Do NOT Let Perry Kill Another Innocent Man!! ACTION ALERT!!!

nofurylike

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Wed Oct-14-09 06:45 AM
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Do NOT Let Perry Kill Another Innocent Man!! ACTION ALERT!!!

From the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Action Alerts:

Day of Action for Reginald Blanton, another innocent African-American railroaded to Texas death row.

Reginald’s case, like many other Texas death row cases, is riddled with injustices. He was convicted based on coerced testimony with no physical evidence; his court appointed attorney did not provide adequate defense; he was convicted by an all-white jury and subjected to a jury shuffle which purposefully excluded African-American jurors. Reginald has an execution date of October 27th, but with enough public outcry and pressure, we can save his life!

I am asking you if today, Wednesday October 14th, you will please either send a fax to Governor Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (I am attaching a couple of sample letters that will be really easy to personalize) and/or call their offices and ask them to commute Reginald’s death sentence.

Reginald’s case is important not just because he is innocent; not just because the death penalty targets people of color and the poor. Reginald is also an activist and a leader on death row. He helped found the DRIVE Movement (http://drivemovement.org/) which has held numerous hunger strikes and protests on death row. He is an inspiration to both death row inmates and human rights activists.

Now is the time to put the pressure on. The Texas Death Penalty and Rick Perry, in particular, have come under public scrutiny because of the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham was executed for a fire that killed three of his children. The Texas Forensic Science Commission discovered that the fire was accidental, making Cameron Todd Willingham INNOCENT. Perry, who refused to even look at that commission's report before sending Mr. Willingham to his death, has since tried to cover up this state-sponsored murder by changing around the personnel on the Commission. We cannot let Perry kill another innocent man!

I hope you can also take the time visit Reggie Blanton's website: http://www.myspace.com/freereggieb

Day of Action to Save Reginald: Wednesday, October 14th!

Make phone/fax calls to Gov. Rick Perry’s Office:

Phone:
Texas callers: 800-252-9600 / 800-252-9600

Austin and out of state: (512) 463-1782

Fax: (512) 463-1849.

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: (512) 463-2000 (office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00pm CST)

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Contact the Texas Board of Pardons & Paroles and tell them to grant Reginald Blanton clemency:

Phone: (512) 406-5852

Fax: (512) 463 8120 / (512) 467-0945 (These two different fax numbers appeared on separate action alerts. Please post if you have problems with either number.)

The sample letter to Governor Perry and the Texas BOPP will be in the next post in this thread. Please customize it and fax it! There is also time to snail-mail hand-signed copies, as well.

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A good source of information on this case is the article "Innocent until proven dead," by Cartel Pagel, a member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, that explains very well the colossal miscarriage of justice for Reginald:

http://socialistworker.org/2009/10/12/innocent-until-proven-dead

Innocent until proven dead

Carter Pagel, a member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, documents the long list of injustices that have put Reginald Blanton face to face with the Texas death chamber.

October 12, 2009

IN TEXAS, it doesn't matter if you're innocent. They'll kill you anyway.

-snip-

And he has done just that (continued fighting). Reggie personally presented his court-appointed appellate attorney, James Scott Sullivan, with approximately a dozen critical issues in the categories of: wrongfully admitted evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, perjured testimony, ineffective assistance of counsel, mitigating evidence, insufficient investigation and actual innocence. He followed up with letters, begging his lawyer to file appeals, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. (Sullivan also failed to return phone calls for this story.)

-snip-

Finally, in a last ditch effort to have his interests represented in his appeal, Reggie sent the same filing to the American Bar Association, which is supposed to investigate claims of professional misconduct among lawyers. After viewing the complaint, the ABA stated, "If your case involved a court-appointed attorney, court appointments are exclusively under the authority of the appointing court (which had already ignored his plea), and the Board cannot take any action to remove or replace a court-appointed attorney."

-snip-

Despite the glaring lack of evidence and court-acknowledged racial discrimination in jury selection, the blood-soaked wheels of Texas justice continue to steam forward.

-snip-

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Thank you

peace and solidarity