| |
|
|
George Rodriguez Awarded $5 Million
GRACE Board member, Mark Wawro, won $5 million for George Rodriguez, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. GRACE provided the fact investigation in 2004, which helped exonerate Mr. Rodriguez.
Read more about George Rodriguez here.
Read the story in the Houston Chronicle here.
GRACE Annual Benefit a Success!
The 2009 GRACE Annual Benefit was a tremendous success. We received more donations than ever before. Thanks to all those who came and supported us, those who donated silent auction items and volunteered, or everyone who couldn't join us but sent donations. GRACE would not exist without your support.
Click Here to see pictures from the evening. .
Danalynn Recer receives NLADA Kutak-Dodds Prize
Danalynn Recer, executive director of GRACE, was awarded the Kutak Dodds Prize on June 3 by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association at he Exemplar Awards Dinner.
The award is given if recognition of her efforts to ensure equal justice for all, regardless of ability to pay.
"Recer’s dedicated efforts toward improving the standards of defending capital punishment cases" said Jo-Ann Wallace, NLADA president and CEO, "has not only helped provide clients with a fair and appropriate defense but has also served to bring a new awareness to the issue. She has acted as attorney, advocate, investigator and leader in improving the prospects of those facing the possibility of death.”
Click here to read the press release.
Danalynn Receives the Kutak Dodds Award
Fragile Gavel Award Presented to
Judge Jeannine Barr
“Fragile as reason is (and as limited as the law is as the institutionalized medium of reason), that's all we have between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feelings.”
--U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
 At our Annual Celebration, GRACE presents the Judge Jay Burnett Fragile Gavel Award, recognizing courage in the fair administration of justice. This honor is not awarded every year, but only when a member of the judiciary has distinguished him or herself by dispensing true justice in the face of tremendous pressures to the contrary. To be honored with the Fragile Gavel Award, a judge must fairly and faithfully follow the dictates of the law even when the result will be unpopular. We recognize this rare form of courage because others do not. We bestow this honor because, as Theodore Roosevelt said, “Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.” Judges who know this – and who, more important, summon the fortitude to act upon it – are all that stand between us and “the tyranny of… unbridled, undisciplined feelings”.
The Award takes the form of a glass gavel, symbolizing the fragility and perfection of true justice. It is named after its first recipient, former Harris County District Judge Jay Burnett, who had the grit to demand a new trial for Calvin Burdine, whose lawyer had slept through parts of his capital murder trial.
“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”
--John Wayne
In 2009, GRACE is proud to present the Fragile Gavel Award to Harris County District Judge Jeannine Barr, who had the courage to prohibit prosecutors from using their peremptory strikes to bar African-American citizens from jury service. In refusing to wink and nod at the “race-neutral” explanations of two prosecutors who used 60% of their strikes to eliminate all African-Americans from a jury panel, in resisting the gravitational tug of business-as-usual and “this is how we’ve always done things,” Judge Barr’s firm adherence to the letter of the law sent a clear message that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office would be no longer be immune from constitutional imperatives and that Houstonians of color will no longer be excluded from one of the most important roles a citizen can play in our democracy.
Judge Barr is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a graduate of LSU law school (1985). A former English teacher, she served as a Harris County Assistant District Attorney (1986 –1994) before being elected to the 182nd District Court in November 1994. She is currently serving her fourth term. Judge Barr is a longtime member of the Houston Bar Association’s Night Court cast, which performs an all-lawyer musical review each year. She is married to former District Judge Jim Barr and together they enjoy traveling as much as possible.
Danalynn Recer receives Kutak-Dodds Prize
Danalynn Recer, exeuctive director of GRACE, will be awarded the Kutak Dodds Prize on June 3 by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association at he Examplar Awards Dinner.
The award is given if recognition of her efforts to ensure equal justice for all, regardless of ability to pay.
