Armband Alerts: 09/20/12, Harris, TX; Palmer, OH

Please wear a black wrist band tomorrow in silent protest of the executions of Robert Wayne Harris, who is scheduled to be poisoned by the government of the state of Texas at 7:00PM tomorrow for the 2000 murder of two people at a carwash from which he’d been fired three days before, and of Donald Palmer, who will be poisoned by the government of the state of Ohio at 10:00AM tomorrow for the 1989 murders of two men, Charles Sponholz and Steven Vargo, in a road rage incident.

Robert Harris has not yet received his federally guaranteed fair trial.  His trial attorneys presented not a single witness, nor did they mount any investigation of mitigating circumstances.  Further, Mr. Harris is demonstrably mentally incompetent, having recently tested below 70 and earlier in his life at 71.  Finally, an all-white jury was constructed by focused strikes of blacks during jury selection, a practice outlawed by the United States Supreme Court.  Texas must stay this execution to allow time for the state to catch up to the requirements of humanity and the laws of our land!

Donald Palmer is bereft at the tragedy his actions have brought to the families of the victim’s.  He confessed to committing this crime under the control of a fit of road rage, shooting the driver of the car with which he had a traffic accident and then killing the driver of a car who stopped to offer assistance.  Donald Palmer is using the government of the state of Ohio to accomplish ‘suicide by cop’.  He has steadfastly refused to avail himself of further evaluation of the crime, including ignoring the request for an interview by Ohio’s clemency board.  Ohio must subject this case to further scrutiny before it sacrifice’s a human life;  Ohio cannot be complicit in Donald Palmer’s suicide.