Let’s All Declare Victory and Drop It?
“WASHINGTON, June 20 — In a decision that puts an overhaul of immigration laws in serious doubt, House Republican leaders said Tuesday that they would hold summer hearings around the nation on the politically volatile subject before trying to compromise with the Senate on a chief domestic priority of President Bush.”
Can it be true that the issue has been turned down to a simmer until after the elections? The scorpion promises not to sting?
Sister of Death Row Inmate asks Texas to Stop Execution of the Man who Could Still Clear Her Brother
June 16, 2006
Hello,
My name is Delia Perez Meyer. I have an innocent brother on Texas’ Death Row, Louis Castro Perez. Our family has been fighting for Louis for the
past 8 years to attempt to find the truth is this case.
The Travis County District Attorney, Mr. Ronnie Earle, recently announced that they would re-open this case and do some further testing on DNA evidence and
fingerprints acquired at the crime scene. This includes foreign DNA and foreign fingerprints. This is currently being tested at the Texas
Department of Public Safety DNA Laboratory, and we are awaiting the results.
We have had multiple reports from the infamous railroad serial killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz, that it was he who killed Louis’ friends in September 1998 – Michelle, Cynda, and Cynda’s daughter, Stacy. The “MO” or modus operandi, in this case, matches exactly the other crime scenes for which Angel has been connected to. He is a brutal murderer and this
was a heinous crime just like the many others he is responsible for. In addition, Michelle, Cynda and Stacy lived within 1/2 of a mile from the railroad system in Austin.
Angel Maturino is scheduled for execution on June 27, 2006 for the murder of Dr. Claudia Benton. Mr. Resendiz has also discussed murdering “two
women” in Austin with private investigator, Lisa Milstein, and newspaper reporter, Lise Olsen (both of Houston). He has also spoken to other inmates on death row, and said he was the killer in this case. He
recently spoke to the media and confessed that he has killed other people; cases that have not been fully investigated.
Because Angel Maturino Resendiz is related to this case we are adamant that he should not be executed on the 27th and are asking for your assistance to ensure that he not be executed until this case is resolved.
If we execute Angel, it prevents the court from ever being able to ask him any questions regarding this case. Justice for the victims’ families is not being served if the wrong person is being executed for these murders.
We want to see justice served for all the persons involved and we want the actual killer to answer for his crimes. Technically, the families of the victims have the right to witness the true murderer’s execution and they will not be allowed that right if Angel Maturino is executed on the 27th.
We would like for you to take a few moments to call, write, or e-mail a letter to Louis’ attorneys, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Judges, District Attorney, and the Governor.
We sincerely appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and actions surrounding Louis’ case. Louis is so appreciative of everyone’s support and always asks me to convey that message. We need to bring him home to his four children and two grandchildren who have grown up for the past 8 years without him. It is
time to exonerate Louis and ensure that the true killer is brought to justice.
Sincerely,
The Ernest R. Perez Family
Ernest, Gloria (deceased), David, Delia, Irene, Louis, and Ernest, Jr.
CONTACTS:
Alexander Calhoun, Attorney at Law
11319 Long Branch
Austin, TX 78736
alcalhoun@earthlink.net
David Dow, Attorney at Law
University of Houston Innocence Project
University of Houston Law School
4800 Calhoun
Houston, TX 77204
ddow@central.uh.edu
A. Richard Ellis, Attorney at Law
75 Magee Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Mary Kay Sicola, Attorney at Law
707 W. Lynn
Austin, TX 78703
Joe James Sawyer, Attorney at Law
507 W. 10th Street
Austin, TX 78701
Rob Owen, Attorney at Law
510 S. Congress Ave., Suite 308
Austin, TX 78704
The Honorable Jon Wisser
299th Judicial Criminal District Court
Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice
Center
509 West 11th, 8th Floor
Austin, Texas 78767
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Presiding Judge Sharon Keller
Judges Meyers, Price, Womack, Johnson, Keasler, Hervey, Holcomb, and Cochran
PO Box 12308
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P. O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428
Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
P. O. Box 13401
Austin, TX 78711-3401
District Attorney Ronald Earle
509 W. 11th Street
Austin, TX 78701
Buddy Meyer, Travis County Assistant District Attorney
509 W. 11th Street
Austin, TX 78701
Claire Dawson-Brown, Travis County Assistant District Attorney
509 W. 11th Street
Austin, TX 78704
Send A Quick Message to Gov.
From a mysanantonio.com roundup of South Texas military spending:
Texas State University in San Marcos would receive $1 million to train National Guard members for civil disorder missions.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, called the program an “invaluable tool for helping law enforcement learn how to respond to terrorism, violence and other emergency situations.” The funding was opposed by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who offered up a number of amendments to block what he said are unneeded projects and wasteful spending.
“Simply put, every dollar we spend on earmarks in the defense appropriations bill is a dollar we can’t spend on the military,” Flake said.