"Recer’s dedicated efforts toward improving the standards of defending capital punishment cases" said Jo-Ann Wallace, NLADA president and CEO, "has not only helped provide clients with a fair and appropriate defense but has also served to bring a new awareness to the issue. She has acted as attorney, advocate, investigator and leader in improving the prospects of those facing the possibility of death.”
Click here to read the press release.
Jose Briseno Receives a Stay of Execution
Congratulations to GRACE board member Dick Burr!
On April 2 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Mr. Briseno a stay of execution to consider whether the jury was given proper instructions to consider mitigation evidence during the sentencing phase of his trial.
Below is a statement from his attorney and GRACE board member, Dick Burr:
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today stayed the April 7 execution of Jose Briseno to consider whether Mr. Briseno’s jury was allowed to give appropriate effect to the mitigating evidence of childhood deprivation, abandonment by his parents, limited intellectual functioning, alcoholism and drug abuse, and lifelong poverty introduced on his behalf in the penalty phase of his trial. The Texas courts have wrestled with this issue in numerous cases since 1989, when the Supreme Court first addressed this problem with the Texas capital sentencing procedure. A 2004 decision by the Supreme Court has given the Court of Criminal Appeals reason to revisit this issue in cases involving crimes that occurred before September 1991.
Mr. Briseno has gained worldwide support, with people petitioning the Governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles from 22 countries in his quest for clemency, due to his extraordinarily positive contributions to the lives of many people since his incarceration on death row in 1992."
Read the story in the Houston Chronicle here.
BRIAN NICHOLS LIFE SPARED!
Our Congratulations to GRACE Board member Robert McGlasson and the entire Nichols team!
Posted December 12, 2008
After the four days of deliberations, the judge in Brian Nichols case declared the jury hung. GRACE board member, Robert McGlasson, served as second chair attorney along with first chair Henderson Hill.
 At 5pm on November 12th, over the objections of the defense, the judge sent the jury back for two more hours of deliberation when the foreman explained that they had not reached a unanimous verdict, required for the death penalty in Georgia. They returned at 7:00 pm, divided 9 - 3, and the judge declared the jury deadlocked. The judge will impose a sentence on Saturday.
Brian Nichols was convicted of murdering four people in a courthouse shooting in 2005. Mr. Nichols life was saved by the hard work, compassion, brilliance of his attorneys.
Read the an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution here.
Danalynn Recer named Best Criminal Defense Attorney
The Houston Press named Danalynn Recer as Houston's Best Criminal Defense Attorney in their Best of Houston 2008 issue. Click here to read the article.
GRACE Benefit Dinner a success!
GRACE's 5th annual fundraiser was a success thanks to the generous support of the community. We thank everyone who attended or contributed to the dinner. GRACE would not exist if not for your generous support.
In addition to enjoying speeches given by director Danalynn Recer and the Consul General of Mexico Carlos González, GRACE was honored to receive a plaque from the Mexican Consulate commending GRACE's work done through the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program (MCLAP). The plaque says the following:
TEPANTLATOANI
In honor of the 6th Anniversary of the
Gulf Region Advocacy Center
the Consulate General of Mexico
expresses its sincerest gratitude to
Danalynn Recer
and the entire staff of GRACE
for their tireless efforts in protecting
the lives of Mexican nationals
Carlos I. González Magallón
Consul General of Mexico
Houston, Texas June, 2008
Click here to view more photos of the evening.
GRACE Receives the Torch of Liberty Award
 GRACE was recently honored by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. It was given at the HCCLA Annual Banquet. Several staff members attended to receive the award. The inscription on the award reads "In Grateful Recognition of Your Effords in the Pursuit of Justice." We are honored to receive the award.
Danalynn Recer Receives National Award
Danalynn was recently awarded the National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s Life in the Balance Achievement Award. This award is given yearly by the NLADA to an attorney or investigator who has shown exceptional dedication to death penalty defense. The Award reads: in recognition of her tireless commitment to ending the death penalty in America, fearlessly laboring both as an attorney and to teach investigators, mitigation specialists, and lawyers the value of thorough mitigation investigation and defense teamwork. Danalynn has embodied effective advocacy with respect for every client and their unique circumstances, first as a staff attorney at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center in New Orleans and then by having the vision and courage to create the non-profit Gulf Region Advocacy Center out of her home in Houston. Danalynn has been described by her colleagues as “a force of nature” who has raised the quality of capital defense representation and provided a model for cooperative team defense that has saved countless lives.
