Anthony Graves, father of three and an African American man with no violent past, was on death row in Texas for more than a decade despite his innocence before being exonerated. Now, Anthony spends his time speaking out about the injustice of the death penalty. He is headlining a panel hosted by the Equal Justice Society on December 7, exploring how we can understand the death penalty in the context of modern-day racism in America. The panel also highlights the need to develop a cohesive legal strategy to reclaim the 14th Amendment as a tool to combat modern-day racism. We talked with Anthony about his long fight for freedom and his work to replace the death penalty with life without parole to eliminate the grave risk of executing innocent people.
Give us a brief background on your case.
In 1992, there was a crime in a little small town known as Somerville, Texas. There were six victims; four of them were children, one was a teenager, and one was a grandmother. They were shot, stabbed and bludgeoned to death, and then the house was set on fire. The guy that was thought to be a person of interest in the case was the father of one of the children. The police interrogated this man for hours, and then they told him that if he gave them someone's name, they would let him go. He called out my name, not thinking that they were going to arrest me, because he was giving them a wild story. Well, I was arrested and I ended up on death row for 18 years for a crime I did not commit. Even after my case was overturned by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for egregious prosecutorial misconduct, I ended up staying at the local county jail for four more years, in isolation, because they refused to admit they made a mistake. Several prosecutors were assigned by the county to retry my case, and for one reason or another they got off the case. The last prosecutor, Kelly Siegler, was known as a tough-as-nails prosecutor because she had already put 19 men on death row. She came in and, for the first time in 18 years, my case was investigated. What she found out was very shocking to her, and she called it the criminal justice system's worst nightmare. She went to the judge and asked the judge to sign the dismissal order because I was innocent.
What kept you fighting for 18 years? What kept you from giving up?
Living on death row was hell, because you had no control over your life. You had absolutely no say so about what you could do throughout the day. Your life was controlled by guards, 18- or 19-year-old guards fresh out of high school, who had the right to disrespect you and treat you as less than the man that you were. And you had conditions that were so inhumane that guys were giving up their appeals, committing suicide, attempting to commit suicide or going totally insane. That still is going on today on Texas Death Row. What kept me strong was that I knew I was innocent. I was naïve enough to believe that you just can't take a man from his home for a crime that took place in another town that he wasn't even in, falsely convict him, and then murder him. I refused to believe we had a criminal justice system like that even though I was there long enough to witness Texas executing more than 300 men. But, because I didn't want to give up, I allowed my naiveté to keep me strong. In the meantime, they gave me two execution dates - which makes it clear to me that Texas is executing innocent people. How do I know? They tried to execute me twice for a crime I did not commit.
Three hundred people executed over 12 and half years?
Texas was breaking execution records set by Texas. They were competing with themselves to break their own records. We would be naïve to believe they never got it wrong. I used to cry about it a lot at night, and I promised myself that when I got out of prison, not only was I going to work to help the guys I left behind, I was also going to tell the rest of the world what was happening on death row. I hope and pray that I am effective enough and clear enough about how the death penalty is totally inhumane, and how inhumane it makes us look. We are the only nation, the only democratic nation, acting like a third world country when it comes to our criminal justice system. We are supposed to be the nation that leads the world. Yet, we have created a system that threatens the life of innocent people. As of today, 139 people have been exonerated from death in the United States. And, yet, we are still killing. How many did we get wrong?
Would you still call yourself "naïve" about how justice in America is carried out?
I am no longer naïve. Our criminal justice system needs to be reformed. I say to the American people, where is the outrage? It could be your son or your daughter or your father or your mother next. Do not think it can't happen to you, because it happened to me. We have a death penalty system that is killing innocent people, not just in the state of Texas but also in other states that have the death penalty. Anyone -- anyone -- would be naïve to believe otherwise. It is sad to me that there is no real outrage about it, not just from people on the street but from those we vote in to office to protect and serve us.
How is life now that you are free?
