for the defense for the defense - Voice For The Defense Online

Greg Westfall
Editor’s
Comment
Please say the following names out loud: Curtis Moore, Frank Moore, Reginald Perkins,
Virgil Martinez, Ricardo Ortiz, David Martinez, Dale Scheanette, Johnny Johnson,
Willie Pondexter, Kenneth Morris, James Martinez, Luis Salazar, Michael Rosales, Derrick
Johnson, Michael Riley, Terry Hankins, Stephen Moody, Christopher Coleman, Reginald
Blanton, Khristian Oliver, Yosvanis Valle, Danielle Simpson, Robert Thompson, and Bobby
Woods.
Good.
Now try to remember at least two or three of those names, and may I suggest that Robert
Thompson be one of those that you store somewhere in a corner of your mind.
In reading and reciting those names, you have just called the roll of the 24 men killed by
the State of Texas in your name—as a citizen of this state—during the past year.
Right, they are all dead, the victims of an out-dated, capricious, malicious, and barbaric
form of punishment that we Texans have continued to allow at a pace unequaled by any
other state in the union and many countries throughout the world.
I specifically noted Robert Thompson, the 23rd person executed in Texas in 2009, because
the circumstances of his case ought to give the most ardent death-penalty supporter pause.
He was convicted under the “law of parties,” a statute that is on the books in only five states,
though Texas is the only one that applies that law in capital cases.
You lawyers understand that under the law of parties, a person may be held criminally
liable—that is, just as guilty as if he were the actual perpetrator—if “acting with intent to
pro mote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts
to aid the other person to commit the offense.”
Thompson was involved in a Houston robbery 13 years ago in which a store clerk was
shot to death. Thompson’s cohort, Sammy Butler, actually killed Mansoor Bhai Rahim Moham
med, a crime for which a jury sentenced him to life in prison. A separate jury sentenced
Thompson to die by lethal injection.
In a rare decision, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended on a 5–2 vote