released in early 2001. 

“With the legislative study commission calling for a moratorium and for changes in our laws concerning the execution of mentally retarded persons,” says UNC-CH law school dean and noted constitutional law scholar Gene Nichol, “it would certainly make sense to at least grant a reprieve to Bobby Lee Harris.” 

Bobby Lee Harris’ life is now in the hands Gov.-Elect Mike Easley’s hands who helped to prosecute the case when he was still Attorney General.  Please act to stop the execution. 
 

Oklahoma 

Robert Clayton (OK)     STAY 
January 4, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
“If he had some kind of defense he would not have been convicted,” wrote one of the jurors to the judge after the trial. Robert Clayton was convicted, partly because ineffective assistance of counsel, for the 1985 murder of Rhonda Timmons. 

Clayton’s attorney, Ron Wallace, did not want the case and failed in adequately preparing it. He never called a psychologist nor did he answer calls from his client. 

Clayton grew up in a poor and alcoholic family, he was one of 9 children and dropped out of school in eighth grade. 

Clayton’s trial was flawed with error and he should have never been convicted because he was incompetent to understand the proceedings. Clayton is mentally retarded with an IQ of 68. A retrospective competency hearing was held six years after the trial and he was then found to be competent. 

Important evidence including a bloody sock which now could be tested for DNA has been lost. During the sentencing phase of the trial the prosecution was allowed to present a woman who said that Clayton had raped her. The testimony was meant to support the argument of future dangerousness. Clayton had never been charged or convicted for the alleged rape. 

Note: Robert Clayton’s family wants to bring his body home after the execution but they do not have the money for the transportation and funeral. 

Send donations to: 
Robert Clayton 
013839123 Hankok Bank 
Pascagoula, Mississippi 39567 
 

Eddie Trice (OK)     EXECUTED 
January 9, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
“He is without human feelings…if ever a man needed to die, he is sitting right here.” said the prosecuting attorney during the sentencing phase of the trial in order to urge the jury to impose a death sentence on Eddie Trice. The responsible District Attorney for this case was Robert Macy. Macy claims that he has sent more people to death row than any other prosecuting attorney in the US. The Chicago Tribune investigated his cases and found a long record of prosecutorial misconduct. 

Over 50 defendants prosecuted by Macy’s office were sent to death row. Eddi Trice is one of them. He was convicted for a murder comitted in 1987. 
Trice has a long history of family abuse and brain damage which due to lack of funding was not adequately investigated at the time of his trial. 

Viola Gross, Trice’s mother, was 14 years-old when she was raped by Walter Trice. She did not understand what happened to her and what sexual intercourse was at that time. She became pregnant and nine months later Eddie Trice was born. Viola then had seven more children with four different men. 

At least one of her later husbands abused Eddie Trice severely. Once he was beaten to unconsciousness with no mediacal treatment to follow. At another occasion the stepfather would force the child’s head in a hot oven in an attempt to kill him. He also deprived the family of food. 

Trice later had trouble in school, he could not read, write or understand the teacher. He had severe cramps and was diagnose with athritis. Trice is a functional illiterate and has an IQ of 79, which is in the range of mental retardation. 

A number serious head injuries, including a car accident in which his head hit the windshield,  led to chronic brain damage. 

During his childhood Trice was raped by a number of different people including a neighbor, an uncle and a catholic priest. 

Trice started to drink at the age of nine. By the time he was twelve years-old he would consume one gallon of whiskey every three days and by the time he was fifteen he would virtually drink the whole day. 

In 1964 Trice tried to commit suicide and at the age of sixteen he would find himself in a county jail. There he was raped again. 

When Trice was charged with murder, his defense counsel did not have not enough funds to obtain a psychological examination prior to trial. That is why the jury never heard that Trice suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoid psychosis caused by a childhood of abuse and neglect. 
 

Wanda Jean Allen (OK)     EXECUTED 
Jan. 11, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
Wanda Jean Allen is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on January 11, 2001.  She was sentenced to death in 1989 for killing her lover, Gloria Leathers in Oklahoma City in 1988.  Her clemency hearing before the state Pardon and Parole Board took place on December 15th. She was denied clemency. Allen’s case now goes to Governor Keating who has the power to grant her a reprieve. 

