Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.
Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent in the killing of a white woman in Dallas.
At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of Sept. 30, 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a Peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
But an extensive review of Walker’s conviction by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, along with the help of the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, found multiple problems with Walker’s case.
Therefore, Texas killed an innocent man. Which is murder. Time to put Texas to death.
He was 19 - legally a man, but still a teen.
Besides the obvious conclusions, this case also shows how (state sanctioned) racism makes everyone less secure. The real perpetrator has not been caught and operated under conditions that minimized his risks for actual consequences. Maybe he wouldn’t have killed Venice Parker if there had been a greater risk of discovery. So racism killed two people in that case.
Tommy was at the birth of his son at the time that woman was raped and murdered.
His son never got to know his father. Imagine growing up with your mom falling into a bottle while she says “They took your daddy from us…”.
The depravity of man knows no bounds. We are the worst thing that has ever happened to this planet. We could be living in a time where no child goes to bed hungry, and every person is treated with the dignity they deserve. Instead, money and hatred (also known as capitalism) is speedrunning the collapse of our modern times.
We are the worst thing that has ever happened to this planet.
Harmful trope, and stupid too. They are the worst thing that happened to this planet, colonizers, capitalists, racists and similar scum that is. Humans are amazing and make this planet a lot more interesting, and beautiful. Remove the rotten apples, unspoil the bunch.
Racism? In Texas? Say it ain’t so.
And apparently 70 years ago too.
“they still do but they used to, too.”
Death penalty is contrary to the ideals of democracy, USA is an authoritarian country, and an election now and then doesn’t really change that.
Someone once called it a dictatorship of the bourgeoise.
This work is very important. However, I can’t help but feel like the Innocence Project should be focusing as much of their limited resources as possible on people who are still alive and potentially unjustly on death row or imprisoned for life.
my very limited (I just stumbled across this article) understanding is less push back from the state over closed cases. It maybe also helps to establish precedent by overturning wrongful convictions and presenting evidence to the judge in current cases to give them pause before they condemn an innocent to death.
Ah, that is a good point. I hope it’s effective.
