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Texas death row prisoner Paul
Colella recently got his death sentence reduced to 20 years in
prison. Since he had already served 12 years on Texas death row,
he will have to serve 8 more years in prison before being
released. Paul's mother recently told me that he is
happy to be off death row, but is unhappy that he is having to serve a
20 year sentence for a crime he did not commit. That is
Texas justice: execution if guilty, 20 years if innocent.
Colella's claim of innocence was supported by a bus station attendant
who testified that Colella was in Victoria, 240 miles from the crime
scene, at the time of the crime. Two members of the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals (TCC) believed in his innocence. However, the
TCC in its typical fashion rejected Colella's initial appeal.
Remember, this is the court that a San Antonio newspaper columnist
referred to as the "best little lynch mob in Texas history".
Colella's legal counsel during his trial and early appeals was poor to
the extreme, a typical situation in Texas for someone
without financial resources. There was also evidence of
official misconduct by the prosecutor (withholding vital information
from the defense). When it became obvious that the
state had a very weak case against Colella, a deal was worked out
between his appeals attorney and the district attorney to reduce his
death sentence to 20 years. Paul had to plead guilty to
non-capital murder in order to get the sentence reduced. He did
not want to do this, but it was the best option.
Colella's case is reminscent of other cases where death row prisoners
were "fortunate" enough to avoid execution when it became obvious
that they were innocent. The cases of Randall Dale Adams,
Clarence Brandley, Ricardo Aldape Guerra and Kerry Max Cook come
to mind, and there are others. Death penalty
proponents will claim that the release of these men showed that the
system "worked". The opposite is true. These cases
show that the system is highly flawed.
Colella's release from death row came about because of the dogged
determination of his family, particularly his mother, to show
that he was innocent. Adams benefited from the interest of a
moviemaker (The Thin Blue Line). Brandley benefited from
Houston activists who rallied to his cause. Guerra
benefitted from intervention by the Mexican Government who helped get a
high-powered law firm to work on the case. Cook benefited from an
out-of-state investigator who became interested in his
case. All of these people ultimately got help from
excellent Texas attorneys who worked hard to free their clients from
death row.
Colella, Adams, Brandley, Guerra and Cook are the "fortunate" ones in
that they escaped Texas' deadly needle. Others with strong claims
of innocence have not been so fortunate. For example,
Odell Barnes Jr. was put to death in the year 2000. Part of the
evidence that prosecutors used to convict Barnes was a spot of blood on
his clothing that matched the blood of the victim. Later,
when this blood spot was carefully analyzed by his appeals
attorney, the testing showed that it was contaminated by a
chemical used to preserve blood in a test tube. In other
words, the blood had not come directly from the victim during the
crime, but may have been planted on Barnes' clothing in order to get a
conviction. Unfortunately, this new evidence, plus
other information that pointed to Barnes' innocence, was ignored by the
courts, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Governor. It
appears that Barnes was executed for a crime he did not commit.
These cases have convinced me that we have undoubtedly executed
innocent people in Texas. The obvious flaws in the state's
death penalty system cry out for a detailed study of the system and a
moratorium on executions while the study is done and improvements
made. The need for this study was rejected by certain
politicians in the last legislative session. Let us hope that the
citizens of Texas will demand justice in the next session, and the
legislators will listen.
Note: Atwood is a member of
the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Problems
with the Texas death penalty system are described in a video titled
"Balancing the Scales". This video can be obtained by contacting
Mr. Atwood at 713-529-3826.
David Atwood
1802 Kipling St.
Houston, TX 77098
713-529-3826