I am trying to rebuild it. It is so different from the life I had before. I am on a mission to alert the American people that our criminal justice system has turned against us. They are killing us for crimes we did not commit. We need to wake up and say: No, this is not the system that we want. Now, I spend every moment of my life traveling and educating people about the injustice of the death penalty and telling people what happened to me. Sharing my story, sharing my insight. I work for a nonprofit organization that represents people on death row, and I also travel around the world to educate people. I go anywhere to talk to anyone who is willing to hear my story. My life is totally dedicated to exposing the injustice of the death penalty. The guys I left behind, some of them are innocent, some of them are mentally ill, and Texas still wants to murder them for a crime they may or may not have committed. Don't believe me? Ask the 139 others who have walked off death row in the United States. Ask their families and their mothers. I could be doing a lot of other things with my life. Texas compensated me for this wrongful conviction. But I am here talking about the death penalty and how wrong it is simply because I know it's true. And I just can't stand by without telling people what I know.
Do you think the death penalty should be replaced with life without parole?
One innocent life is one too many to waste, so therefore we should not be tinkering with the death penalty. America needs to know that we are wasting a lot of money murdering precious life. We have a system that has run amok, and we are all in the way. We are spending more money to execute one person than we are to keep that person in prison for the rest of his or her life.
Thank you for sharing your story with us. What compels you to keep telling it?
I feel like if I stop, someone else is going to be murdered who is probably innocent. Knowing that, I have to keep telling my story until I can ensure that no one innocent can be executed. That drives me to tell my story, when- and wherever I can.
How can people help?
Whoever has whatever platform out there, allow me a few minutes of your time to get on your platform and share my story. It will be a tremendous help to righting this injustice. Please also consider supporting the nonprofit where I work, the Texas Defender Service.
Follow Eva Paterson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/equaljustice
You ask:
". . . how we can understand the death penalty in the context of modern-day racism in America?"
I ask "How we can understand the death penalty in the context of modern-day racism in America, without looking at modern day crime statistics/"
We can't.
Therefore, review the race, ethnicity and crime statistics, here:
For the White–Black comparisons, the Black level is 12.7 times greater for homicide, 15.6 times greater for robbery, 6.7 times greater for rape, and 4.5 times greater for aggravated assault.
For the Hispanic- White comparison, the Hispanic level is 4.0 times greater than the White level for homicide, 3.8 times greater for robbery, 2.8 times greater for rape, and 2.3 times greater for aggravated assault.
For the Hispanic–Black comparison, the Black level is 3.1 times greater than the Hispanic level for homicide, 4.1 times greater for robbery, 2.4 times greater for rape, and 1.9 times greater for aggravated assault.
From
REASSESSING TRENDS IN BLACK VIOLENT CRIME, 1980.2008: SORTING OUT THE "HISPANIC EFFECT" IN UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS ARRESTS, NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY OFFENDER ESTIMATES, AND U.S. PRISONER COUNTS, DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER, BEN FELDMEYER, CASEY T. HARRIS, JEFFERY T. ULMER, Criminology, Volume 49, Issue 1, Article first published online: 24 FEB 2011
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00222.x/pdf
Texas has executed about 0.7% of their murderers, since 1973, and, then, only after 10-11 years of appeals.
The 139 exonerated released from death row is a blatant fraud, easily uncovered by fact checking, which has already done by many.
Mr. Graves should fact check.
It is terrible what happened to him but that doesn't give him a free pass to present nonsense.
