The Corpus Christi Moratorium Committee made its presence known during the Citizens' Comments section of today's city council meeting. Afterward, I was interviewed by a reporter for KRIS, although so far I have not seen a story on TV or online. My three minutes' worth of comments were as follows (nearly verbatim):

Good afternoon council members, 

My name is Matt Tedrow and I am a student, teacher, and, I must admit, an anti-death penalty activist.

The United States is the only advanced industrial country that continues to execute people, and the international community has criticized the U.S. position for many years now. Only a week ago, United Nations human right expert Philip Alston called on the United States to ensure that the death penalty is applied fairly and justly in states where it is practiced. In his remarks, he singled out two states as especially problematic: Alabama and Texas. 

That Alston mentioned Texas is unsurprising. As the nation’s leading executer, its death penalty system is the most flawed. Even today, the innocent and mentally disabled are executed at an alarming rate, even though the Supreme Court has ruled it is unconstitutional to execute persons with mental retardation.

In fact, Texas is only state in the country where a person can be found factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty. According to section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code, also known as the Law of Parties, “If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed.” 

In other words, the law of parties has sentenced people to die on the basis of guilt-by-association. It has already been used to hand the death penalty down to men such as Kenneth Foster, who was sentenced to die for the murder of Michael LaHood, even though the actual gunman, Mauriceo Brown, forced Foster to drive the getaway car and was himself executed for the murder in 2006. Foster did not murder, intend to murder, or even know that a murder was about to take place, but the Law of Parties allowed for his death sentence. 

Fortunately for Kenneth Foster, his sentence was commuted at the very last minute, after 17,000 people contacted the Governor’s office to plead for his life. But it doesn’t end there. Jeff Wood is sentenced to die in August this year for the murder of Kris Keeran, who he did not kill, under similar circumstances. 

Today, there are several men on Texas’ death row who are either innocent, very likely to be innocent, or who received draconian sentences: Men such as Jeff Wood, Rob Will, Lester Leroy Bower, Rodney Reed, and others. My thoughts are with these men today, as they languish on death row awaiting punishments they surely do not deserve. 

Council members, thank you for listening to me today. I ask that you add our moratorium resolution to your next meeting’s agenda.

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