The two women, who had met in prison, had been together for about two years in a turbulent relationship.  Each had called the police to their home on more than one occasion after a domestic dispute.  On the afternoon of December 1, 1988 the couple got into a argument at a local grocery store.  The argument continued at their home and culminated outside a police station.  Allen maintained she had acted in self-defense, claiming that Leathers had struck her in the face with a hand rake during the confrontation at the house, and that outside the police station Leathers had again come at her with the rake.  Allen shot Leathers, who died four days later on December 5, 1988.  The wounds to Allen’s face from the rake were still visible on December 6, when she was photographed in jail. 

Bob Carpenter was approached by Allen’s family to handle the case.  Believing that it was not a capital case he agreed to represent Wanda for $5,000.  The family made an initial payment of $800.  The state then charged Wanda with first-degree murder and announced it would seek the death penalty.  Mr. Carpenter who had never tried a capital murder case asked the judge to allow him to withdraw when he learned that the family could not pay the $4,200 balance.  He offered to act as co-counsel for free if a public defender was appointed as lead counsel.  The prosecution opposed his motion and the court refused to allow him to withdraw.  He was therefore forced to defend Wanda on a total payment of $800 with no co-counsel, no previous experience in trying capital cases, no investigator, and no resources to hire expert witnesses. 

In a 1991 affidavit, Bob Carpenter stated that it was not until after the trial that he learned when Wanda was 15 years-old her IQ had been measured at 69 and that the doctor who examined her had recommended a neurological assessment because she manifested symptoms of brain damage.  Carpenter stated, “I did not search for any medical or psychological records or seek expert assistance” for use at the trial 

A psychologist conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Wanda in 1995 and found “clear and convincing evidence of cognitive and sensory-motor deficits and brain dysfunction” possibly linked to an adolescent head injury.  At the age of 12, Allen had been hit by a truck and knocked unconscious, and at 14 or 15 she had been stabbed in the left temple.  He found that Wanda’s “intellectual abilities are markedly impaired”and that her IQ was 80.  He found “particularly significant hemisphere dysfunction” impairing “her comprehension, her ability to logically express herself, her ability to analyze cause and effect relationships…”.  He also concluded that Allen was “more chronically vulnerable than others to becoming disorganized by everyday stresses – and thus more vulnerable to a loss of control under stress.” 
 The execution of those with mental retardation and severe mental illness raises concerns within the international community.  During the 1999 U.N. Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva a resolution was passed calling on nations “not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder.” 

One of the prosecutor’s main tactics during the trial was to rely on negative stereotypes of lesbians and convince the jury that Wanda Jean was dominant and intimidated Leathers. Prosecutors in other capital cases have frequently used this method to criminalize lesbians and portray them as man-hating, overly aggressive, and capable of committing murder. This sort of bias portrays lesbians as more dangerous than a heterosexual woman accused of the same crime. 
 

Floyd Medlock (OK)     EXECUTED 
January 16, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
Floyd Medlock is scheduled to be executed for the February 1990 murder of Katherine Ann Busch. The two main arguments against his execution are mental illness and ineffective assistance of counsel. 

After his daughter was killed, the victim’s father, Ken Bush started a campaign against the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals demanding more executions to be carried out. 

On the other hand, Johnniee Carter, Chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and grandfather of the victim, spoke out against executing Medlock, “What he did was horrible and I’m not excusing him for that…He took a life but we shouldn’t take a life in return.” 

One day after the murder, then 19 year-old Medlock surrendered to police and gave a videotaped confession. He mentioned he was hearing voices inside his head and surrendered voluntarily because of his fear of hurting somebody else. In the confession he said, “It was like it wasn’t me doing it – like it was a dream.” 

During trial the sentencing judge used the confession against the defendant by making it an aggravating factor saying that he would commit further acts of violence. 

On strong advice of his counsel, Medlock entered a plea agreement. But the state gave no agreement regarding recommended punishment. The guilty plea was used to sentence Medlock to death. 

In addition, Steve Jones, Medlock’s trial counsel, failed to investigate the lengthy history of mental illness in Medlock’s family. He also failed to provide mental health experts with background information which resulted in an incorrect diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. 

