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