Texas is a bloodthirsty beast who feasts far too often

I should qualify or explain the title of this post.  I have very good and dear friends in the Lone Star State.  My experiences there have been nothing but wonderful.  I, in fact, love Texas.    However, the pace and frequency of executions leads me to believe that the state itself..is a bloodthirsty beast. 

A few examples may help the reader to understand my point. 

Carla Faye Tucker no doubt committed a henious double homicide in Houston while intoxicated on many substances.  However, this woman underwent a religous conversion that many saw as remarkable.  Religous leaders called for her commutation.  She was strapped to a guerney and died 2-3-1998. 

A religous conversion didnt matter in the Bible thumping fire and brimstone state.  Those in charge meant to show us that even if you change you cant erase the past.   Carla Faye could have shown others the way out of prison and to law abiding lives but the state had to be fed.

Tim Adams was recently put to death by Texas.  In an event attended soley by his family who wept while the drugs slowly killed him.

The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death penalty said this:

Last night, February 22, 2011, the State of Texas executed Timothy Adams, despite the pleas of his family, nearly 100 faith leaders representing diverse traditions, and three of the jurors who originally sentenced him to death.  As his attorneys note, “The execution of Mr. Adams has inflicted needless pain on the Adams family, without any benefit to the State of Texas. No family should be made to suffer such an ordeal as we collectively have imposed upon them tonight.”

He killed a 19 month old in an act that was completely out of character for Tim.  His one bad act, while atrocious, was offset by his otherwise good life.  Texas wanted blood and even the feelings of those most affected by this child's death ddidnt matter.  Texas had to be fed. 

Cameron Willingham was not a wonderful person.  There are reports that he was abusive towards his wife.  He cussed here as his last words.  This however does not mean he committed three counts of capital murder.  As with most sad stories in Texas there is a lawyer who didnt do his job.  Instead of getting an expert he lit his office carpet on fire to simualte the trailer fire.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5cFKpjRnXE  He then convinced himself that Cameron was guilty.  Gerald Hurst, a national expert disagrees.  Now as Rick Perry backpeddles and stacks the commission with his cronies who are to investigate the fire does the truth come out.  Seven years too late for Cameron.   Texas salivated at the thought of taking Cameron Willingham's life.  He was a son of a bitch and they couldnt wait to strap him down and kill him.  Texas had to be fed and fed on the innocent. 

Carlos Deluna was also innocent of capital murder.  Another man said he committed the crimes.  It didnt matter to the State of Texas.  In a heartbreaking interview for a documentary filmaker the chaplin at Ellils recalled that Carlos asked if he could call him Dad in his final hours.  They prayed and Carlos was led into the execution chamber.  Texas enjoys feeding on the innocent. 

My good friend Kerry Max Cook also was almost executed by the state of Texas.  He was tried three times and each time it was sent back.  The state used lies, junk science and snitches to pin a henious crime on Kerry.  He entered a no contest plea prior to the fourth trial.  the same day the prosecutor produced a DNA sample showing the semen inside the victim was her boyfriend, not Kerry.  The prosecutor is now a judge.  Please read his heart wrenching memoir on his life on death rowhttp://www.chasingjustice.com/

Most famously, Randall Dale Adams was convicted for shooting a police officer in Dallas.  The police attempted to force a confession from him.  When that didnt work they used the testimony of a drifter named David Harris.  Apparently there was a reason why David Harris knew so much about the crime.  He was executed in 2004 for a different offense. Randall is another victim that almost was devoured by the beast. 

There are more as the state continues to line up the condemned and devour them in a small room in Huntsville Texas.  A line must be drawn in the sand and take on the system in Texas.  Not only the innocents but the guilty as well.  Both have value and lives worth saving. 

Jon Burge -Chicago's shame

Cops have a tough job that requires courage and paitence I frankly do not possess.  Imagine remaining calm while a intoxicated jackass screams at you for an hour.  Not stomping a suspect who endangered lives while leading you on a high speed chase.  Its tough.  I get that. 

What i dont get nor will i ever understand is the evil that occured in Chicago at Area 2.  The systematic failures that allowed it to continue and the limp response once it was found are an amazing story of ineptitude. 

