Please email Governor Perry to protest the execution of David Martinez scheduled for Thursday July 28.
You can read more about this case in the two newspaper articles below.
To make sure Perry receives your message, in addition to emailing him, please call him and leave a phone message at (512) 463-2000 or you can fax him at (512) 463-1849.
A petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles seeking to commute Matinez's sentence to life or grant a 120-day reprieve was rejected Tuesday by a 7-0 vote.
Thank you to the hundreds of people who took action last month to urge Gov. Perry to sign the Life Without Parole bill, which he signed on June 17.
Thank you for taking action,Texas Moratorium Network!

Please attend a protest or vigil in your city on Thursday, July 28.
In Austin, Campaign to End the Death Penalty is sponsoring a protest at the Governor's Mansion at 5:30 PM on July 28.
Statewide Execution Vigils
Huntsville - Corner of 12th Street and Avenue I (in front of the Walls Unit) at 5:00 p.m.
Austin - At the Governor's Mansion on the Lavaca St. side between 10th and 11th St. from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.
Beaumont - Diocese of Beaumont, Diocesan Pastoral Office, 703 Archie St. @ 4:00 p.m. on the day of an execution.
College Station - 5:30 to 6 PM, east of Texas A &M campus at the corner of Walton and Texas Ave. across the street from the main entrance.
Dallas - 5:30 pm, at the SMU Women's Center, 3116 Fondren Drive
Houston - St. Anne's Church at Westheimer and Shepherd, 5:30 to 6:20 PM.
McKinney - St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Community located at 110 St. Gabriel Way @ 5:30 p.m. on the day of an execution.
San Antonio - Main Plaza across from Bexar County Courthouse and San Fernando Cathedral - Noon
Martinez appeal turned downJuly 27, 2005
Execution set for Thursday; U.S. Supreme Court next for man who killed woman along Barton Creek greenbelt.
By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Texas' highest criminal appeals court refused Wednesday to throw out the death sentence of David Martinez, 29, convicted in 1998 of killing Kiersa Paul on the Barton Creek greenbelt.
Martinez is scheduled to die by chemical injection just after 6 p.m. Thursday for the 1997 murder of Paul, a 24-year-old Minnesota resident who had spent several months living in Austin.
His next appeal will be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Paul was strangled, raped and stabbed on the Barton Creek greenbelt eight years ago this month.
Martinez, who was arrested a short time later, alleged in his appeal that District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office did not adequately investigate claims that as a teenager Martinez was sexually assaulted by his father, Ray Martinez, and his father's companion, Evan Mullen.
Evidence of sexual abuse has prompted juries to opt for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a two-page order dismissing Martinez's request for a new trial and denying the Austin man's motion for a stay of execution.
Take Action to Protest the Execution
Martinez's last-minute appeal says DA failed to investigate abuse claimsDavid Martinez requests new trial just days ahead of scheduled execution.By Chuck LindellAUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFWednesday, July 27, 2005
David Martinez, set to be executed Thursday for the 1997 rape and murder of Kiersa Paul on the Barton Creek greenbelt, is seeking a new trial by arguing that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office shirked its duty.
The last-gasp appeal accuses prosecutors of failing to adequately investigate allegations that Martinez, now 29, was sexually abused as a teenager by his father and his father's boyfriend, practitioners of a sadomasochistic lifestyle who — until recently — eluded defense investigators while "living a kind of underground life," the appeal states.
Martinez's guilt is not in dispute. But had the jury known about the abuse, it might have sentenced Martinez to life in prison rather than death, said Gary Taylor, Martinez's lawyer.
"The body responsible for conducting a criminal investigation of those (abuse) allegations is basically the district attorney's office, which is same office seeking a conviction in this case. If they substantiate and further our claims, then they hurt their case," Taylor said. "It creates a conflict."
Earle's office rejects the conclusions in Martinez's appeal, which was distributed Tuesday to the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
"We were never presented with what seemed to be credible evidence that a sexual assault occurred, as is insinuated," said Bryan Case, director of the district attorney's appellate division. "Especially in light of the fact that the most likely contributor of that kind of credible evidence, if it existed, was sitting in jail and had every opportunity and motivation to let us know."
Paul, a cashier at a central Austin bakery who was taking a break from the University of Minnesota, was found eight years ago this week — strangled and raped with her throat slashed eight times and an "X" carved on her chest. The brutality sparked fears that a predator was stalking one of Austin's most beautiful and prized locations. But within a day, police narrowed their search to Martinez, a troubled acquaintance of the 24-year-old woman.