A thorough investigation of Medlock’s mental state and history would have shown that he suffered from schizophrenia which caused his hallucinations. That is why he heard voices of deceased relatives neighbors and others. 
An evaluation by Doctor Fleming now shows, “Allen was most likely unable to know that his were wrong at the time of the crime for which he has been sentenced. He was unable to distinguish right right from wrong because of this ‘disability of reason’ or because of his ‘disease of mind.’ His abusive and unfortunatwe developmental history has affected his functioning and should also be considered as a mitigating circumstance.” 

Ineffective assistance of counsel deprived Medlock of his right of adequate legal representation and was the reason why the jury never had a correct picture of Medlock’s mental illness. 
 

Dion Smallwood (OK)     EXECUTED 
January 18, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
“Not a day goes by that I do not think of what I did and the pain I’ve caused…I wish I had never gotten up that day, but I cannot change that. I have asked God’s forgiveness and I have asked Lois to forgive me. I only hope that she has done that.” (Dion Smallwood) 

Dion Smallwood is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on January 18, 2001. He was sentenced to death for the 1982 murder of Lois Frederick. 
Dion Smallwood, who has a history of mental illness, was initially found incompetent to stand trial on the grounds that he was unable to consult with his lawyer or rationally assist in the preparation of his defense. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital where he received treatment. After nearly three months, the hospital determined that he could stand trial, although it noted that he remained a danger to himself and others, the standard in Oklahoma for commitment to a psychiatric facility. 

At the 1993 trial, the defense lawyer called a psychologist as an expert witness. However, the prosecution objected on the grounds that the lawyer had said that he would not be presenting such testimony at the first stage of the trial. The lawyer explained that the psychologist would be unable to appear at the sentencing phase, and that his testimony was relevant to whether the defendant could have formed the intent to kill. However, the court upheld the states objection and the jury never heard any expert mental health testimony from the defense at either stage of the trial. 

Dion Smallwood sought psychiatric help shortly before the murder of Lois Frederick because his condition was deteriorating. On 10 January 1992, Smallwood went to a mental health facility, stating he was having a crisis. The relevant counselor was busy and asked him to come back in two hours. Although she noted that he was obviously in relapse, she did not follow up on his whereabouts when he did not return. 

A clinical psychologist, who assessed Smallwood after his conviction, found that he suffered from bipolar disorder (manic depression). This psychiatric disturbance disrupts all areas of functioning, relationships, occupational, social, and often requires hospitalization to prevent harm to self or others. Dion never had this necessary treatment. The psychologist said that had Smallwood received such treatment, it is unlikely that his situation would have created the intense symptoms that culminated in the death of Fredericks. Smallwood suffers from an array of other problems. His childhood was marked by poverty, violence abuse, deprivation and parental abandonment. His father (Native American) and mother (Hispanic) suffered from mental problems, and his oldest brother has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression. 

According to the US National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI): “After accurate diagnosis, most people with bipolar disorder can be successfully treated with medication in 80 percent to 90 percent of all cases.” NAMI opposes the death penalty against persons with severe mental illness. The widely held belief that the execution of the mentally impaired flouts basic standards of decency is reflected in a resolution adopted on April 2000 by the UN Commission on Human Rights urging all retentionist countries not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder or to execute any such person. 

On December 4, 2000 the Oklahoma Parole Board voted 4-0 against recommending clemency for Dion Smallwood. Almost 40 people attended the clemency hearing to speak on Smallwood’s behalf or to offer moral support to his family. In a  letter, Smallwood thanked for the support he received prior to his unsuccessful clemency hearing: “I am extremely grateful and I want to let you know that I am touched because of everyday’s support and prayers…I am not giving up hope I will not allow them to steal that from me. As long as there is life in me then there is hope. Thanks for supporting me. I love each and everyone of you.” 

(note: Large parts of this article were taken from an Urgent Action Appeal by Amnesty International) 
 

Mark Fowler (OK)     EXECUTED 
January 23, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
Mark Fowler and his co-defendant Billy Ray Fox were convicted and sentenced to death for a 1985 triple homicide at a grocery store in Edmond.  The two men were tried together and evidence that could have been used during separate trials was not allowed.  Also in Mark’s case, Billy’s confession was used against him at trial. 

Fowler and Fox accused each other of being the triggerman in the store, where Fox had stolen money and was fired from employment. 