A short readers digest version paraphrased for the many followers of this blog.  Jon Burge was a detective that was able for some reason to get confessions out of suspects with ease.  Cases that seemed impossible to crack, Jon was able to get the straight dope.  There was one problem, the people that confessed did not committ the crimes in questions. 

Aaron Patterson was tortured by Burge and his goons for the killing of a shopkeeper and his wife.  He scrawled in the desk that he was not guilty.  Burge hung him over a door while shackled, beat him with a phone book and various other torture devices he learned in Vietnam.  When he was released Aaron did not go quitely into the night, remembering he had people left on the inside.  The government got him on a bullshit gun charge and sent him back to prison. 

Leonard Kidd was hooked up to a car battery and shocked into confessing.

Frank Bounds, who died of cancer while incarcerated, was beaten into a mess by Burge and his thug squad.
He never was able to prove he did not kill Carolyn Lewis. 

Madison (Mad)Hobley was handcuffed to the wall and beaten by detectives for a house fire that took his wife, son and others. 

Stanley Howard (S Man) was brutally beaten by Burges henhmen.  They then simulated suffocation by placing a plastic bag over his head. Sort of water boarding without the water.  His confession was to a shooting that occured following a robbery. 

Grayland Johnson also suffocated and beaten.  And it goes on and on, for unknown scores of victims of this monster. 

But the system did nothing to correct this problem.  Much like the states full of  racist sherriffs that ran roughshod in the south in the 60s murdering and maiming, Illinois sat on its hands.  Unwilling to do anything to stop it. Even in one judges opinion unable to point to the fact that the torture had led directly to the confession.  Ok Judge ill hook your junk up to a car battery and see how quickly you crack.

Burge was fired in 1993.  Special prosecutors were not appointed until 2002.  Burge was only recently convicted of perjury.  He received a sentence of 4 years.  Most of his victims had received death sentences.  As a defense lawyer i dont want to see anyone go to prison.  Burge deserves far worse than a safe, cushy prison full of ex cops and snitches.  He made cops everywhere look bad and embarrassed the hell out of the CPD.  That is sort of like making a whore blush.  not easy to do. 

The US attorney does not deserve a pat on the back for prosecuting this man thirty years removed from his crimes.  In the same manner the AG offices that prosecuted Klan members when they were about to die deserve no credit for that pointless act.  When you stand idly by watching a man pervert justice you shared his guilt as he beat, suffocated and shocked lies out of poor men who couldnt defend themselves. 

Do something good like abolish the death penalty Illinois, then i wont be ashamed of this part of my home states history.

RIP Frank Spisak

This is the image the state wants you to have of Frank Spisak as he is laid to rest today following his execution (state sponsored killing)



It certainly is not a good one.  He grew a small mustache.  He carried Mein Kampf with him at counsel table.  He saluted the jury like an SS soldier.  And he was convicted of going on what he called "hunting parties" for Afro American people.

The state doesnt want you to know the rest of the story.  How Frank was never the same after a car accident.  How he dressed like a woman.  How he began to collect Nazi memorabilia and blame others for his problems.  A very mentally ill man did those things, not a cold calculated killer.  There is a difference. 

It is difficult for most to look beyond his facade of a Nazi sympathizer.  Underneath was a confused man who didnt know if he was man or woman.  A person who thought that his answers lay in the twisted theology of the Third Reich.  Whose plan was as twisted as those ideas. 

We want our killers to be bloodthirsty animals like Doctor Lechter in the movies.  They are not.  When they are mentally ill they are responding to the illness not any external forces.   Instead of understanding mental illness and how it effects criminality our system punishes for not treating the mental illness.  

Frank I hope that death provides the peace your life did not. 

Youre my last chance

I spend a lot of time in prison for someone without a number.  Driving to prison, being searched, walking past families of inmates.  Waiting for my client to come sit across from me.  I have grown accustomed to the attitudes of the guards and the strange looks from people because i am wearing a suit and tie and sitting in a room by myself, waiting. 

When i visit a person in prison the conversation turns inevitably to their chances.  Is it fifty fifty?  Twenty-Eighty?  What is it?  Cmon give me some statistical probability that i will walk out of prison.