Eric Matthews Plea
This year GRACE played an instrumental role in the long and hard-fought battle to save the life of Eric Matthews, a young schizophrenic Louisiana man charged with murdering his wife and young step-son who awaited trial for over eight years despite the fact that he had confessed, fully cooperated with officials, and was willing to plead guilty in exchange for life without parole. Eric was represented by the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, our sister office where Danalynn Recer worked prior to founding GRACE, and where she remains of counsel. Along with LCAC Director Neal Walker and mitigation specialist Melanie Carr (now the Director of A Fighting Chance, or AFC), Danalynn represented Eric for most of those eight years, during which the elected DA of Tangipahoa Parish ignored the wishes of the victims' family, ignored overwhelming evidence of Eric's severe mental illness, ignored Eric's profound remorse and his willingness to accept responsibility for his actions, and pressed for a death penalty that no one impacted by the crime actually wanted. After extraordinary pre-trial litigation, numerous hearings, and an extensive mitigation investigation conducted by staff from LCAC, AFC and GRACE, the DA finally relented, and Eric entered a plea in exchange for a sentence of life without parole on August 30, 2006.
GRACE Board Member Helps Stay Carlton Turner's Execution
On September 27 , the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Carlton Turner in light of their recent cert grant to consider whether lethal injection violates the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment. Two nights previously, another Texas man was executed despite having raised the same issue and many worried that might be an indication that Baze was a hostile cert grant. But, the stay seems to herald a national moratorium pending resolution of this issue. The difference? Turner lives and Richard died only because Turner exhausted the issue in state court -- thanks to the overnight heroics of our own Secretary of the Board, Morris Moon.
Read the Houston Chronicle article here.
Governer
Perry Commutes Kenneth Foster's Sentence
On August 31st, Governor Perry commuted the sentence of Kenneth Foster to life imprisonment. This is only the third time that the governor has done so during his time in office. Foster did not participate in the killing, but due to the Texas statute known as the law of parties, he had been sentenced to death for driving the car when another man shot and killed Michael LaHood.
Read the Houston Chronicle article for more information.
NEW VOICES: Victims Organizations Issue Joint Statement
for National Victims' Rights Week
|
|
Three organizations whose memberships include family members of murder victims recently issued a joint statement in conjunction with National Crime Victims' Rights Week, which takes place April 22 - 28, 2007. The statement, issued by the leaders of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, and Journey of Hope, called for governmental policies that serve the true needs of family members. The groups called for an end to the death penalty, noting that alternatives to capital punishment "provide the certainty and punishment that many families need while keeping our communities safe."
Their statement read:
April 22 – 28, 2007 is National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. The theme for this year is “Victims’ Rights: Every Victim, Every Time.” As victims, and survivors, we strongly support efforts to ensure that the needs of victims’ don’t fall through the cracks or fall prey to politics.
The death penalty does not serve victims’ families. It draws resources away from needed support programs, law enforcement and crime prevention. And the trials and appeals endlessly re-open wounds as they are beginning to heal, and it only creates more families who lose loved ones to killing.
Alternatives to the death penalty provide the certainty and punishment that many families need while keeping our communities safe. Critically, alternatives ensure attention is cast where it is needed most – on the survivors – and not on sensational trials or suspects.
As murder victim family members we also share the same concerns as other Americans with the death penalty. We are concerned about innocent people being sentenced to death, about racial and economic disparities and about arbitrariness. But for us the stakes are higher because an innocent person might be executed in a misguided attempt to give us justice. Losing one innocent life to murder is one too many, the taking of another innocent life because of the first is beyond comprehension.