In 1988 Mark’s 83-year-old paternal grandmother was raped and killed in Oklahoma City.  Robert Lee Miller, Jr. was convicted of that crime and the rape of murder of a 90-year-old woman and sentenced to death.  After spending 10 years on death row he was freed after DNA evidence showed that he did not commit the rapes. 

The same officials who arrested and prosecuted Miller were also involved in Mark Fowler’s case. 

Mark’s mother was a major force in his life by helping overcome acute dyslexia.  After she died in 1980, Mark started getting into trouble with drugs and theft.  His maternal grandparents also had died by 1985. 

According to Mark’s uncle, Rev. Gregory Gier “this nephew [Mark] never got into trouble until after my sister died.” 

Since he has been in prison Mark has gotten a lot of support from the Catholic church and has maintained a good prison record 
 

Billy Ray Fox (OK)     EXECUTED 
January 25, 2001…1:00am (EST) Billy Ray Fox and his co-defendant Mark Fowler were convicted and sentenced to death for a 1985 triple homicide at a grocery store in Edmond, Oklahoma.  The two men were tried together and evidence that could have been used during separate trials was not allowed. 

Fox and Fowler accused each other of being the triggerman in the store. 
During one of his appeals, Billy challenged the fact that the jury was not racially diverse.  He is half Asian and asserted that although the minority population of Oklahoma County is small he should have had a jury that was more racially diverse.  The court struck down that assertion stating that the Asian community only represented 0.99 percent of the population and that “is not sufficiently numerous to form a distinct class.” 

Billy had also requested that his trial be moved to another county because of all the pretrial publicity.  When this issue was raised on appeal the court agreed that most of the potential jurors had read or heard about the case.  However, the court was convinced that none of the jurors serving on Billy’s jury had formulated an opinion of his guilt or innocence. 
 

Loyd Lafevers (OK)-w/?     EXECUTED 
January 30, 2001…1:00am (EST)   Loyd Lafevers was sentenced to death for the 1985 rape, robbery and murder of Addie Hawley.  He received a retrial after it was determined that he was erroneously denied his right to be tried separately from his co-defendant Randall Cannon.  He was sentenced to death again in 1993. 

During parts of his appeals Lafevers defended himself. Later his chances for relief were further diminished when one of his lawyer’s failed to file the Supreme Court petition on time. 

Lafever’s new lawyers are now presenting evidence questioning the state’s ability to prove Lafevers to be guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. For years Lafevers had asked to conduct DNA-testing for the blood which was found on his pants. However, because of lack of funding these tests never occurred. When new lawyers started to work on the case DNA-tests were used and on March 3, 2000 the test result showed that the blood did not match the victim’s blood. An imminent execution date was stayed by the Circuit Court but the District Court denied further relief. Now a request for further proceedings to the Circuit Court is pending. 

A clemency hearing is scheduled of January 29, 2000, the day before the execution is scheduled to take place. 
 

D.L. Jones (OK)     EXECUTED 
February 1, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
D.L. Jones, the longest held resident on Oklahoma’s death row after more than 20 years of state and federal appeals, lost his final appeal on November 13, 2000.  The U.S. Supreme Court refused to look at Jones’s appeal. 

Jones was convicted in April 1980 of killing Stanley Buck Sr., 48, and wounding Buck’s teenage son, Stanley Buck Jr. at the Wichita Lounge in Lawton on August 14, 1979. Jones also shot Betty Jean Strain. She was not killed. 

Jones’s defense asserts that the jury in his 1980 murder trial wasn’t properly instructed when it should recommend the death penalty and that the prosecutor “deliberately misstated the law and led the jury to believe Mr. Jones would be released from custody if he were found not guilty by reason of insanity.” 

Tennessee 

Phillip Workman (TN) – W/W     STAY 
January 31, 2001…1:00am (EST) 
Phillip Workman was convicted in 1981 for killing Memphis police officer Ronald Oliver.  Lieutenant Oliver’s death was the result of a shootout that occurred as police tried to apprehend Workman for the armed robbery of a Wendy’s restaurant. Despite compelling evidence that Phillip was not responsible for the shooting, state and federal courts have washed their hands of the affair, and left his fate in the hands of Governor Don Sundquist. 