5) The 130 (now 139) death row "innocents" scam
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/03/04/fact-checking-issues-on-innocence-and-the-death-penalty.aspx
The false innocence claims by anti death penalty activists are legendary. Some examples:
4) "The Innocent Executed: Deception & Death Penalty Opponents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/10/08/the-innocent-executed-deception--death-penalty-opponents--draft.aspx
6) "Exoneration Inflation: Justice Scalia’s Concurrence in Kansas v. March", by Ward Campbell, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice, p 49, The Journal of the
Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice, Issue 2, Summer 2008,
http://www.cjlf.org/files/CampbellExonerationInflation2008.pdf
7) "The innocence tactic: Unreliable studies and disinformation", reports By United States Congress, Senate, 107th Congress, 2d Session, Calender no 731, Report 107-315. The Innocence Protection Act of 2002, (iv) The innocence tactic: Unreliable studies and disinformation, p 65-69, http://alturl.com/6j7oc
8) "The Innocent and the Shammed", Joshua Marquis, Published in New York Times, 1/26/2006
http://coaÂstda.blogsÂpot.com/20Â06/01/innoÂcent-and-sÂhammed-nytÂ-oped.html
So now, if you pull back those exonerated but not found factually innocent, would you allow them to be executed? Would you allow for the possibility that they are innocent? Would you execute them anyway?
Murderers can be locked up for life, and it costs less taxpayer money than executing them. Taxpayer money that can go to investigating unsolved crimes, and preventing crime in the first place.
14th amend/8th, violated!
Dear HP,
Bro..first (RR-ed) into CMHC; sent. to "natl. life", but after serving over 10 yrs. for a crime he did NOT commit, the ct. docs. were chang. to "life".
Should be able to pro. self/family, from THREATS with a gun(gun pointed at him).
Can NOT be subjected to "cruel & unusual punish.".
Chased at (13), ret. after school;BULLIED/STALKED STILL..
Gangs, made him go along, at 17.
At Chester MHC.; 14 + yrs,51 yrs. old. OLD inmates and GUARDS raped him.
"Rape is NOT, the punish.".
GURDS( C. Roberts);concoct fights, LIE on my bro., create "RED LEV." FAKE WRITEUPS, to KEEP the FIS. MONIES.
Chris threaten MY life, COMPLTS filed/ EFE, DHS; has ONLY HELP the perps..
I/NEWS com., can tell my bro.'s story.
MED. REC. PICS and LETTERS, on abuse.
EFE atty., Ms. AUSHMANN/EMPLOYEES.
make"visits" EVERY 30 DAYS, claim to help the pats.?
; Need rep to fight for him.
Bro.; being FORCE Rx, for YRS;COG.skills, debil.
HELP EXPOSE fac.. Not enough, is said.
Stat. 405 of the DIS. CODE, PROHIBS. ABUSE of ANY KIND. CMHC, VIOL. this CODE, for YRS.
PLEASE SEND HELP; mess. sent by(rodneyyoder.com). HE was RR-ED to CMHC. His atty. faught to stop the drugs/free him, from CMHC.
(X) Admin., (P. Kelley-Mosbacher,. STILL there, D. Dunker;involved in this MASS. COVERUP.
Contact: (773)622-2906.
Thank you.
Mrs. E.P.Clayton
They use the DNA exhonerations. as a proof for that...
Unfortunately ,no politicians managed to counterattack that dangerous propaganda...
"DNA exhioneration "means that no DNA of the convicted was found at the scene of the crime.
IT DOES NOT NESSECARILY MEAN THAT THE CONVICTED IS INNOCENT.
Either by luck,or by sophistication,or by poor police work,the murderer did not leave DNA material.
My intuition tells me that the majority of DNA exhonerated are guilty as sin.
We see it in their facings...
And in all cases,a wrongful conviction is not an excuse to throw away ALL convictions...
Many wrongful deaths happen by car accidents. We don't prohibit ... cars.
Many drownings,but we don't prohibit swimming.
Many in-hospital infections & malpractices ,but we don't prohibit...hospitals..
So,we need more spending on DNA labs,
enforcement of the DP in the states which have it
& reinstatement ,applied retroactively,in the states
were the criminal-lovers staged a hit against the will of the majority of the people & prohibited justice...
Not to mention that there are cases where the DNA evidence has led to another killer.
You seem to be okay with the state killing an innocent person, but...
Did you know that it costs more to execute someone than it does to keep them in jail for life without parole? We can keep them out of society, while spending less money. This is money that can be spent on investigating unsolved crimes, and on preventing crime in the first place.