Those who argue for the death penalty often claim to do so on behalf of us, the victims’ families. They say it will give us “closure.” We don’t want the death penalty, and closure is a myth. Every victim, every time needs help, understanding, resources, and support. We don’t need more killing.
Since 1981, the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crimes has helped lead communities throughout the country in their observances of National Crime Victims' Rights Week (NCVRW). Rallies, candlelight vigils, and a host of commemorative activities are held each year to promote victims' rights and to honor crime victims and those who advocate on their behalf.
(MVFHR, MVFR, and Journey of Hope Statement, April 19, 2007). |
Case Dismissed!
GRACE is proud to report that the Harris County District Attorney dismissed all criminal charges against our client Shantia Jackson in March 2006. GRACE agreed to represent Tia pro bono at the request of co-counsel Tony Haughton when Tia was initially charged with capital murder in the tragic and sudden death of her infant son in 2005. Tia was later indicted for injury to a child, despite her documented history as an excellent and attentive mother who had never mistreated any of her three children. After a thorough investigation and consultation with experts, GRACE was able to demonstrate to the prosecution that a flawed autopsy report, which mistakenly exaggerated the extent of injury to the child, lead the Medical Examiner to erroneously conclude that he must have been intentionally injured. GRACE staff members Aimee Solway, Danalynn Recer and John Fox, along with interns Scarlet Granville, Caroline Harvey and Sarah Mendola, all contributed to this victory. We hope that Tia will finally – and permanently -- be reunited with her two surviving sons in the near future.
Tia Jackson and her family
Tia and her legal team
George Rodriguez Exonerated
George Rodriguez was convicted of a rape that he did not commit in 1987.
His conviction was obtained through faulty scientific evidence. Read More
Mental Retardation and the Death Penalty
On June 20, 2002 the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling ending the execution of those with mental retardation. In Atkins v. Virginia, the Court held that it is a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment to execute Death Row inmates with mental retardation. The decision reflects the national consensus which has formed on this issue and influenced a 2005 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the execution of juvenile offenders, Roeper v. Simmons. Read More
Danalynn Recer Awarded PETRA Fellowship
Danalynn Recer, GRACE's founder and director, was awarded a Petra Fellowship in November 2004. Read More
GRACE Opens New Doors Next Door
When GRACE opened its doors in 2002, our staff of one attorney and three volunteer interns were able to work comfortably out of a rented attic apartment not far from the jail. Over the next two years, as we grew to a staff of six, that cozy little space became cramped and overcrowded.
  
Looking for new space, we discovered that inner-city gentrification would push us out to the burbs if we remained renters. Thus we followed in the footsteps of the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in New Orleans, the Equal Justice Initiative in Birmingham, the Public Interest Law Clinic in St. Louis and the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, and launched a campaign to raise $75,000 toward a place of our own. Thanks to Tom Lorenzi, Bill Davis, Nancy Pemberton, Hough Southy, Hilary Sheard, Jill Norgren, Philippa Strum, Johnathan Hochhauser, and Chris Pyle, we raised $6,000 over the 2004 holidays and began the New Year by entering into a contract to buy two lots in the historic Sixth Ward, a few blocks west of the Courthouse and jail.
Our contract gave us just over 90 days to raise the remainder of our down payment. This effort was kicked into high gear by the incredibly generous matching funds challenge issued to our Board members by an Anonymous donor. Our Board rose to the challenge and personally donated $17,500, which the Anonymous donor doubled! Adding to this the donations by Richard Helyer, Nali Dinshaw, Jan Arriens, Dave Keefe, and Sean O’Brien, and we had raised over $42,000 by March, but were still far short of our goal until Steve Bright, of the Southern Center for Human Rights, stepped in to donate the stipend he received for teaching a capital punishment clinic at Yale. Steve’s $25,500 closed the gap, and we signed the papers on our new space in April!!!
 
2307 Union Street 2305 Union Street
But, that was just the first step! Read More
|
_ |
|
|