Sometimes I am their last chance, their hail Mary(see below), their final shot at a new trial. 





When I tell them the truth, its not what they want to hear.  However, the truth is always better than building false hope.  The truth is that your case like every other case and depends wholly only whether we can change the story of your case. 

As i turn to leave, always, you're my last chance.  Thanks, i needed more pressure.

At the death house door

A lawyer never wants to see his client executed.  It is the ultimate failure both personally and professionally.  My failure came on October 14, 2008 at the death house in Lucasville.  My client Richard Wade Cooey had run out of options.  The state courts had abandoned he and his claims long ago.  The federal courts that breathed life into some claims suddenly turned their back.  Governor Strickland denied him clemency. 

We all gathered the evening of October 13, 2008, to spend time with Rick before the state took him away from us.  Three of us(Rick, Dana and I) sat at a picnic table surrounded by a throng of prison guards and steel bars.  We made quick work of the most pressing matter, the distribution of Ricks things.  I received his music, Dana his books, and his ashes were to go to Ireland.  The remainder of the time we spent talking about his case and how the state had screwed him out of a fair deal.  Rick finished his desert from his final meal.  We smoked one last cigarette and they led him to his holding cell. 




I spent the rest of the evening drinking beer at the hotel bar in Portsmouth, less than an hour away.  I wondered what Rick was thinking as the time ticked away from him.  How do you spend time with your last evening on earth?   I slept less than a few minutes at a time as I racked my brain thinking of what could be done for him.  When I awoke in the morning less than a few hours remained in Richard Cooey's life. 

I prepared myself, put on a black suit and tie and drove the long highway to Lucasville.  I mean I was headed to certain death of a friend.   As I entered the prison I noticed protesters and cheerleaders for Rick's execution.  We were swept into the prison away from the press and others. 

We were led to a room to await the execution.  They had provided a Chaplin for us but I spent most of the time fingering the beads on my rosary praying for a miracle.  We hoped for some indication from the United States Supreme Court that they would give us one more stay.   

We were able to visit with Rick for a period of time leading up to the execution.  At the last date in 2003 we spent hours in this small room surrounded by guards.  The cage that holds the condemned has a cot, a TV and little else.  There is no need to provide comfort to someone that is about to be murdered by the state. It is spartan even by prison standards.

This time, in 2008, the sense of urgency, immediacy rushed over us.  We all said our good byes and Rick thanked me for helping with his case.  If there ever was a time I felt small and insignificant it was then.  We were herded back to the waiting room. 

When it came time to witness the murder of my client we wandered across the yard to the concrete building that houses the execution apparatus.  When i sat down i was struck by how little they cared about the aesthetic of the room.  It was bare.  It was cold.  It was dark.  Guards and officials moved in the shadows.  We watched Rick on a closed circuit TV being hooked up by doctors and nurses.  Apparently the first rule of medicine doesnt apply to these doctors: First do no harm. 



There are three chairs set up on each side of a partition. Ricks three lawyers took their seats as his witnesses.  The familes of the two girls Rick was convicted of murdering sat on the other side.   At one point i was so angry and upset that i got up to leave but steadied myself and sat back down.

Rick is led out by an official and placed on the gurney.  He is then hooked up to the machine.  The warden asks for his last words.  Rick declines stating they haven't listened in 22 years why start now. 

The warden gives the sign and the first drug to anesthetize him begins.  They wait for what seems like hours and the warden goes and shakes him.  Good enough for government work, must be knocked out.   I am shocked this is the medical procedure to determine if the anesthetic is working. 

The second drug is pumped in to stop his breathing.  Finally the last drug is pumped in to stop his heart.  Around 1030 he is dead.   I hear victims family members remark how his death came easier than the victims. 

We all are herded into the visiting room to meet with the press.  Dana provides a heartfelt response.  My words are more angry, more pointed.   I state that a government has no conscience only policy.  (Albert Camus, seen below) The state has murdered Richard Cooey without conscience, with great premeditation. 




A free society should never do things like kill its citizens in cold, inhumane back rooms like abandoned animals.  Americans should strive for more.