[DP] Fwd: ---Clemency request for Cedric Ransom

[Carole Johnson]

>From: Rick Halperin <rhalperi at mail.smu.edu>
>Reply-To: TCADP-BOARD01 at yahoogroups.com
>To: TCADP-BOARD01 <TCADP-BOARD01 at yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [TCADP-BOARD01] death penalty news---Clemency request for Cedric 
>Ransom
>Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 17:11:18 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
>
>
>
>Please forward and cross-post this message widely
>
>
>
>TO: president at whitehouse.gov
>CC: vice.president at whitehouse.gov; e-mail at joschka.de; ElbowSM at state.gov;
>james.finlay at mail.doc.gov
>Subject: Clemency for Cedric Ransom
>
>
>
>Dear Mr. President,
>I am writing you from Germany to ask clemency for an inmate at your home
>country death row, Texas . Cedric Ransom is scheduled to be executed
>tomorrow, so I trust on your immediate attention.
>
>To the facts:
>
>* The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Cedric Ransom, a black
>man, July 23 for the murder of Herbert Primm in Fort Worth . According to
>the state, Ransom shot Primm, a part-time weapons dealer, in the victim's
>driveway on Dec. 7, 1991 .
>
>
>
>* Ransom confessed to another shooting shortly before the murder in
>question, but said he played no part in the Primm shooting. He claims his
>co-defendants gave perjured testimony in exchange for sentence reductions 
>at
>his trial. Since his arrival on death row, he has attracted international
>attention as a possibly innocent man facing execution in the United States 
>.
>
>
>
>* Advocates for Ransom claim another man confessed to the crime, but
>later gave a contradicting statement that shifted the blame to Ransom. They
>argue that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial, and
>that a competent attorney could have presented a much stronger, more
>credible innocence claim.
>
>
>
>* The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his sentence in 1994,
>ruling that the trial court erroneously barred a prospective juror. 
>However,
>he received a second death sentence in 1997, which has held firmly
>throughout the appeals process.
>
>
>
>* Ransom also claims that the court treated him in a racist manner
>during his trial, and points out that his case represents the jackpot death
>penalty combination: black defendant, white victim.
>
>
>
>* According to a study of cases in the 1990's conducted by the Texas
>Defender Service, racial bias continues to play a major role in the state's
>capital sentencing process. The report includes this fact: "Taking into
>account age, race, location, occupation, prior arrests, education of the
>defendant, age of the victim, and whether a weapon was used, the combined
>races of victim and offender were the strongest predictors of a death
>sentence in Texas ."
>
>
>
>* Several inmates with strong innocence claims have been executed in
>Texas in the past year - most recently Kia Johnson on June 11. Even those
>who support the death penalty philosophically should recognize that the 
>risk
>of executing innocent people is too high to justify executions. Since the
>reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, 108 people have been 
>exonerated
>from death row in the United States due to actual innocence.
>
>
>
>Dear Mr. President, I followed much of the media and also the case itself
>and I strongly feel it would be a mistake to proceed with the execution.
>Also please consider that Europe has just yesterday again raised its voice
>regarding its position to capital punishment. I am a European and I do feel
>sorry for any victim and even more for the families or the ones left 
>behind.
>But I still feel... that killing the defendant is no right solution,
>particularly not, if there are doubts about an appropriate defense and even
>more if there are indications that racist influences may lead to that
>sentence.
>And in the case of Mr. Cedric Ransom both  circumstances apply. To really 
>do
>justice you will have to give him a chance to bring up all the items which
>are still under doubt.
>
>
>
>Sincerely Yours,
>

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