By Greg Moses
Although the president and Southwest border governors says the National Guard mission at the Mexican border as non-lethal, activists say the very same kind of activity resulted in one Texas killing in 1997. Elected leaders should stop the militarization, they say, before another life is put at risk.
Twenty activists from Brownsville will stage a protest against the militarization Saturday at 11:00 am outside Texas National Guard Headquarters at Camp Mabry, Austin.
“They say the operation will include listening posts and observation,” says Ray Ybarra of the American Civil Liberties Union. “But these are the exact same things that were being done by Joint Task Force Six when Esequiel Hernandez, Jr. was killed by a Marine” (see link to official report below).
“It’s the exact same scenario,” emphasized Ybarra (speaking by telephone from the Austin airport Thursday afternoon), “and we don’t want it in our backyards. Border communities do not want to live in occupied territories.”
One problem with the summer’s plan to militarize the border, says Ybarra, is that the agenda is being driven more by politics than military policy, and this means that training for the border missions is in danger of not being thoroughly prepared..
“It’s happening way to fast,” said Ybarra. “In the rush to make a political statement, resources are not being looked at. Politics are coming before human rights.”
For Saturday’s protest, Ybarra says his group is trying to get a permit to protest inside Camp Mabry, but so far the permit has not been granted, so the group is planning their protest along the 35th Street sidewalk outside the main entrance to the base.
For Ybarra, this will be the second action of Texas protest this week. Tuesday evening June 20 the ACLU demonstrated in El Paso against the Operation Linebacker program coordinated by the county sheriff. Special Task Forces such as Operation Linebacker are endangering human rights, says the ACLU, so the program was selected as one target for a national day of action that accompanied release of an ACLU report to the United Nations on human rights issues in the USA.
The El Paso task force is also subject of a lawsuit and press conference from the recently opened Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project. The lawsuit claims the task force is profiling Hispanics for immigration enforcement. And the press conference alleged that migrant women had become fearful of reporting domestic abuse to law enforcement for fear that immigration enforcement would be enforced by deputies and police officers.
Links:
Official report on the 1997 killing of Esequiel Hernandez, Jr.
ACLU report to the UN on Human Rights in the USA
PNCRP press conference on violence against women
PNCRP / TCRP Press Release on Operation Linebacker lawsuit
The first paragraph has been edited to replace “Texas National Guard” with “president and border governors” in order to focus on the primacy of a civilian (and civil) struggle, the point of this issue not being the existence of a National Guard as such or its ultimate duty to obey civilian commands but the just use of its soldiers and powers as tools of civilian political affairs.
In this case, the Texas Civil Rights Review takes the clear position that the plan to deploy thousands of guard troops to the border this summer is political misdirection that aggravates a logic of excessive militarization.
“There are military people,” said my old mentor Manuel Davenport, “and there are militarists.” Isn’t it clear that our national tantrum of militarism should come to an abrupt end everywhere? Perhaps, the beginning of that end has come home to roost in Texas. We hope so.–gm
Our first open records request for Operation Jump Start has come back empty-handed, with the governor’s office of Texas saying it has no documents responsive to requests for evidence of the governor’s approval of the mission, a dated memo that actually inaugurates the operation, or any other documents that would help to establish a documentary trail of the governor’s involvement.
As for Use of Force rules, the Governor’s office does have that, but wants to not turn it over, so the Texas Attorney General will be asked to rule.
In my many years of experience with open records requests, this is a quite peculiar result.
Here’s the letter from the governor’s office:
We received on June 8, 2006 your request under the Public Information Act (the “PIA”) for the following information:
“…provide the following documents referenced in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) released by the Governor’s office June 4, 2006. By term document I intend to reference both paper and electronic forms of communication, including pdf and email.
(1) The first phrase of the MOU says “In response to a request”. Please provide the document that initiates the request.
(2) Item five of the MOU references “disbursement of Jump Start funds”. Please provide all documents that cover any disbursements to date (June 8, 2006.)
(3) Item five of the MOU references “approval of missions” by the Governor. Please provide all documents issued by the Governor approving missions to date (June 8, 2006.)
(4) Item six of the MOU references Rules for Use of Force “attached”. Please provide the Rules.
(5) Item eight of the MOU references “date of signature”. Please provide the dated document that officially authorizes the commencement of Operation Jump start. In addition to these documents related to the MOU, I would like to follow up on a comment made by Guard Chief Gen. Blum in a May 16 press conference (posted at the DHS website) indicating that legal review of Operation Jump start was already underway with state –level authorities.
(6) Please provide documents that indicate the earliest requests for involvement of the Governor’s Office of General Counsel in the operation that has come to be know as Operation Jump Start.
(7) Please provide documents that indicate the earliest request for involvement of the Governor in preliminary assessments of Operation Jump Start.”
Our search revealed that we only have documents responsive to Item number 4 of your request. However, we believe that the responsive information is excepted from disclosure under the PIA.
Therefore, pursuant to Section 522.301 of the PIA, we have requested an opinion from the Attorney General. A copy of that request is enclosed for your review.
Texas Civil Rights Review 