Instead of relief, however, the arrest confronted Austin with a powerfully wrenching story of loss.
It began in the mid-1990s, when Julie Anderson — adopted as a child and living in Austin — tracked her biological family to Minnesota. Suddenly, Paul had a big sister to go with her two younger siblings, and the two women formed an immediate friendship. And so it was natural that a few years later Anderson invited her sister to Austin when Paul needed a break from school and the northern winters.
Paul flourished in Austin, where she made friends and satisfied her love of the outdoors with bike rides along the Barton Creek greenbelt. That's where she rode her bike on a July evening to meet a friend nicknamed "Wolf" because she felt sorry for him. A jogger found her body the next morning. A day later, police arrested Martinez, also known as Wolf. Martinez had Paul's bike, and her blood was found on his pocketknife.
The jury needed only 15 minutes to find Martinez guilty, then three hours to sentence him to death.
Paul's close-knit family watched all of the trial, filling three benches in the courtroom. This week, a woman who answered the phone at the Bloomington home of Paul's uncle said the family would not discuss the case.
"It's just so hard. It's a difficult time right now," she said.
Martinez, who declined a request to be interviewed, lived on the streets for a time before Paul's death. He left home after a dispute with his father, Ray Martinez, and his father's partner, Evan Muller, who had launched a business selling sadomasochistic paraphernalia when David Martinez was 16, his appeal states.
Trial testimony listed conflicting accounts of abuse from Martinez, who said in a presentence report that he was physically and emotionally abused by both his parents, but told a psychiatrist that no sexual abuse occurred.
The sexual abuse allegations became clearer in Martinez's first appeal, which listed three people who were prepared to testify that he was abused by his father and Muller. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in denying the appeal last year, noted that defense attorneys could not substantiate abuse allegations and that witnesses gave differing accounts of what occurred in Martinez's home.
In fact, both the defense and the prosecution tried, and failed, to subpoena Ray Martinez for the 1998 trial. Nor could he be found during Martinez's first appeal.
With time running out, Taylor recently launched another search for Martinez's father, using almost $10,000 from a private source that Taylor refused to divulge. After a four-state search, an investigator found Ray Martinez in the back yard of his Michigan home, wearing only a thong and nipple rings, the appeal points out.
Ray Martinez denied knowledge of abuse but refused to directly answer questions, according to a statement by investigator David Watson that was included in the appeal. And although a second investigator thought he found Muller's St. Louis home, he was never found or interviewed.
Taylor said finding Ray Martinez adds a crucial piece of potential evidence to his client's case, and he asked the appeals court to grant a new trial with limited discovery — with assistance from prosecutors — to compel testimony by Martinez's father and Muller.
"I can't make someone talk to me. My investigators don't carry badges and wear guns and put you in jail," Taylor said.
Martinez's appeal notes that a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling stated that unless allegations of childhood sexual abuse are thoroughly investigated and presented to a jury, there can be no confidence in a death sentence.
But that investigation was thwarted, Taylor claims, by Ray Martinez's and Muller's refusal to testify and by prosecutors' refusal "to investigate or pursue them," the appeal states.
Case, an assistant district attorney, said allegations contained in a defendant's appeal are not enough to launch an investigation of sexual assault. "Both at time of trial and at the time the (first appeal), it would have been in David Martinez's interest to provide us with that evidence," Case said.
Nor could prosecutors approach Martinez, he said. "We could all be disbarred for trying to talk to the defendant."
In addition, Case said, the prosecution's attempt to subpoena Ray Martinez and Muller shows that an attempt was made to investigate the allegations.
In the meantime, all sides await a decision from the appeals court. If the appeal is rejected, Taylor said his next step would be the U.S. Supreme Court.
"At some point, whether they choose this case or not, (appellate courts) are going to have to address this issue where the district attorney is the caretaker of justice — where if the DA takes one action, he may be prosecuting a wrong but may be hurting his case in another area," Taylor said.

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 28.7.05

Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home