Execution Log – 04/15/13-04/21/13: 04/16,Threadgill,TX

Here are copies of the e-mails I sent to people in states with scheduled executions asking them to intervene. Please e-mail, phone or fax appeals of your own. You are welcome to cut & paste.

TX       Ronnie Threadgill                                scheduled 04/16/2013

You can e-mail Governor Rick Perry at his website: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact

phone: (512) 463 2000
fax:       (512) 463 1849

 other Texas contacts:

 Pardons and Paroles
phone: (512) 406 5852
fax:       (512) 467 0945

Austin American Statesman
e-dress: letters@statesman.com

phone: (512) 445-3667
fax:       (512) 445-3679

Houston Chronicle
e-dress: hci@chron.com
phone: (713) 220-7491

I ask you, Governor Perry, to stop your state’s execution of Ronnie Threadgill. Mr. Threadgill is scheduled to be poisoned by the government of Texas next Tuesday, 04/16/2013, for the 2001 murder of Dexter McDonald.

As is common in Texas, Ronnie Threadgill has not yet received his constitutionally guaranteed fair trial.  In his original trial the jury was not informed that they could consider convicting him of felony murder, a non-capital offense.  In the penalty phase, the prosecution tried to show ‘future dangerousness’ by presenting evidence of Mr. Threadgill’s involvement in a previous murder even though all charges were dropped because of ‘conflicting evidence’.  Later appeals on Mr. Threadgill’s behalf were denied because they had not been presented in his first appeal, a deadly Catch-22 for Mr. Threadgill.  Governor Perry, you must stay this execution so your state can provide Mr. Threadgill his constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Former Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno, as well as myriads of scholars, can find no evidence that the death penalty deters capital crimes. In fact, the warden of the famous Sing Sing prison believes that the death penalty exacerbates the violence in his facility by setting an example of cold-blooded killing. Recent studies show that the largest increase in capital crimes is in the state of Texas, the state which executes the most people. As for vengeance, that is the Lord’s, not the government’s.

Please, Governor Perry, stop this killing of Ronnie Threadgill. If this execution goes forward, look around this country for the black armbands worn, and the church bells tolled, in protest of this injustice.

Thank you.