Texas Black man exonerated nearly 70 years after execution in case marked by racial bias

In this photo, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, left, looks over the electric chair in the death chamber at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

HOUSTON — Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent in the killing of a white woman in Dallas.

Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.

At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of Sept. 30, 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a Peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.

But an extensive review of Walker’s conviction by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, along with the help of the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, found multiple problems with Walker’s case.

The review found problems with statements from a Dallas police officer who claimed that Parker had identified her attacker as a Black man. But multiple witnesses denied that Parker “did anything outside of convulse and hemorrhage exorbitant amounts of blood,” after being attacked, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said during a Wednesday meeting of Dallas County commissioners that was held to ask the officials to declare Walker innocent.

During the next few months after Parker’s killing. hundreds of Black men were rounded up by authorities and four months later, Walker, then 19 years old, was arrested.

Walker was subjected to threatening and coercive interrogation tactics by Will Fritz, a Dallas police captain who had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Creuzot said.

Walker later testified he confessed to the killing because he was afraid for his life, Creuzot said.

At his trial, Walker’s lawyers presented 10 witnesses who testified that at the time of the murder, they were with Walker and his girlfriend when she gave birth to their son, Edward Lee Smith, at a local hospital, according to the Innocence Project.

“But this carried little weight in Jim Crow Dallas,” the Innocence Project said.

Walker was convicted by an all-white jury in 1954.

“The prosecution in this case presented misleading and inadmissible evidence,” Creuzot said. “This case, while it has undeniable legal errors, was riddled with racial injustice during a time when prejudice and bigotry were woven throughout every aspect of society, including the criminal justice system.”

Creuzot credited the work of journalist Mary Mapes, who first began investigating Walker’s case 13 years ago.

“He paid with his life for a crime he could not have committed,” Mapes told commissioners.

During an emotional moment at Wednesday’s meeting, Smith, Walker’s now 72-year-old son, and the victim’s son, Joseph Parker, hugged each other.

“I’m so sorry for what happened,” Parker told Smith

“And I’m sorry for your loss,” Smith replied.

Smith had earlier told commissioners that his father’s wrongful execution was very hard for him and his mother.

“I’m 72 years old and I still miss my daddy,” Smith said as he cried. “She said, ’Baby, they give your father the electric chair for something he didn’t do.’ ”

Joseph Parker told commissioners he hopes that Walker’s exoneration will help prevent wrongful convictions in the future.

“If nothing else comes from this situation ... it’s that we learn to try not to make the same mistake again. The mistake being what? The mistake being the injustice, the taking of an innocent life,” Parker said.

At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, Dallas County commissioners unanimously passed a symbolic resolution declaring that Walker was wrongfully convicted and executed and what happened to him represented “a profound miscarriage of justice.”

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Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press