Texas Moratorium Network - History

History

The Texas Moratorium Network was founded in 2000 by several people who had been involved in organizing a march held in Austin on October 15, 2000 to protest capital punishment in Texas under then-Governor George W. Bush. The march has since become an annual event regularly attended by anti death penalty activists from across Texas and other states, and Europe. the Network is funded by donations from individuals as well as grants from foundations, including multiple grants from both the Tides Foundation and Resist, Inc.

In the 2001 session of the Texas Legislature, the Network advocated in favor of legislation that would have enacted a moratorium on executions. The moratorium legislation was favorably reported out of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice and the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. Randall Dale Adams and Kerry Max Cook, innocent men who had been exonerated after spending years on Texas Death Row, both testified in favor of the moratorium legislation. The committees also heard from Jeanette Popp, whose daughter was murdered in Austin, Texas in 1988. She testified that two innocent men, Christopher Ochoa and Richard Danziger, had been wrongfully convicted of her daughter's murder and had spent twelve years in prison before being exonerated and released. The real killer of her daughter, Achim Joseph Marino, was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison after Popp asked the district attorney not to seek the death penalty against him. Popp served as chairperson of the Network from 2001–2004, when she resigned for health reasons. In the 2001 session of the Texas Legislature, a bill reached the floor of the Texas House that, if passed, would have enacted a moratorium on executions. The bill received 53 votes in favor of a moratorium.

In 2003, the Network convinced the Travis County Commissioners Court to pass a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions. In the summer of 2004, members of the Network persuaded the Texas Democratic Party to endorse a moratorium in the party platform. The party again endorsed a moratorium in the 2006 and 2008 platforms. After Ernest Willis was exonerated and released from Texas Death Row on October 6, 2004, the Network created the Texas Death Penalty Innocence Freedom Fund and donated $1,000 USD to Willis to help him until he received compensation from the State of Texas, which later compensated Willis a total of $429,166 USD for the more than seventeen years he spent on death row for a crime he had not committed.

After the September 14, 2005 execution of Frances Newton, the Network conducted a fundraising campaign which raised about $1,000 USD to help Newton's family pay the funeral expenses. Newton was the first African-American woman executed in Texas since a slave named Lucy was hanged March 5, 1858 in Galveston County for murder.

In 2007, the Network collected signatures from members of the general public on a judicial complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Sharon Keller, presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, after she said "We close at 5" and refused to accept an appeal 20 minutes after 5pm from Michael Richard's attorneys on the day of his execution. Members of the Network held a protest on the sidewalk in front of Keller's home and created the website SharonKiller.com. The U.S. Supreme Court had earlier accepted for consideration a case known as Baze v. Rees from Kentucky in which two death row inmates were challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection as a method of execution. On February 19, 2009, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct charged Keller with five counts of misconduct. The commission charged Keller with dereliction of duty, denying Richard his right to access to the courts and incompetence in office. A trial on the charges was held August 17–20, 2009 in a San Antonio courtroom. the Network held a protest outside the courthouse.

In 2008, the Network created a political action committee to support candidates who oppose the death penalty or support a moratorium.

In 2009, the Network led an advocacy campaign to pass a bill to end the death penalty for people convicted under the law of parties. The bill was approved by the Texas House of Representatives, but did not pass the Senate. The Law of Parties applies when someone takes part in one crime – robbery, for example – and does not kill anyone themselves or intend that anyone be killed but “should have anticipated” a murder by an accomplice.

On June 2, 2009, the Network coordinated protests in several Texas cities, Canada and Europe of the 200th execution in Texas since Rick Perry became governor of Texas in December 2000.

After Anthony Graves was released on October 27, 2010 after 18 years on Texas death for a crime he did not commit, the Network collected $3,000 in donations from its supporters and gave it to Graves on November 20, 2010. .