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A black man executed in Texas for murdering and raping a white woman nearly 70 years ago has been posthumously acquitted, with prosecutors now admitting the case was built on false evidence and riddled with racial bias.
In May 1956, Tommy Lee Walker was sent to the electric chair for the murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker in Dallas. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Walker attacked Ms. Parker, a store clerk, as she returned home on the night of Sept. 30, 1953.
Ms. Parker’s killing came amid widespread panic and racial division in the Dallas area, exacerbated by reports of a “peeping tom” believed to be black, terrorizing women, according to the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
But the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office conducted an extensive review of Walker’s conviction with the help of the Innocence Project New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project found multiple problems with Walker’s case.
The review found problems with a Dallas police officer’s statement that Parker identified the attacker as a black man.
But multiple witnesses denied Parker did “anything other than convulse and bleed out” after the attack, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said during a Wednesday meeting of Dallas County commissioners, who asked officials to acquit Walker.
in the months after Parker was killed. Hundreds of black men were rounded up by authorities, and Walker, then 19, was arrested four months later.
Walker was subjected to threats and coercive interrogation techniques by Dallas Police Capt. Will Fritz, a former member of the group. Ku Klux Klansaid Crezo.
Walker later testified that he admitted to the killing because he feared for his life, Clouzot said.
During the trial, Walker’s attorneys presented 10 witnesses who testified that Walker and his girlfriend gave birth to their son, Edward Lee Smith, at a local hospital at the time of the murder, the Innocence Project reported.
“But that had little effect on Jim Crow laws in Dallas,” the Innocence Project said.
Walker was convicted in 1954 by an all-white jury.
“The prosecution presented misleading and inadmissible evidence in this case,” Clouzot said. “While this case contains undeniable legal errors, it is rife with racial injustice in an era when prejudice and bigotry pervade all aspects of society, including the criminal justice system.”
Clouzot praised the work of journalist Mary Mapes, who first began investigating Walker’s case 13 years ago.
“He paid with his life for a crime he could not have committed,” Mapes told commissioners.
In an emotional moment at Wednesday’s meeting, Walker’s son Smith, 72, and the victim’s son, joseph parkerhugging each other.
“I’m very sorry for what happened,” Parker told Smith
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Smith responded.
Smith earlier told commissioners that his father’s wrongful execution was very difficult for him and his mother.
“I’m 72 years old and I still miss my dad,” Smith said, crying. “She said, ‘Honey, they put you in the electric chair for something your dad didn’t do.'” “
Joseph Parker told commissioners he hoped Walker’s acquittal would help prevent future wrongful convictions.
“If there’s nothing else that comes from this situation … it’s that we learn to try not to make the same mistakes again. What are mistakes? Mistakes are injustice and the loss of innocent lives,” Parker said.
At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, Dallas County commissioners unanimously passed a symbolic resolution declaring that Walker was wrongly convicted and executed and that what happened to him represented a “serious miscarriage of justice.”