Anti-death penalty advocates held a rally over the weekend in Texas calling for capital punishment to be abolished, as a number of high-profile dying row instances in Texas and different states have sparked debate over whether or not the dying penalty ought to stay.
Former dying row inmates spoke on the twenty fifth Annual March to Abolish the Loss of life Penalty on Saturday, based on Fox 26. The march held every fall options state abolitionists, former dying row inmates and allies opposing capital punishment who all collect collectively to demand an finish to the state-sanctioned dying of inmates on dying row.
Lots of the advocates stated they’re combating for harmless folks like Robert Roberson, who’s at present on dying row over his conviction through which prosecutors say he killed his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, by shaking her to dying, referred to as shaken child syndrome. However his attorneys say Nikki truly died from different well being points comparable to pneumonia and that new proof proves his innocence. His attorneys additionally stated docs had did not rule out these different medical explanations for the kid’s signs.
Roberson was scheduled to be put to dying on Thursday earlier than the state Supreme Court docket issued a keep to delay his execution shortly earlier than it was set to happen. He would have been the primary individual within the U.S. to be executed based mostly on shaken child syndrome.
TEXAS JUDGE GRANTS INJUNCTION AHEAD OF MAN’S EXECUTION IN ‘SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME’ CASE
An indication positioned by dying penalty opponents sits in entrance of the Indiana State Jail in Michigan Metropolis, Indiana, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP)
The delay was issued Thursday evening after a bipartisan group of state lawmakers subpoenaed Roberson to testify Monday about his case. The ruling got here after the Texas Court docket of Felony Appeals earlier Thursday evening denied a movement for a keep of execution, reversing a decide’s momentary injunction that was handed down earlier that day.
Greater than 80 Texas state lawmakers, in addition to the detective who helped the prosecution, medical specialists, parental rights teams, human rights teams, bestselling novelist John Grisham and different advocates have known as for the state to grant Roberson clemency over the assumption that he’s harmless. A bunch of state lawmakers additionally visited Roberson in jail to encourage him.
On the rally in Texas, former dying row inmate Pamala Tise stated she was locked up for a complete of 40 years.
TEXAS DEATH ROW INMATE’S LAWYER SAYS ‘THERE WAS NO CRIME’ AS SHE MAKES LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE HIS LIFE
Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a jail in Livingston, Texas, Sept. 27, 2024. (Felony Justice Reform Caucus by way of AP)
Tise was sentenced to dying on the age of 24 following her conviction on two counts of capital homicide, Fox 26 reported. Her preliminary conviction was overturned in 1983, however she was once more sentenced to dying after a retrial. The next yr, she was positioned again on dying row and remained there till 2000.
“I used to be not harmless of my crime. Once I did my crime, I used to be on a number of medicine and after I got here off the medicine every week later and realized what we had executed, I turned myself into the police,” Tise stated, based on Fox 26.
However in 2000, her conviction was overturned due to a battle of pursuits. She was taken off dying row following a plea cut price that lowered her capital homicide prices to 2 counts of aggravated theft.
Picture reveals the gurney within the execution chamber on the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Picture/Sue Ogrocki, File)
“So I went in at 24 and got here out at 64,” stated Tise, who now campaigns towards the dying penalty.
“Having somebody be executed, to me, can be the straightforward approach out. Spending the remainder of your life in jail is a residing hell,” Tise added.
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Texas Loss of life Penalty Abolition Motion organizer Gloria Rubac stated “Harris County has extra folks on dying row than any state.”
The activists stated they hope a courtroom will hear the brand new proof in Roberson’s case when he testifies on Monday.