There are two basic facts which call Phillip’s guilt into question.  First, the ballistics evidence gathered from the crime scene indicate that the bullets which killed Ronald Oliver did not come from the gun Phillip fired during the shootout.  In fact, the bullets taken from the victim match the standard-issue weapons used by Memphis police at the time. In addition, an x-ray of Oliver’s wound released to the defense eighteen years after the trial supports the exculpatory evidence. In light of this evidence, it is likely that Oliver’s tragic death was caused by the “friendly fire” of fellow officers. 

Second, the testimony of the prosecution’s star eye-witness has been completely discredited by Phillip’s appellate attorneys. Harold Davis was a drug addict who hoped to collect reward money when he came to police with his version of the crime. His story changed several times until it finally matched the one touted by police.   “Basically they told me what happened, how it happened, when it happened,” Davis said in a videotaped affidavit taken by Phillip’s appellate attorneys, “[they told me] this is what you’re going to say.” Davis’s former girlfriend, who was with him on the night of the shooting, also testified that they were nowhere near the Wendy’s when the crime occurred. 

Since all of this exculpatory evidence came out after Phillip’s trial, it is no wonder he was found guilty and sent to death row. 

“It is just flat lying to the public when [State Attorney Paul Summers] says that my case has been viewed by all of the judges. This evidence that we found hasn’t been viewed by any state judge,” said Phillip from death row.  Some of the jurors who sentenced Phillip to die have now said that they would have voted differently in light of all this evidence. 
 

 
Texas  

Jack Clark (TX)     EXECUTED 
January 9, 2001…7:00pm (EST) 
Jack Clark was sentenced to death for the October 1989 murder of Melisa Ann Garcia. 

In their attempts to stop the execution Clark’s attorneys are concentrating on the following three main points: 
-Jack Clark grew up in a dysfunctional family and suffered from abuse and neglect especially by his alcoholic father. This circumstance was not found to be mitigating. 
-One woman on the jury, Sandra Jones, had a relationship with the District Attorney that had never been fully disclosed and which did not result in replacing her from the jury. 
-Jack Clark was sentenced to death with the help of two of the most notorious people in the Texas death penalty system, Doctor Grigson and Ralph Erdman, who have both been heavily criticize for frequent false testimony. 

Ralph Erdman wrote the autopsy report in Clark’s case. He testified that there was a sexual assault prior to the murder. Pathologist Ralph Erdman previously wrote autopsy reports about people he had never even examined and therefore his testimony should have been invalidated. 

Doctor Grigson testified that Jack Clark would constitute a future danger to society. Grigson became famous as “Doctor Death” for his frequent testimonies on behalf of the prosecution. It was shown that Grigson had given expert testimony about defendants he never met or examined. In Clark’s case, the defense tried to confront Grigson with the cases of six convicted capital murderers  whose sentences were later reduced or who became model prisoners after Grigson testified they would kill again. The request for confrontation was denied and Grigson allowed to testify. 
 

Alvin Goodwin (TX)      EXECUTED 
January 18, 2001…7:00pm (EST) 
Alvin Goodwin was convicted of the November 30, 1986 killing of Douglas Tillerson of Conroe, Texas. 

Authorities report that Goodwin and an accomplice forced their way into Tillerson’s mobile home took property and forced Tillerson into their car, where they drove him to a wooded area and shot him in the head. 
Goodwin and his partner were arrested in Burlington, Iowa and confessed. 
The Court of Appeals found that Goodwin was not prejudiced by the appellate counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness. Goodwin’s defense has claimed that Goodwin invoked the Fifth Amendment right to have counsel present immediately before  he confessed. The Appeals Court did not rule in favor of this argument. 

 
Steve Butler (TX)      STAY 
January 22, 2001…7:00pm (EST) 
Steven Anthony Butler was sentenced to death for the August 27, 1986 murder of laundry clerk Velma Clemons at a Channelview cleaners in Texas. 
A jury in state District Judge Carl Walker’s court  took 42 minutes to decide that Butler deliberately murdered Clemons, 50. 

Prosecutors said that Butler, a plumber from Mississippi, was responsible for two killings, 15 armed robberies, and two rapes during a crime spree between May 2 and Sept 23, 1986 near the interstate in Mont Belvieu and Chambers, Orange and Jefferson counties in Texas and across the boarder in Louisiana.