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Texas Black man exonerated 70 years after execution in case marked by racial bias
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/23/texas-black-man-exonerated-after-executionReview of case found problems with statements from police officer who claimed victim had identified her attacker
It appears we are headed back into those "good old days".
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 of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.
Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.
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 30 September 1953. Parker's killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called 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 DA'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.
The review found problems with statements from a Dallas police officer who claimed that Parker had identified her attacker as a Black man. But multiple witnesses denied that Parker "did anything outside of convulse and hemorrhage exorbitant amounts of blood" after being attacked, said John Creuzot, the Dallas county district attorney, during a Wednesday meeting of county commissioners that was held to ask the officials to declare Walker innocent.
. . .
Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.
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 30 September 1953. Parker's killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called 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 DA'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.
The review found problems with statements from a Dallas police officer who claimed that Parker had identified her attacker as a Black man. But multiple witnesses denied that Parker "did anything outside of convulse and hemorrhage exorbitant amounts of blood" after being attacked, said John Creuzot, the Dallas county district attorney, during a Wednesday meeting of county commissioners that was held to ask the officials to declare Walker innocent.
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