Michael OBrien - Killing Justice in the Lone Star State: Calling Time on Texas Death Row

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Killing Justice in the
Lone Star State

Calling Time on Texas Death Row

Copyright and publication details

Killing Justice in the Lone Star State: Calling Time on Texas Death Row

Michael A OBrien

ISBN 978-1-909976-92-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-909976-93-1 (Epub ebook)

ISBN 978-1-909976-94-8 (Adobe ebook)

Copyright 2021 This work is the copyright of Michael A OBrien. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by him in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.

Cover design 2021 Waterside Press.

Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, BN23 6QH. Tel: (+44) 01323 521777; ; www.gardners.com

North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Tel: (+1) 615 793 5000;

Cataloguing In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.

Printed by Severn, Gloucester, UK.

EbookKilling Justice in the Lone Star State is available as an ebook including via library models.

Published 2021 by

Waterside Press Ltd

Sherfield Gables

Sherfield on Loddon, Hook

Hampshire RG27 0JG.

Telephone +44(0)1256 882250

Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk

Email enquiries@watersidepress.co.uk

Killing Justice in the
Lone Star State

Calling Time on Texas Death Row

Michael A OBrien

Table of Contents

About the author

Born in Cardiff and raised in the community of Ely, the second largest council estate in Europe, Michael OBrien is a survivor of an emblematic UK miscarriage of justice. Known as The Cardiff Newsagent Three case it remains a key reference point for campaigners against injustice. His writings include his autobiography, The Death of Justice (2008) and Prisons Exposed (2013) which won the Peoples Choice Book Award at Amazon. In January 2014, it was Book of the Month and Book of the Year in December of that year.

In 2012 the OBriens son Dylan lost his battle with an unknown genetic condition, prompting the author to write Dylans Story: A Fathers Journey (2016) to raise awareness of metabolic and undiagnosed conditions. His book Overcoming Injustice and Loss (2018) helped inspire others with similar experiences.

Having overcome many traumatic events (including the loss of an earlier child at the time of his arrest in the Cardiff Newsagent Three case), Michael OBrien uses his experiences to help others maintain positive attitudes. As a motivational speaker he has addressed many events including at the House of Commons. He also acts for youngsters as an appropriate adult at police stations in Wales, and as a Mackenzie Friend helps those who cannot get legal representation in the family courts.

Publishers note

The views and opinions in this book are those of the author and not necessarily shared by the publisher. Readers should draw their own conclusions concerning the possibility of alternative views, accounts, descriptions or explanations.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank author John Morris for his help with this book and for inspiring me to finish it and try to make a difference.

I am also grateful to the Death Penalty Information Center in Texas, Kenneth Foster Jr, Randy Halprin (who both feature in this book) and their supporters for assisting me with this book. They highlighted some of the cases I write about and allowed me to see and use their materials.

Equally, I should mention the assistance given by Waterside Press whose in-house team helped me to develop Killing Justice in the Lone Star State from my original manuscript into the book you see here, especially where clarification or additional referencing was needed.

Capital punishment is a barbaric practice and has no place in a civilised and just society. It does and has resulted in innocent people being imprisoned for lengthy periods of time or wrongly executed. I hope this book will help to bring about change and rid us of a medieval practice which, in the USA, occurs predominately in Texas.

Michael A OBrien

April 2021

Dedication

I dedicate this book to all those individuals who have I believe been wrongly convicted and executed in Texas some of whom appear in the chapters which follow, where justice has failed both them and the victims families.

Preface

In 1987, a Cardiff shopkeeper called Phillip Saunders was attacked and robbed in the back yard of his home by an unknown assailant wielding a shovel. Badly injured, he was rushed to hospital where he died of his injuries. At the time, Darren Hall, Ellis Sherwood and I were young men. I was just 19 but in a stable relationship, married with one child and another on the way. I held down a steady job. Most of my friends were out of work on the dole, and passed their days stealing cars and taking drugs: ganja and the like. I made the mistake of joining them to fit in. Sometimes you do things you dont really want to. That mistake cost me most dearly.

We were brought in by the police for questioning. Crucially, we had no alibis for when the crime took place. Whilst held in custody we were handcuffed to hot radiators, refused food and water, and denied access to lawyers.

Two years earlier, when I was 17, Id been sexually-assaulted. I lodged an official complaint with the police. The officers who investigated it were the same ones questioning me now. They taunted me that I would be sexually-assaulted in prison. It was really horrible stuff. But this was part of their strategy to get me to admit to a crime I had not committed. Under the same intense pressure, Darren Hall wrongly confessed to being involved in the murder. Damningly, he implicated Sherwood and myself, fibbing that hed acted as lookout in a robbery gone wrong. He told investigators the three of us ran from the scene into a churchyard where we divided up the spoils. Ultimately, all of us were charged with the murder and remanded to prison custody pending our joint trial.

Shock, trauma and disbelief

I was in a state of shock. It wasnt just having to deal with being wrongly accused, but trying to cope with the fact that my wife was heavily pregnant, and that I wasnt going to be present at the birth. After our new baby, a girl, was born but before the trial began this child died in her sleep, what is known as an (unexplained) cot death. I was devastated and in no fit state to attend or take part in court hearings. My mental health deteriorated, quite badly, but then things got even worse. My wife ended our marriage by walking out on me.

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