Ernest Ray Willis set a fire that killed two women in Pecos County. So said Texas prosecutors who obtained a conviction in 1987 and sent Mr. Willis to death row. But it wasn't true.
Seventeen years later, a federal judge overturned the conviction, finding that prosecutors had drugged Mr. Willis with powerful anti-psychotic medication during his trial and then used his glazed appearance to characterize him as "cold-hearted." They also suppressed evidence and introduced neither physical proof nor eyewitnesses in the trial – and his court-appointed lawyers mounted a lousy defense. Besides, another death-row inmate confessed to the killings. (More...)
DEATH NO MORE
What do we want;
War and torture,
Atom bombs piercing remembrance
Exhuming the blue skies and rain?
To ogle the writhing shudder of innocence,
Flames to swallow up the green plain and sand
Where art once journeyed the sovereign distance
Now yearning to bunker down in eternal rest?
Where is our serene silhouette?
Our loving?
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
