Texas death-row prisoner gets out

“I’m in a good position now: As a 20-year veteran of death row—one who’s escaped the executioner’s axe—that gives me a platform to speak from, and I AM going to speak. I’m a walking, talking testimonial of hope and inspiration to all the guys that I left behind,” said Martin Draughon here on his first night of freedom in 20 years.

Friends and supporters welcome Martin Draughon, third from right, upon his release from Texas Death Row. Photo: Giles Lyon

Draughon was released from prison on Aug. 25 after a plea deal for a 40-year sentence, which made him eligible for parole. As he was led out of jail, members of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement were out on the sidewalk, along with Rene Feltz, Pacifica’s KPFT news director, and a Houston Chronicle reporter.

Abolitionist Njeri Shakur was elated at the release. “I’m gratified. As an activist who has been working on this issue for a decade, I know we’re on the right track. The system has exposed itself. People are advancing their careers at the expense of justice and human lives. The crime lab has manufactured evidence, lost evidence, hidden evidence. And poor people pay with their lives. The Abolition Movement is happy for Martin and his family and we are anxious to spend a lot of time talking with Martin. We have a great deal to learn from him.”

Draughon paroled to Livingston, Texas, the city that houses the 400 men on Texas death row in the Polunsky Unit. His fiancée, Joy Weathers, works for radio station KDOL in Livingston, which does a prison ministries program devoted to the men on death row. Draughon is now doing the show with her, and says after three shows that it is great to speak over the airwaves to his friends and to all the men on death row.

Conviction overturned

Draughon was sentenced to death in 1987 for shooting a man following a botched robbery. “As I was running away from a fast food place I wanted to rob, I was being chased. I fired a few shots up in the air to scare them. One bullet apparently hit something and ricocheted and struck a man named Armando Guererro in the heart. I didn’t even know anyone had been hurt until I was arrested later and I feel deep remorse for that. But I did not intend to shoot anyone, and did not point the gun and fire into Guerrero like the ballistic expert said I did. That’s a lie,” Draughon told Workers World.

Draughon’s conviction was overturned in 2004 when U.S. District Judge Lee Rosen thal heard evidence from a ballistics expert that the bullet that killed Guerrero had ricocheted. That fact contradicted the testimony provided by Houston Police Department ballistics expert C. E. Ander son at the time of Draughon’s original trial.

Draughon stressed, “C. E. Anderson, the HPD firearms’ expert, perjured himself at my trial and said under oath that the bullet did NOT ricochet, that it entered between the ribs and entered the chest cavity and pierced the heart of Armando Guerrero. After 15 years, we got evidence into federal court that the bullet had in fact ricocheted. There’s no way else to put it—he lied about what happened at my trial.”

Two other men were also sent to death row based on false ballistic evidence: Nanon Williams and Johnnie Bernal. Both were 17 years old at the time of their arrest, so their death sentences were commuted last year after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling did away with sentencing juveniles to death. Both are still fighting their unfair convictions

“We’ve all heard about the 200-plus boxes of evidence that have been misplaced by the crime lab in Houston,” Draughon continued. “Well, my biggest fear was that that evidence that I needed to retest would come up missing. But once we got the evidence, we proved that the police lied at my trial.

“Now that I am out, I want to show people that we can be redeemed, that we’re not irredeemable monsters just because we were put on death row,” Draughon said.

The Texas parole system has placed severe restrictions on Draughon, but he says he is not worried about complying with them. “I have lived on death row. There is nothing the parole people can ask me to do that I can’t do,” he concluded. “I hope they will relax things eventually, but I am not worried. I have plans for speaking out against the death penalty and nothing is going to stop me!”

‘Remember Frances Newton!’

Despite the good news of Draughon’s release and the upcoming re-trials of Howard Guidry and Thomas Miller-El, the execution machine of Texas is not taking a rest.

Two executions are scheduled in September, two in October and two in November. There are also three set for January 2007.

But the movement against capital punishment is also not taking a rest. It is growing daily. Death row families are becoming active. Students are mobilizing. The sixth annual October march to the state capital is building momentum and Houston activists are chartering a bus for it.

It was just one year ago that Texas executed Frances Newton. Shakur told Workers World, “We have not forgotten Frances. Coming on the heels of the Katrina tragedy, the African community was outraged at the racism and injustice of Frances’ execution on Sept. 14, 2005.

“While the country is having a moment of silence for the victims of the World Trade Center attack this week, I hope we can all remember the 2 million people in U.S. prisons, many of whom have never had a day of justice in their lives in this country. I hope we can remember Frances Newton. I hope we remember the heroes of the Attica prison rebellion, which happened this week in 1971. I hope we can remember all the Martin Draughons who were illegally sent to await the executioner.”

Letters can be sent to Draughon at: Martin Draughon, 309 N. Drew Street, Livingston, TX 77351.